Why We Celebrate Christmas

~ Posted by Roma

“This is a very old picture of us kids in Michigan back when we were really small in 2006!” J

It has come to my attention, especially this past year, that there are a number of Christians who actually do not celebrate Christmas. Some Christians celebrate parts of Christmas, but may not do all the things other Americans love doing—such as a tree, Santa, presents, etc. Some Christians really emphasize Thanksgiving (which is good—Thanksgiving is wonderful!) because they know they will not be doing any celebrating in December. Other Christians love Christmas time (like our family J) and then there are some Christians that really don’t celebrate it at all and they have reasons why they don’t. In this blog post, I would like to take a look at the origins of Christmas and then try to explain why our family still celebrates it.

Before I begin…one thing I love about this free country we live in is that you have the freedom to not celebrate Christmas if you don’t want to. In writing this blog post, I am not trying to force anyone to celebrate Christmas. I simply want to share why we do. And I will be very open with you…we love Christmas time! We love Jesus. We love celebrating His birth. We go all out with Christmas tree (s) PLURAL in our home. We have so many ornaments full of memories. We exchange gifts, eat a lot, have a tiny little nativity scene in the corner of the living room, have advent activities and readings with candles at night, listen to Christmas music—Christmas is a favorite in this family.

Some Christians believe Christmas has pagan origins. And they are right. Here is what Hank Hanegraaff says in his book, The Complete Bible Answer Book:

“December 25^th was indeed a pagan festival commemorating the birthday of a false god. While this is historical fact, what is frequently overlooked is that the church’s choice of December 25^th was intentional. Instead of Christianizing a pagan festival, the church established a rival celebration. While the world has all but forgotten the Greco-Roman gods of antiquity, they are annually reminded that two thousand years ago Christ invaded time and space.”

So what Hanegraaff is saying is that Christians in the early Church decided to establish a rival holiday instead of celebrating the pagan one. They wanted to point people to Christ at Christmas. Most people know that we don’t really know exactly when Jesus was born. He probably wasn’t even born in December at all. But think about this: What if you adopted a child from…Haiti. He or she has no birth certificate. You know around the time he might have been born but you don’t know exactly when. Do you decide to pick a day to celebrate his birthday, or do you just decide to never recognize his birth and celebrate your biological children’s birthdays only? No! You would pick a day to celebrate that child’s birth because you love that child that you’ve brought home from Haiti! How much more, then, should Jesus Christ the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Master of the universe, be celebrated! I believe He deserves to be celebrated. He didn’t have to leave earth at all to save us wretched sinners. But God decided to not even withhold His one and only Son from us.

Some Christians argue that He should be celebrated every day. I absolutely agree. But even though your parents celebrate every day that you are their child, they still set aside an even more special day to remember that you have been with them another year. Angels in heaven celebrate Jesus every minute of every day. But at Christmas time, they took the time to come down to earth, mingle with people, and sing “Glory to God in the Highest!!!” To the angels, it was a VERY special occasion. As Christians, our Lord and Savior is celebrated by us every day. But we also put aside an even more special day to remember His birth—His first coming--and to remind us to love, and remind us to give.

What about Christmas trees? I mean—aren’t those really pagan? Here is the passage from the Bible that Christians sometimes point to: Jeremiah 10:2-4. At first glance, this scripture does seem to be condemning Christmas trees. Let’s take a look at it:

“This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree from the woods in the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.’

Hmm. Interesting. Do we use hammers and nails in a Christmas tree? No. Do we shape our Christmas trees with chisels? Usually not. Jeremiah was not talking about Christmas trees. He was talking about wooden idols, that people in his day would fasten with hammer and nails and shape with chisels, and bow down to and worship. In fact, Hank Hanegraaff says something very interesting in his book, regarding Christmas trees:

“Christmas trees originated in Christian Germany two thousand years after Jeremiah’s condemnation of manmade idols. They evolved over time from two Christian traditions. One was a ‘paradise tree’ hung with apples as a reminder of the tree of life in the Garden of Eden. The other was a triangular shelf holding Christmas figurines decorated by a star.”

In our house, we love to put up Christmas trees; first, because it reminded Christians long ago--and reminds us--of the tree of life that one day we will eat from in Heaven; and second, because Jesus would later die on a tree to save us from our sins. As for our ornaments, we put those up simply because they are all so special to us in different ways. One ornament has a buck and a doe, inscribed with the year my Mom and Dad got married, and it says: “Our first Christmas together.” J Another ornament in our house has a picture of us kids with one of our adopted college student brothers, O. Other ornaments on our tree are ones that we made, ones that family and friends gave us, etc.

Then there is Santa Claus. What do we do with him? Actually, he is far from being a dangerous fairy tale. “Santa Claus” is an Anglicized form of the Dutch name “Sinter Klaas” which in turn is a reference to Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas can be celebrated as a genuine hero of the faith, just like Luther, or Calvin, or Spurgeon, or any of those other great men of God. He was an historic 4^th –century Christian saint and Greek Bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, who had a reputation for secret gift-giving. He lavished gifts on needy children, and valiantly supported the doctrine of the Trinity at the Council of Nicea in AD 325.

Of course, our world has taken that story and completed secularized it and changed it up. I will be honest with you…my parents allowed us kids to believe in Santa Claus when we were really little, and we loved it. We loved the idea that he was watching us in a snow ball, seeing if we were good or naughty. ;) We loved the idea that he was the one that left the gifts, came down the chimney, ate our milk and cookies, and left us a note. (Back in the day when we didn’t know what our Dad’s handwriting looked like). But when we all reached an appropriate age, my Mom would pull us aside and talk to us about the real Saint Nicholas. To this day, even though we all know the truth, my parents still label half of the gifts “from Santa” just for the fun of it. Whether or not you allow your kids to believe in Santa for awhile is up to you, but we loved it as little kids. Just like we loved the tooth fairy. J

In the end, I believe that this is all a heart issue. I believe that if your heart is in the right place, and you do not worship the Christmas trees nor Santa nor anything else on earth, and you know the reason for the season—CHRISTmas, than I think it is okay to put up a tree and give gifts and hang lights and remember the life of Saint Nicholas, and remember what JESUS has done to save you.

For us, Christmas is about how much God loved the world, that He sent his one and only Son. Christmas is about love; about giving; because God gave the best gift ever by giving us His Son, to be born and live and grow, and one day shed his blood on the cross for our sins, so that now we have a way to be with God in heaven when we die. Ask Jesus to forgive you for your sins and trust Him with your life, if you have not done so yet.

“Christmas 2011 at Abuela and Abuelo’s house in Ohio.”

In conclusion, we celebrate Christmas because it is first and foremost about Christ, after whom it is named. We put up a tree, because Christ would later die on a tree. We give gifts because God gave the greatest gift to us. by giving His one and only Son. We put up lights because we as Christians are the light of the world; a city on a hill. Jesus is the light of the world and He lives in us. Our red bows remind us how Christ came to this earth to shed His blood for us on the cross. We put up round wreaths because God is eternal, He has no end. He has always been there. He made us. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. The evergreen is also a symbol of everlasting (eternal) life! We eat—and share--candy canes, which are shaped like shepherd staffs and remind us that shepherds were one of the first ones to hear about Jesus! These candies are red and white because the blood of Jesus Christ can wash you clean of sin and make you white as snow. We sing Christmas carols that celebrate and honor Jesus Christ. Everything points to Christ at Christmas and we can take this holiday and USE it as a great witnessing opportunity. I love Christmas! HE is the reason for the season! MERRY CHRISTMAS, everyone!