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My husband and I were talking about Christmas and traditions this holiday season. We were wanting to get some traditions of our own for our young family. We talked about my family Christmas' and his family Christmas' and we also went back to research how Christmas began. We always hear that the true meaning of Christmas is Christ's birthday and that He is the reason for the season. But when we looked back - we found that that just isn't true.
There were many holidays that people celebrated around the time of the winter solstice. Many countries had their own individual reason for celebrating and their own traditions as well. They were pagan holidays, worshiping false gods and including much consumption of alcohol and feasting. One article described them as a mix between Halloween and Mardi Gras. In Europe, people in poverty were known to go to the homes of the rich and demand they give food and drink for a party or else they would bring acts of mischief to their property. The Christians tried to come in and give an alternative by making a Christian holiday with the name of Christmas around the end of the 4th century. The name took but the raucous and rowdy ways remained. In the early days of America the Puritans made it illegal in Boston to celebrate Christmas because of this. Yet in the early 1800's, Washington Irving wrote "The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon", a story of an English squire who brought peasants into his manor to celebrate Christmas in a warm and peaceful manner. This along with Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" began to transform Americans way of thinking about Christmas and they began to make the holiday about generosity and family. It was also around this time that the tales of St. Nicholas began and a holiday was declared in his name on December 6th. A new story was introduced showing St. Nicholas as coming down chimneys in order to bring gifts to children on Christmas Eve rather than Dec. 6th and that stuck more prominently.
So what is Christmas all about? It would seem that there are many "reasons" for the the day of celebration, however it is not "truly" about Christ. The Bible never tells believers to remember the day of Christ's birth. However it does tell us in Romans 14:5-6 (NKJV) "One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.
He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks."
I wanted to bring this up just to say that there really isn't grounds for us as believers to go around telling people that the "real" meaning of Christmas is Jesus' birthday or that they are wrong for celebrating Santa or anything else at Christmas. There is more evidence for other celebrations than for Christ's birthday! However as a believer we can certainly use the holiday to proclaim Christ's name and share the message of salvation with others.
Daniel gave us a great idea this year to make ornaments that show the message of the Gospel. We made a star to represent God in the beginning as a pure and holy being and Creator of the world. An apple with bites taken from it to represent the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. A manger to represent the humility of Christ to come to the earth in the human form of a baby and live among people. A cross to represent the price He paid for our sin by shedding His blood and giving His life as a ransom for our lives. A broken heart that is now mended to show that Christ has restored the believer to fellowship with Himself and that He holds us in His hands and we are safe with Him forever!!! It was a great time together as a family and Lord willing we will have it on our tree in the years to come to remind our children of what Christ has done and to create curiosity in others so that they will ask and we can share the Gospel with them too!
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