What is the true meaning of Christmas? 12/23/07
Americans love Christmas; no holiday captures our dreams or affects our lives more. Many retail stores live or die based on sales generated during Christmas. Likewise, Hollywood counts on the Christmas season for its livelihood. Many of America’s workforce takes vacation during Christmas. Christmas saturates our culture, from literature (A Christmas Carol, Twas the Night Before Christmas) to movies (White Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34st Street), and palpably sets the tone for our interactions with each other – everyone just seems to act nicer. But the question arises: what does Christmas mean to us?
Winter festivals have been commonplace throughout human history; they were often religious in nature. Saturnalia, Sol Invictus, and Yule were all pre-Christian festivals (and each faded into obscurity due to Christmas). From these festivals were brought such traditions as lighting a Yule log, singing, and feasting. As the Christians slowly changed the festivals from honoring the Sun, Mithras, or Thor, to honoring the birth of Christ, new traditions emerged (along with a new mythology). The fourth century Saint Nicholas is widely believed to be the foundation of Santa Claus, with his propensity for anonymous gift-giving and caring for the poor and abused. As Christianity spread, so did Christmas, until it became rooted in our culture.
Icons such as richly ornamented trees, wrapped presents, and caroling are deeply embedded in most Americans’ lives, whether Christian or secular. Figures from the National Christmas Tree Association show that Americans purchased 28.6 million real trees ($1.2 Billion) and 9.3 million artificial trees ($631 Million) in 2006; the real trees were harvested from 21,904 farms occupying 446,996 acres of land. Shopping in the 2006 Christmas season pushed sales to around $460 Billion (http://christmasspirit.wordpress.com). Santa Claus adorns advertisements for everything from canned sodas to used cars, and Forbes magazine reportedly took him off of the richest fictional characters list due to the objections of his juvenile adherents.
Christmas is an integral part of our society. Federal employees (and many state and private employees, too) get Christmas as a mandated holiday. Many foods are consumed almost exclusively during the holiday season (fruitcake, gingerbread man cookies, eggnog), and quite a few songs are only played this time of year. Charities, too, build their hopes on the “season of giving”: in 2005 Americans gave upwards of $260 Billion to charities of all types (ibid.). Televisions shows frequently feature a Christmas story, and one of the greatest-selling charity-based music albums was centered on a Christmas theme.
All of this having been said, what should we in the church do about it? How do we approach our friends, family, and neighbors about the truth of Jesus in relation to the Christmas holiday? Of course, there is the fact that it is almost for certain that Jesus was not born on December 25th. Many have pointed out that Christmas has its origins with pagan holidays. Some have opined that people could fall into a trap of worshipping the holiday, not God. After all, the Bible does say not to add to the Bible, and Christmas is never mentioned. Nor did the first century church observe the holiday.
Do we really care that the 25th of December is not the exact birthday? What is Christmas about: congratulating Jesus for becoming older by a year, or celebrating the miraculous nature of God becoming man to bring man back to God? Do we care that the Christmas holiday replaced pagan rituals? I thought Christianity was all about replacing sin and evil in our lives with the goodness of Christ. I never understood the whole “worshipping the holiday rather than God,” but I guess it could happen; look at how some members of the Lord’s body treat the assembly - but we still assemble. The best of these arguments is the lack of mention in the Bible, and the lack of occurrence among the first Christians. But then again, the Bible never authorized much (or even most) of what we do today – it was understood in the first century that they were to come up with the forms that fit the broad guidelines set forth by Jesus and the Apostles. Most Christmas celebrations comply with those guidelines just fine.
Now, this is not an appeal for the church to take up Christmas and deck the halls and the pulpit. But I do want to caution my brothers and sisters about missing out on a golden opportunity. America is more favorably disposed to think about Christ during Christmas than at any other time. We should welcome the chance to tell others the truth about Jesus, and not shy away because we may not take the day as especially holy. Remember that any day we celebrate Jesus is a holy and sacred day.
-Charles Peterson