I know some people who abstain completely from Christmas, and I respect them. I also know some people who love to celebrate Christmas, and I respect them, too. Where do my husband and I stand right now on the topic of Christmas?
We do celebrate Christmas. In just a bit, I’ll tell you how we do it; but right up front, I want to say a few words about this topic in general.
Admittedly, my husband and I don’t know all there is to know about this holiday. We just do our best with the knowledge we have right now. It seems to me that as Christians, we shouldn’t be anti-intellectual and refuse to do any research because we’ve already made up our minds: “I like it and I’m gonna do it. So there!” That seems a bit childish and stubborn. When it comes to the way we practice our faith, I think it makes sense for us to educate ourselves about the best way to do that — and at the same time to avoid anything that could bring dishonor to the God we claim to worship. However, research does take time, and even if we had all the time in the world, there are limits to knowledge. Because of that, I think we can have grace for ourselves and for others who are trying to do the right thing, even if we don’t do it perfectly.
Are there pagan connections to Christmas? Very likely, there are. Which elements are definitely pagan (and perhaps sinful) and should be avoided, and which are not and might be okay to observe? The answer to that question doesn’t seem absolutely crystal clear to me. For example, when it comes to the December 25 date, I have heard some people say with much certainty that it was borrowed from the Roman’s Sol Invictus (the Unconquered Sun) celebration on December 25. But I have also heard another argument which runs to the contrary.
In an article published on Biblical Archaeology entitled, “How December 25 Became Christmas,” the author, Andrew McGowan, Dean and President of the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, states that
There is another way to account for the origins of Christmas on December 25: Strange as it may seem, the key to dating Jesus’ birth may lie in the dating of Jesus’ death at Passover.
Basically, he notes that some early Christian traditions connected the date of the conception of Christ with the date of the death of Christ (33 years later), with both supposedly occurring on the 14th of Nisan in the Hebrew calendar, the equivalent being March 25 in the Roman (solar) calendar. It was assumed that His birth would have occurred exactly nine months later, on December 25th.
Is it possible that the December 25 date for Christmas and the December 25 date for the feast of Sol Invictus was merely coincidental? McGowan hints at this at the end of his article:
In the end, we are left with a question, How did December 25 become Christmas? We cannot be entirely sure. Elements from the festival that developed from the fourth century until modern times may well derive from pagan traditions. Yet the actual date might really derive more from Judaism — from Jesus’ death at Passover, and from the rabbinic notion that great things might be expected, again and again, at the same time of the year — than from paganism. Then again, in this notion of cycles, and the return of God’s redemption, we may perhaps also be touching upon something that the pagan Romans who celebrated Sol Invictus, and many other people since, would have understood and claimed for their own, too.
Quite unfairly (it seems to me), those Christians who do choose to celebrate Christmas are said by some other Christians (who don’t celebrate the holiday) to be “sinning,” and it is even sometimes insinuated that they are not even true Christians at all. On the other hand, Christians who celebrate Christmas can be pretty harsh towards those who don’t, misunderstanding their motives and assuming that they’re just “divisive” people, when in reality, all they really want to do is serve Jesus.
While I have absolutely no problem at all with people not wanting to celebrate this holiday since I do see that there are probably some pagan elements involved, and while I likewise have no problem with people wanting to celebrate it, either, I do have a problem with people having an ungracious attitude. Therefore, I greatly admire those Christians I see (from whichever side of the debate) who continue to respect other Christians who do not live the same lifestyle as they, but who nonetheless believe in and love the same Lord. That is refreshing.
Now, how are we celebrating Christmas at this point?
Let’s start with what we don’t do:
We don’t have a tree. We’re not into Santa Claus, elves, and Frosty the Snowman. We don’t give our kids a bazillion toys.
But, here’s what we’ve decided to keep:
We send Christmas cards. We bake cookies. We have a nativity scene. We have a few other decorations (very few). We sing Christmas carols and hymns. We read about Jesus’ birth. We attend a Christmas program at the church where the kids go to AWANA (they help perform a Christmas play). We put up some lights. We have a special meal. We open a few presents. We visit family.
Will we always do this? Honestly, I don’t know. When we first started learning about Christmas, I was ready to ditch the whole thing. I filled our dumpster with Santa Clauses, Christmas books, tree decorations, and two fake Christmas trees. And just in case you’re wondering, yes, my husband was fine with all of it. We had actually watched a series of YouTube videos denouncing Christmas, in addition to the articles I had read, so we were in agreement. We still visited family and gave our children presents, but our Christmas was much simplified.
However, the year after that he wondered if we might get a simple nativity set and put up several pretty adornments. His reasoning? He still wanted us to observe the day as a reminder of Christ’s first coming. He also saw it as a chance to do something special with family. So, that’s what we did. As long as my husband wants to continue celebrating Christmas, we will do so. Our motive is to please the Lord. In the future, if we realize we’ve been wrong about anything, our heart is to do what God wants us to do. We want to have a humble, teachable attitude.
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So — no judgement at all from my side — how do you celebrate, or not celebrate, Christmas? If you don’t, could you tell us what you do instead? I’m really looking forward to your answers! 🙂
~Jessica
Hi Jessica!
Thank you for sharing your Christmas. We celebrate Christmas and we do a tree each year. We decorate with mainly decorations from Tim’s childhood that belonged to his parents. We also put of lights outside.
We love Christmas because we are so grateful He came to earth and died on the cross for our sin. We also love to go look at Christmas lights around the neighborhood and into the city. We have a cute nativity set and a wall hanging of a nativity. We love forward to our church Christmas Eve service each year. Our church has lost so many family members to death this year so this Christmas will be bittersweet.
Anyway, I didn’t mean to ramble. Thank you again for shaing.
Regina,
I liked reading about how you and your family celebrate Christmas! Thank you! I’m sure you all must have had a lovely time in your home this holiday, with everything decorated as cute as you could make it with memories from Tim’s childhood and reminders of Christ’s first coming.
~Jessica
This was a very interesting read. I’ve never heard of Christians who didn’t celebrate Christmas (aside from Jehovah’s Wittnesses).
Good morning Jessica-While my husband and I are eternally grateful for the Incarnation, we haven’t celebrated Christmas for several years (we are in our mid-60’s). We both grew weary of the crass commercialism and general stress of this time of year. Also, we do not see in Scripture where it is commanded to do so. It also doesn’t say you cannot, so we do not judge those who delight in doing so. Everyone else in our family, Christian or not, love this time of year and while they don’t quite understand why my husband and I do not participate, they respect our decision.
Hi, Deborah!
For some reason, your comment has been awaiting for approval for several weeks, and I didn’t see it until now. I’m so sorry to make you wait!
I totally understand your reasoning, and I also agree that there is so much commercialism involved with this holiday! I try to keep things simple and focus on Christ. I love to see your gracious, loving attitude and am happy to hear that your family respects the decision you and your husband have made. 🙂
Thanks for chiming in!
~Jessica
Thank you, KL. 🙂
Before my Mom divorced my Papa we specifically celebrated Christmas as a way to remember Jesus’ birthday. We had a tree and decorations, but we also had a nativity scene. We had a homemade felt advent calendar and every day one of us kids got to add one element to it. On the 24th (in Austria Christmas Eve is celebrated) the felt nativity scene advent calendar was complete. We went for a walk with Papa after reading the christmas story and acting it out with the advent calendar, while Mom got the presents ready, then we sang “Happy Birthday” to Jesus and ate birthday cake. After that we went to the Lutheran church nearby for their Christmas service, since our church at the time didn’t do anything special for Christmas. When we got home in the evening we got to open presents and have cookies.
The last few years have been a bit different. It’s stressful not knowing how to celebrate and with whom. My brother and I decided to celebrate with our new church (that we attend with Papa) on the 24th and visit Mom on new year’s eve for presents. We wanted to remember what we are celebrating without being distracted by the pain of being a broken family. I’m not sure that worked so well though. Whether or not we will celebrate in the future isn’t certain. I agree with you that it isn’t a sin to celebrate Christmas and it also isn’t a sin to decide not to. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Dear Erika,
I understand how difficult things can be with a divided family. A holiday that should be beautiful and happy can sometimes be painful and stressful under those circumstances.
Thank you for sharing details of memories you have from when you were growing up. I’m sure you cherish those memories. 🙂
I think that the Lord will guide you and your family to know how to deal with the Christmas holiday, and other situations, in the best way. As you say, that may mean not celebrating Christmas at all, or it may mean celebrating it in a modified way. As you and your family work things out, in time you will eventually find a happy solution, I believe. 🙂
~Jessica
I appreciate this post very much. There seems to be a war on Christmas that has caused a great deal of confusion among Christians. I love the way you are observing it- time with family, church, presents, cards, simple decorations, singing hymns and carols, and reading about the birth in Scripture. This is very similar to our observation. We don’t do Santa or an indoor tree either. But it is a lovely season. The background you shared is excellent. I have to say, that the most important thing is that we do all to the glory of God. And if we celebrate Christmas in the best way we know how, it will bring a great deal of happiness and wonderful memories to our family. We are to serve each other in love and fellowship. This is an incredible time to show that service and love to our family. Isn’t it amazing, too, that this time of Christmas is when the entire world has to acknowledge that Christ was born? What if the world tried to get rid of Christmas? It seems they are always trying to eliminate it.
I also think of Chanukkah. We observe this each year. I think of the rededication of the Temple for God, and the lighting of the menorah. They reclaimed and rededicated their way of life for God. We can also reclaim and rededicate our holidays to glorify God, by mostly eliminating what we feel is worldly or false.
Mrs. White,
Thank you so very much for sharing your thoughts! I really enjoyed reading how you view this important topic, and I think you mentioned many good points worth considering.
I especially liked what you said here: “We can also reclaim and rededicate our holidays to glorify God, by mostly eliminating what we feel is worldly or false.”
That idea of reclaiming and rededicating our way of life to the Lord, including the holidays, is beautiful.
~Jessica
Hi,Jessica. We celebrate Christmas as a reminder of Jesus coming to this world.We have a fake christmas tree which my husband gave me long time ago.I decorate nativity(two of them are gifts from my Philippina cathoric friend and Vietnamese neighbour girl).We eat special dinner and cakes,buy some christmas traditional sweets.But as for santa claus,I have kept away bit by bit.Because in Japan,Christmas is becoming ‘the day of Santa more and more .
I have a lot of memories about christmas at church.And I liked Christmas carols
even before I became a christian.Reading picture books for church children,nativity story pageant by kids,singing carols,a lot of sharing..so many precious memories still warm my heart.
It is a season for me to talk about God and His love with family and friends.
May you have blessed season and happy new year!
Dear Sanae,
First of all, thank you! I hope you and your family have a blessed season and a happy New Year, too!
Second of all, I am very grateful for what you shared about how you celebrate Christmas and about your memories of Christmas from your childhood/young adulthood. It sounds like this is a beautiful time for you! Thank you so much for sharing about it!
~Jessica
Thank you for writing this article Jessica! Our family is still figuring out what to do with regard to Christmas. Both my husband and I had some unpleasant times in our early adulthood and so had no burden to do anything for the holidays really. We have always enjoyed Christmas caroling and visiting nursing homes so we would wrap devotional books and go caroling at nursing homes and cheer up the old people.
As the children have gotten older, however it has seemed wise to develop some traditions for our family that would honor God and make this season special. There are things that are associated with winter and not just Christmas like hot chocolate, making gingerbread houses and building snow forts and snowmen which we have decided to do. Otherwise, as the season marks the gift of the Father of his Son to our world, we feel it is better to spend the season in service rather than serving self. The children want to be able to give gifts to each other as a token of their love and so we decided to hang stockings up for each person and each child can give a small present to the family members. Otherwise, the presents under the tree are for others. This year we invited a family over and a gentleman who is in his 70’s and doesn’t have much family around. We had a nice dinner, sang Christmas hymns, and had a thanksgiving and prayer time. We gave each one a hardbound illustrated book of Christian history and a handmade item. You should have seen the looks on their faces as they opened their gifts! Next year we are moving to a new area and so our focus will be on the poor population who may have needs we can help to meet. The tree will be decorated with hats, mittens, and scarves and the gifts will be for those who can’t afford to buy things they need. We plan to have a dinner again next year and invite them to come. It is such a blessing to do this. We are hooked for life. It makes Christmas such a pleasant and beautiful season.
We also went caroling with our church family the Saturday night before Christmas and wrapped books to give away at the doors. That was fun too and we went to see Christmas light displays on our way home.
There’s no way to prove that Christ was born on December 25. Scripture doesn’t tell us what day He was born. But as many are more open to receive the gospel at that time, and as many have needs because of the cold weather, it seems appropriate to dedicate the season to giving and sharing that the true spirit of Christmas can be enjoyed.
I hope to get a nativity scene for next year too. I think that will be nice to have during the season. That’s what our family is doing!
Dear Celina,
I love the way you and your family use Christmas as an opportunity to minister! I enjoyed reading about how you and your family spend this precious time! Thank you!
~Jessica
I have read the same thing about the early Christian dating of Christmas. I don’t begrudge anyone who doesn’t want to celebrate the way it’s promoted in modern or pagan culture, or even at all, but there is a lot of misinformation out there about Christmas that both Christians and non-believers get trapped by. Very often the same atheists who tout the pagan origins of Christmas idea are also the same people who spread the idea that Jesus was not real and was just a copy of Middle Eastern myths—when even secular scholars agree that Jesus really existed. I don’t want to align myself or agree in any way with people who choose to spread misinformation like that. So yes, we celebrate Christmas in our home! I don’t care for the commercialized stuff so much either, so we downplay it as much as possible. We didn’t put up a tree this year mainly because I was due with a baby right around Christmas and a tree was too much work…I’ve got to say it was liberating to go without the tree! I put up my nativity and an angel garland, and it was perfect 😉
Thank you for adding your thoughts, Mrs D!
I’m wondering if not celebrating Christmas might be going too far. I feel like there are some beautiful traditions associated with Christmas that help us focus on the gospel message. I’m not sure if it’s good to just rip it apart and basically side with the atheists, as you so aptly expressed. (Though as I said in my article, I understand why some people choose not to celebrate it and don’t judge them at all).
I agree with you that it’s definitely freeing to have a simple Christmas without too much decorating. The adornments are nice, but they can be overwhelming to put up and take down. Maybe a few simple traditions (nativity scene, garland, like you said), but not go overboard.
Great thoughts!
~Jessica
Yes, it is easy to go overboard, but not always the best thing! I have always preferred a simple, old-fashioned celebration of Christmas. 🙂 I would also add about the subject of Christmas, or any holiday really, is to make sure you are in agreement with your husband. I could see this being a possible point of contention in a marriage. He might have different beliefs about it, and I think it would be wise for wives to not go over his head if you are considering drastically altering the way you celebrate a holiday.
Mrs D,
I totally agree with you about needing to be in agreement as a couple — yes!
This was a great post, Jessica!! I love your gracious spirit. I have run across anti-Christmas Christians, and as you say, there is often a negative spirit of harshness that pervades the philosophy. It’s definitely an area for grace.
Over here, we are all about Christmas. We leave our tree up for three months! 🙂 (Yes, it’s still up as I write this. We hope to take it down this weekend. But we’ve left it up as long as April!) We decorate (though not much – our decorations fit in one box), have a nativity set, put up a small amount of lights, bake cookies, take treats to the neighbors, attend concerts and events, and go to church on Christmas Eve. That sounds like more than it actually is – I don’t actually add that much to our schedule, because I am so easily overwhelmed by a busy schedule, but we do thoroughly enjoy our Christmases. Even now we’re not done with Christmas – we still have to finish making the ornament craft that I planned for this year!! 🙂
Thanks for your thoughts on this issue!
Oh, wonderful thoughts, Diana! I really loved hearing about what you and your family do for Christmas! It sounds so cozy and sweet to me. 🙂
~Jessica
Great topic, and I love your heart to hear both sides with love. We do visit family and exchange some gifts, but we do not consider it a celebration of Christ’s birth. I have read that because of the shepherds in the fields, among other things, he was likely born in spring. But birthday were not important to most people in biblical times and God choose not to focus on that. I have found deep meaning from the commanded biblical Holy days, all of which have a message about Messiah! Worship is about what God wants, sometimes traditions hold specical emotional memories for us but we must not allow that to confuse us on proper worship. That said, all days belong to Yahweh and an “idol is nothing”, we are also allowed to choose to observe days as we want but we have to do it carefully. Ultimately we each much decide what that means for our families. Being wives, we have to make sure we are not taking over our husband’s place of leading on these issues too.
Thank you, Steff!
I really appreciate your sharing your thoughts; I agree wholeheartedly with what you said about each family needing to decide this matter individually, making sure they use caution.
I see too many people pushing the “Christmas is pagan so don’t celebrate it, and if you do then you’re sinning,” idea. It makes me sad to see this sort of overenthusiastic judgementalism (though I understand the motive, which is often with a heart to help, I feel). Though I do believe that any overtly pagan elements should be avoided, I think that there could be safe and healthy variations of how to celebrate Christmas that could all be equally edifying and non-sinful. However, even those pagan elements that do exist could be given a different meaning, which seems legitimate to me, too. I just don’t see it being as straightforward as some people make it out to be. So, I definitely value open-minded Christians like yourself that have such a gracious, intelligent attitude toward this issue!
~Jessica
Hello Jessica, we celebrate the same way you do. I was so confused whether or not to celebrate, but we decided to keep it Christ centred, not the way our society likes to celebrate it.
I sent you an email a while back. I hope you got it.
Thanks for a great article.
Hello, Pepalee!
Yes, we try to keep Christmas Christ-centered, too, without all the extra “fluff and nonsense.”
I will have to check my email so I can see if I can find your message! Thank you!
~Jessica