Christmas…that wonderful season of decorated trees, unbridled commercialism and the intense need to spend, spend, spend to fulfill every whim of people who probably don’t think about gift-giving except for the last month of the year.
I don’t celebrate Christmas. I don’t “keep Christ in Christmas”. I refuse to get swept up in the materialism and forced cheer. Just call me Scrooge!
Christians go looney this time of year…they refuse to say “Happy Holidays” and force “Merry Christmas” down everyone’s throat. Not me…no thanks.
December 25th is NOT “Jesus’ birthday”. If one carefully reads the biblical accounts, it seems more believable that Jesus was born in the spring. Jerusalem is quite cold in the winter, and I doubt that there would have been people traveling during the winter. The shepherds were out in the fields, not something that would happen in the winter in the hills around Jerusalem and Bethlehem. It’s rather chilly! http://www.jerusalem-insiders-guide.com/weather-in-jerusalem.html
Christmas was co-opted from the Roman celebration of Saturnalia. The trees come from the German celebrations of Yule. http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-christmas-trees
So…the whole idea is NOT Christian…at all. Why do Christians celebrate it?
I can buy into the idea of celebrating the birth of Christ…to a point. That point is where there is no biblical support for it. The early Christians celebrated the Lord’s supper, to commemorate the supper in the Upper room before the crucifixion where Jesus said “do this in remembrance of me” (Luke 22:19). They dedicated Sunday to the Lord, again following that the resurrection was on a Sunday. (Luke 24:1).
So, because there is no biblical support for “Christmas”, I see no reason to celebrate it as anything other than a fun time to be with family and friends, eat until I explode and enjoy the day. I have not “decorated” nor sent cards or any of that other stuff in years. Yes, I buy gifts for some of the family who do not agree with me, or see it as a secular holiday of fun. No, I don’t expect any gifts to be given to me, for me the fun is in the giving not the getting.
I realize I may be outside the “mainstream” of Christianity with this, but it’s ok. I’m so far out the mainstream on so many things that I couldn’t tell you where that body of water is. I’m finishing my undergrad degree in Religion at a school that is known to be quite conservative, almost fundamentalist, in many ways. I respect many of the professors there who have impeccable credentials and are well known, however, I do not necessarily agree with their ideas or interpretations 100%. There are many things that I believe them to be off base about, and many things that I think they are right on target about. But, that’s fodder for another post…