If You Don’t Like Christmas Don’t Celebrate It

Now that its nearly Christmas its time for the annual self-righteous bashing of the way we celebrate Christ’s birth in December rather than His actual birthdate. A friend sent me this article via email and it made my stomach turn.

When this subject is broached, many Protestants and Catholics become quite emotional, often becoming firmly entrenched concerning the December 25 date in spite of the facts. Many simply enjoy the season and feel that the actual day of Christ’s birth is irrelevant. Biblical and historical scholars are equally divided over this question as well. Christmas, however, is founded on the premise that Jesus was born on December 25, and a person who is truly striving to follow the Bible will see that the celebration of Christmas is based upon falsehood.

The author is right in that many feel the actual birth date of Christ is irrelevant. Or more correctly put, relevant but our faith doesn’t hinge on the actual date. The author is completely wrong when he says the celebration of Christmas is based on a falsehood. The article goes on with a well researched argument as to why the December 25th date is actually not Christ’s real birth date, and I’ll leave that to my readers to look at.

Why is it important that we know when Jesus was born? We certainly do not use this knowledge to celebrate His birthday—He tells us to commemorate His death, not His birth (I Corinthians 11:23-26). The true date, however, destroys the entire foundation of the Christmas holiday. It also points to the proper time of His ministry, crucifixion and resurrection, helping to disprove the Good Friday—Easter Sunday tradition also. Lastly, and maybe most importantly, it renews our faithin God’s Word—that it is true, verifiable and historically accurate.

Here is the point the author is missing: almost everyone already knows all of this. We don’t care. The “true date” doesn’t destroy any foundation of Christmas, because regardless of when Jesus was born, December 25h is when we celebrate the holiday. Period. Its no more disrespectful or detrimental to the Christian faith than my celebrating my son’s birthday on the Saturday before the Tuesday he was actually born. I’m also insulted at the ridiculous notion that we’re not to celebrate Christ’s birth. While I agree His death and resurrection are far more crucial and should be celebrated far more than what they are, to simply write off His birth as something we shouldn’t celebrate is just flat out stupid. At Christmas we decorate trees with our families and buy gifts for our loved one’s in Christ’s name while celebrating His birth and that is something that doesn’t get diminished in God’s eyes by one date or the other. While its true that church leaders backin the day decided to celebrate Christmas in December on the 25th to answer many pagan rituals that transpired during that time and to bring happiness to an otherwise depressing season, those goals aren’t exactly “heathen” and if Christ’s birth is so irrelevant as the author claims than it shouldn’t matter that we hang holly and buy presents on the 25th or any other day. While secular society has indeed commercialised Christmas into the biggest holiday event of the year its not up to the author or any other man to decide for themselves that Christmas should not be celebrated in the winter. To place such theological importance on this is so mind-bogglingly fruitless its no wonder atheism has gone up a few percentage points.

Advertisement