Christmas

As a little boy I grew up celebrating Christmas and easter. For me was especially Christmas the most wonderful time of the year. But little I knew about Christmas, until I got into a discussion with some atheist colleagues at work. I tried to defend Christmas for being a real Christian Holiday. But boy what was I wrong!

The history of Christmas
My colleagues back then attended me that Christmas didn’t originate from Christians and I just couldn’t believe my ears. I was embarrassed, because it took some atheists to tell me the truth, something that I as a Christian that is supposed to have the truth should know.

There are lets say 3 variations on the history of Christmas

• Yule – Northern Europeans celebrated the return of the sun from 21 of December.
• Oden – In Germany they honored the pagan God Oden
• Saturnalia – Holiday in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. Also the birthday of Mithra, the god of the unconquerable sun, is celebrated on December 25

Hedonic aspect
Especially the Saturnalia celebration is considered to be the beginning of Christmas. It had had a hedonistic character with excessive eating and drinking. Today is the Christmas celebration no different then back then. It is supposed to be a time for reflection, being with family and honoring the birth of Jesus. But if you look closer, you see less and less of these reasons in todays Christmas celebration. It is more just a reason to party then that is a time for reflection.

Todays excuses to celebrate Christmas by Children of God

• Without Christmas there is no salvation
  Meaning that the birth of Jesus is important because if he wasn’t born we couldn’t be saved. To start with, al what Jesus did is important. So for example what if he had chosen not to go to the cross when he prayed to God to let the cup of suffering pass by in Matthew 26:39. That means that also his death is important or maybe even more important. Otherwise he would just have been a prophet and not our savior.
  Secondly, the 25th of december is not the day he was born. If we want to honor and celebrate his birth, why not choosing the right date instead of celebrating it the same day pagans celebrate a false god.

• It is time to be with family
  I get this one too and to be honest it is a beautiful thought. It is ideal because it is a day that most people are free form work, so planning a get together is easy. But here is the thing, a year contains 365 days, isn’t there enough opportunity to plan moments with family? We shouldn’t wait until the next Christmas to be with family, because before we even know it, some of us can be gone before the next Christmas arrives.

Commercial aspect
And commerce eagerly profits from our need to celebrate Christmas abundantly. Everywhere you turn you see Christmas advertisements. Selling happiness during the Holiday Season at an more expensive price then outside the holiday season. So we are deceived to buy gifts for our love ones during this season while we can buy the same gift at a cheaper price outside the holiday season.

Cancellation of Christmas
Surprisingly, Christmas was even discontinued at one point due to its hedonistic and aggressive nature. For a long time Christmas was not celebrated in England and the United States because of this. It was not until the early 19th century that this holiday was adapted into a quieter one with more of a focus on peace, family and reflection.

It is just 24 hours in a year
There is also another side to the Christmas celebration. I along with many other people worldwide have sometimes celebrated Christmas alone. We create extra pressure for our self for wanting to celebrate this holiday. People feeling alone do feel more alone and stressed during the Christmas season. They can do anything to be able to celebrate this day, by even displaying toxic behavior and being depressed.

By realizing that this day is just a moment that will pass in a blink of an eye, releases a lot of pressure. Like I mentioned before, this day is just 24 hours in a year of which maybe only 8 hours or less we are awake. You look forward to it so much and live it so much and when the moment comes, it will all be over in no time. So why make this day so important while it actually means little.

Blue Monday
This day is a discovery of an British Psychologist Cliff Arnall. It is the Monday of the last full week of January when a lot of people feel sad and depressed. Cliff Arnall claims to have a formula with which he can prove his theory. Based on variables like a persons salary and time since Christmas, it is possible to calculate this day. For a lot of people this sounded like complete nonsense and he received a lot of criticism.

Despite the fact that there is a lot of discussion about blue Monday, I do think there is some truth in it. It isn’t exactly a day in Januari but somewhere in the middle of Januari some people can feel some depression. From the hedonic happiness perspective, this can make perfect sense. Like every hedonic high, there is also an adaptation to it. This is the moment the feeling of excitement diminishes. Also because many people spend too much money during Christmas and find out in January that they don’t have enough money left to pay their bills.

Moving forward
Ask yourself this question, what should Jesus say about celebrating Christmas if he was among us. My honest opinion is that he would have reacted the same way as in the temple when he overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves in matthew 21:12-13. I think today he would have drove out every Christmas tree and decorations in every Church and maybe even in our homes.

I think Jesus is happier when we stand everyday still at what he have done. Thanking him every day that he came to earth(Christmas) and died for our sins(Easter). This way we celebrate both holidays every day and that is what pleases the Lord. We put more emphasis on what Jesus did instead of the festivities. We won’t spend all that money either on silly things and we won’t be disappointed a month after the holidays.

The enemy also enjoys this, because his tactic is to deceive. He is also very patient and he does everything he can to slowly drive Children of God away from their real purpose, by keeping them busy with things that are not Godly.

Luke 6:38, instead of celebrating Christmas and Easter, we children of God should use this day for what Jesus really expect from us. Give to others and showing the world that there is a difference between them and children of God instead of behaving exactly as they do. There are enough elderly people and homeless people etc. feeling alone and depressed on this so called happy day. We can reach out to them to try to ease their pain instead of focusing on our self’s.

Remember, we are salt of the earth, Matthew 5:13!

Sources

• The Bible
• https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas
• https://www.history.com/news/middle-ages-christmas-traditions
• https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas-trees