Trying to Put Christ Back in Christmas?

Is it possible?

’Tis the season for nonstop Christmas music at the grocery store, for colorful lights strung outside homes, for red and green sprinkled cookies, for Santas in big red suits at the mall that children are told will be squeezing down their chimney in a few nights to bring them iPads.

’Tis the season of mounting credit card debt, of stressing over what to get for those picky or unreadable friends and family members, of weight gain because of all those tasty holiday treats.

TV advertisements focus on Christmas more and for longer than any other holiday. In an effort to squeeze more profit out of these generous-spirited customers, they make it seem like the holidays are all about giving (and getting) the best presents, because gifts are a faultless reflection of how much you love someone, right?

Is that really what Christmas is intended to be? A time to tell children that they were good this year (whether or not they really were), so they’re entitled to get new clothes and the latest electronics, and that the possession of things is the essence of love and world peace?

What about Christ?

Where is Jesus in all this? Besides lying in His manger in an outdoor nativity scene. Would the Jesus who overturned the tables of the money changers and the merchants in the temple (John 2:13-16) support the materialistic Christmas of today?

A lot of people say that we need to “put Christ back in Christmas.” But how does one do that, exactly? How does Christ fit into this holiday?

Take Santa Claus

Take Santa Claus, for example. How does a jolly man in a red suit sliding down your chimney fit in with the birth of Christ? The only gift-givers in the biblical story are the wise men, and it’s my understanding that they came in through the door.

What about the mistletoe or the Christmas lights? I find nothing about them in the Bible.

What about the traditional dinner—the Christmas ham? Definitely not in the Bible (Leviticus 11:7).

What about the reindeer? Rudolph was an invention “of Robert L. May’s imagination in 1939. The copywriter wrote a poem about the reindeer to help lure customers into the Montgomery Ward department store” (http://www.history.com/topics/christmas/page2).

What about the Christmas tree?

The modern Christmas tree custom probably originated in Northern Europe, where “the mysterious Druids, the priests of the ancient Celts, also decorated their temples with evergreen boughs as a symbol of everlasting life” and “the fierce Vikings in Scandinavia thought that evergreens were the special plant of the sun god, Balder” (http://www.history.com/topics/history-of-christmas-trees). In that way, the tannenbaum or Yule tree is equivalent to the idols Jeremiah wrote about:

“Thus says the LORD: ‘Do not learn the way of the Gentiles. … For the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple” (Jeremiah 10:2-4).

Where did Christmas really come from?

Over and over, God tells us in the Bible not to follow the customs of other religions. He implores us to keep our worship of Him pure and undefiled with rituals and traditions that He did not establish (Leviticus 18:30; Deuteronomy 12:29-32; Ezekiel 11:12; Matthew 15:8-9).

Hard as people try to honor Christ with the celebration of Christmas, such efforts will still not be what He desires, because Christmas is simply not a Christian holiday.

Check the encyclopedias and history books. Forerunners of Christmas were celebrated long before Christ was born. Its history is related to the Roman Juvenalia and Saturnalia, and the birthday of Mithra, “god of the unconquerable sun, on December 25” (http://www.history.com/topics/christmas).

History.com also shows it wasn’t until the fourth century, hundreds of years after Christ’s life, that “church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. Unfortunately, the Bible does not mention [the] date for his birth (a fact the Puritans later pointed out in order to deny the legitimacy of the celebration). Although some evidence suggests that his birth may have occurred in the spring [other sources believe it was more likely to have been in the fall] (why would shepherds be herding in the middle of winter?), Pope Julius I chose December 25. It is commonly believed that the church chose this date in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival.”

Square peg, round hole

Trying to put Christ back in Christmas is like trying to fit the proverbial square peg into a round hole—He was never there in the first place, and frankly, it’s futile to try to put Him “back.” God recorded for us specific instructions on how He wants to be worshipped, and Christmas simply isn’t included. The Bible nowhere tells us to celebrate His birth, but instructs us very clearly on how we are to observe His death.

Don’t be deceived. Put Christ into your life, not into a holiday that has nothing to do with Him.

For more on this, see our Frequently Asked Question “Should Christians Celebrate Christmas?”

Erica Bennett is a sophomore at the University of Cincinnati and attends the Cincinnati/Dayton, Ohio, congregation of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association.