Should Christians celebrate Christmas?

It’s 5:30 am and I can’t sleep because of a discussion I had on an internet forum. There was an article explaining the origins of Christmas and the discussion that ensued was focused on whether or not Christians should celebrate it because of its origins.

I wish when I lay in bed and my mind starts writing a paper or an internet blog, I could just record it straight from my brain to the computer. In my mind not more than a half hour ago, it was crystal clear. But now that I’m at the keyboard typing away, the coherent thoughts I had seem to evaporate.

Now before I proceed any further, let me state clearly that I do know that Jesus was most likely not born on December 25. Is there any Christian in America who doesn’t know this? So I am not doing this out of ignorance of history. I also know the background of the original pagan celebration that took place.

Do I think that we should place more emphasis on Jesus’ birth than on the resurrection? No. The resurrection has and should always be the focal point of Christianity. It is the basis for our faith.

Something I did learn from this discussion was that I would never be any good at debating. To debate a person needs to be able think quick at the spur of the moment. I don’t have that ability. Instead after the discussion my mind begins to focus on the issue and I replay what was said by others and what I said. I mull over in my mind what the other person was really saying and what he meant. Then days later ideas start coming to my mind. But a lot of good that does me! It’s never the same to go back and start up the argument again because by that time the other person has moved on. So why don’t I move on? I don’t know the answer to that question. But the discussion seems to follow me around for days. And then things start to make sense to me.

So what do you all think? Should Christians celebrate Christmas and why? At 5 am this morning I woke up thinking about this question. It had been on my mind for several days already. But now the thoughts were clearer and ideas started coming to my mind. At this point I decided I needed to write down what I was thinking in order to get it out. So first let me give as way of introduction some of the points those who were against Christmas made.

A woman, along with a few others, was making the point that God is not pleased with the celebration of Christmas because it was not ordained by Him in the Bible. Only the feasts/celebrations that are actually in the Bible and given by God should be celebrated. This is what could be called an argument of silence. The fact that God did not put it in the Bible means it is not right.

Second, she claimed that because it is a pagan ritual, we should not take part in it. This, I believe, she holds to because she knew the origin of Christmas.

Third, Christmas, according to her, is a man-made religion – human tradition. Based on Colossians 2:8 the argument is that Paul tells us not to be involved with human traditions.

She had arrived at her understanding “through the Holy Spirit from the Word.” I would never claim that the Holy Spirit does not speak to us through the Bible, but when a person uses this type of argument, there is no way to further the discussion because in her mind, it is a done deal. I had a similar discussion with a man from a cult at my door front when he said “The Holy Ghost put a burning in my bosom, therefore it must be true.” I promptly explained that the Holy Spirit had put a burning in my bosom that what he was teaching was false, so now we are in a quandary as to which information from the Spirit was correct. You see it is fine to say that, but I honestly believe God did not require us to shelve our minds when we came to Christ. I like J. P. Moreland’s book “Love the Lord your God with all your mind.”

If Christmas in America today was a celebration of the sun god, I doubt any believer would take part. But as far as I can see it is not about that and never has been in American culture. It started out this way long before America was even founded. But over time it no longer has anything to do with that. Christmas is not evil. It is neutral. Evil happens when greed becomes the basis for the day or the worship of things, whether it be material goods, Christmas trees or Santa Claus. Take for example the recent black Friday sales where greed drives people to do evil things. Or when a store is selling Michael Jordan tennis shoes and people are not interested in the Savior, but only in whether or not they can get a couple of pieces of leather. Retailers are about making money out of Christmas. That does not mean everyone does the same.

As for the Colossians passage mentioned, it is doubtful that Paul was thinking of things like Christmas. If you are interested in a different take on the origins of Christmas observed by Christians see the following article in Biblical Archaeological Review: http://www.bib-arch.org/e-features/christmas.asp. In it the author states that the traditional view of Christians borrowing from pagans may not be true. He states:

 “There are problems with this popular theory, however, as many scholars recognize. Most significantly, the first mention of a date for Christmas (c. 200) and the earliest celebrations that we know about (c. 250–300) come in a period when Christians were not borrowing heavily from pagan traditions of such an obvious character.”

The author’s point is that most likely Christians did not adopt the date of December 25 to correspond with pagan solar festivals and that the date was well established before 312 AD.

Furthermore, some of the feasts given in the OT to the Israelites to observe replaced certain pagan festivals such as the agricultural festivals.

After much arguing and discussion back and forth, I realized that it was a game of semantics. The question, to me as a follower of Jesus Christ, should be framed differently. As believers should we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior on Dec. 25? When we leave it as “celebrate Christmas” confusion ensues. What do we mean by Christmas? For this woman, she filled it in with all the content of several hundred years ago, something which most people wouldn’t even have on their minds today. It seemed that when this woman heard “celebrate Christmas” she was really hearing “celebrate a pagan ritual,” but she never did actually define how she understood it. In my posts I tried to narrowly define what I was doing at Christmas, namely, celebrating the fact that God gave His Son Jesus, the Messiah, to save us. But this woman said God judges not the heart, but the actions.  

I did some reading online and came across one site that made the following statement: “Most people assume that it has always been a Christian holiday and that it is a celebration of the birth of Jesus.” According to this article the origin of Christmas goes all the way back to ancient Babylon and it involved the worship of other gods and specifically Nimrod. It became a celebration of the rebirth of the sun god on December 25^th. Winter solstice occurs just a couple of days before this. So from this point on the days start growing longer. The quote from the article is an interesting statement because in America today, I doubt there is anyone who celebrates Christmas as though it were the celebration of the rebirth of the sun god of Babylon. The whole celebration has been changed over the year. Santa Claus is even a relatively new addition.

So I asked this woman several times if God was not pleased if people worshipped Him on Christmas day and praised Him for sending His Son. In her eyes, yes it was wrong because He did not tell us to set aside a day to celebrate the birth of His Son, so her conclusion is that it is a tradition of man and therefore should not be celebrated.

The whole discussion, after much pondering on my part, sounds very similar to Romans 14. And I am convinced now that first century Christianity had a lot of conflicting beliefs between the Jewish and the Gentile believers. But Paul’s point in the passage is to maintain unity. He asks the weak in faith not to condemn or judge the strong and vice a versa with regard to eating or not eating meat or observing or not observing special days. The main point I believe Paul is making is this. As Christians convinced of what you believe accept your brother and do not condemn him because God is your true master and judge. The problem in the Roman church that he is addressing has to do with eating certain foods and observing certain days. The weak in faith have a problem eating meat that has been offered to idols and sold in the market place. In fact, this believer has come to the point of eating only vegetables, a vegan in today’s terminology. The strong in faith do not have any problem with this. It seems that Paul did not want to make it an ethnic issue since he never mentions the weak and strong as either Jew or Gentile. But notice that Paul does not condemn the vegan or the one who is eating meat offered to idols. Instead he tells each side not to condemn or judge the other.

The parallel here, I believe, fits. There are some believers who have a problem with the origin of Christmas and so do not want to celebrate (read observe) it (just like the origin of the meat which had been offered to idols). Paul would say, that is fine, don’t celebrate it, but don’t judge the one who does. The one who celebrates Christmas should likewise not condemn or judge the one who does not. The purpose is for unity within the body of Christ. Whether one celebrates Christmas or not, does not affect one’s salvation. Paul exhorts the strong to accept the weak and not regard him with contempt (Rom 14:3). He exhorts the weak not to judge the strong in the same verse. The most compelling reason Paul gives for backing off from judging is in v. 6 where he writes, 

“He who observes the day, observes it for the Lord, and he who eats, does so for the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who eats not, for the Lord he does not eat, and gives thanks to God.” 

So we can ask the question why do we celebrate or not celebrate Christmas. I celebrate it to the Lord to honor Him and worship Him for sending His Son Jesus Christ. On the other hand, this woman is convinced it is not right and she does not observe the day as to the Lord. So each side should respect the view of the other. But the most important verse in Romans 14 is verse 5. Here Paul states 

“One person regards one day above another, another regards every day alike. Each person must be fully convinced in his own mind.”

So I would argue that each of us as believers need to be convinced of what we believe and why with regard to celebrating Christmas. At the same time we must not hold in contempt others with different views or judge them. Why? Because God is our judge. He is the only one who knows what is in the heart of each person.

But it does grieve me when people combine Santa Claus with God or somehow equate Santa with God and somehow get the two confused. Christmas is a time to honor God sending His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins. Just because He does not tell us to do this in the Bible does not make it wrong. Most believers do this throughout the year on a daily basis. But to condemn believers for worshiping God’s Son and thanking God for sending Him on December 25 is not right since it is trying to stop people from worshiping God.

What grieved me most about this discussion is the disunity among believers that it causes and that dishonors God. Every year unbelievers attack Christianity over celebrating it anywhere in public. That is to be expected. But what is happening now is that even among Christians there is argument as to whether or not it is all right to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on that day. And this, I am certain, grieves God and the Holy Spirit. Disagreement is not the problem, condemnation is.

Finally, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas as you worship our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah!