December 25th has been celebrated by many cultures as a day to recognize the Winter Solstice and bring in the new year. Formerly Saturnalia or the Yuletide Festival, this holiday was absorbed and assimilated into Christian tradition by the Roman Catholic Church, in an effort to help bring non-Christians into the celebrations (and potentially bring them to Christ).
What about the past?
Regardless of its origins in ancient history, Christmas is now a Christian tradition. Since it has been for almost 2,000 years. I’m pretty sure that means we can claim it as a tradition now. Saturnalia and Yule are not practiced by anyone but a few outliers like witches, wannabe Vikings and a few hippies who practice paganism. That means the arguments Christmas haters use when attempting to devalue our Holiday hold no water. We aren’t worshiping Saturn, we are worshiping Christ.
What Christmas means now. – Good In modern society Christmas is a time for giving gifts, caring about others and being a good person. It’s seen as a time of cheer and a time to celebrate each other. If you see Christmas in this light, it is obviously a good thing. Of course its a good thing to love your neighbor and show them you appreciate them. The thing is, Christ would want us to act this way all year.
What Christmas means now. – Bad
Is Christmas a bastardization of Christianity? Is calling for a season of Christ-like behavior a bad thing? Some people would argue with me and claim that Christmas is an evil, materialistic and selfish holiday. Failing to separate the holiday from Santa, they claim that Santa Claus is evil, thus Christmas is as well. While I do not agree that Christmas is an evil holiday… On some level, I do believe that Satan Claus is, indeed, a bastardization of Christ and a representation of Saturn. Its not an accident that he represents selfish materialism and is offered as an alternative figurehead to “worship” on Christmas.
When you are looking at Christmas through the lens of Santa’s Xmas, you are behaving well so you can get materialistic rewards. That’s the opposite of what Christ is offering us. You must do good because you love your neighbor and God, not for selfish rewards. Christ offers us a reward in the afterlife, not a material reward here. I couldn’t make a stronger case that Santa is the metaphorical anti-Christ. Lie to your kids in order to scare them into being good for selfish reasons. That’s not Christian.
Celebrate Christmas all year
Ultimately the goal of Christmas is to encourage us worldly humans to be Christ-like all year. If you feel good at Christmas time, you should embrace the path of Christ year long and keep it going. I refuse to see this holiday as a bad thing, because, at its core it is fundamentally Christian. So teach your kids about CHRISTmas! Tell them Santa is fake and Jesus is the one that matters.
Leave a Reply