When my children were born, we decided to celebrate the holiday, as my husband did celebrate Christmas growing up.

We have a tree. Not because it’s an idol, or we symbolize it. Simply because it’s pretty and I like the smell.

We do not pretend Santa is real. We watch The Polar Express, Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer and other Christmasy shows.

We give each other gifts, spend the days with our families and send cards.

It doesn’t harm us. We are not replacing it as an idol. To me, when I take Christmas (a secular event) and try to make it about Christ, I am twisting Christ into something he is not.

When I take Santa and make him into a real person, I am twisting who God is.

Everything about our culture is pagan, we are Gentiles. When I realized this, it freed me from the angst of what to do. I am in this world, but not of it. It’s not about what I do on a given day. It’s what is in my heart.

Am I being true to who I am, and who God is? Am I observing every day the commandments given by Jesus, “Love the Lord thy God” and “Love thy Neighbor as thyself”? Am I spending time on my relationship with him or am I spending time on my brother’s relationship with him?

For me, celebrating Christmas as Americans do today, does not make me pagan, anymore than celebrating the 4th of July makes me American.

That being said, Robin, this blog is the most balanced and graceful post about Christmas I have read. Thank you!
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I avoided having Santa decorations or Santa cards, always tried to focus on the gospel message. We have had a tree most years.

I love the “magic” atmosphere of Christmas and the music and the cheerfulness. It became different when we underwent several financial crisis, almost back to back over the last 10 yrs. I am not sorry we did because it has helped me to see the whole thing through the eyes of those who are less fortunate.

Back to the “pagan” roots. I recently read an article by an atheist whose intent was to defend most traditions as non-christian. He was telling the stories with a slant I had never heard, mainly because I had always heard it form the Christian pointing out the pagan roots perspective. He was saying much the same thing, but pointing out that these “son being raised up from a virgin” stories were in many cultures and had nothing to do with Christianity – it hit me – just like flood stories are in every culture – many other cultures had contact with Hebrew people and had their stories passed down, but slightly changed. The tree story appears to me to be very closely connected with biblical prophecy with some of the facts out of order. That tree symbolized the son who had died but was to rise again – my goodness, that mythical son was Jesus and the tree was the one He died on. I really think those early missionaries were looking for God stories in other cultures and capturing them – there are just too many similarities for it to be a coincidence. We have dozens of stories of missionaries entering never reached villages only to find they have been waiting for “a man to come bringing a book that would tell them the way to eternal life” for generations. Just because another ancient culture had an incomplete picture of the eternal son does not mean we should curse them for it. We take what they have, just like Paul did with Aquilla and Priscilla, and we add to it to make it true and complete.

And look at what Jesus did:
John 10:22 – 23
And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.

Chanukkah – Jesus remembered Chanukkah.

Learn not the way of the heathen! Jeremiah 10

God bless and don’t listen to what the world says.

Thank you for this great post!