Why not?

My daughter came to to tell me how she is handling the question "why don't you celebrate Christmas" amongst the Christians in our life. It is that time of year. We as Americans focus on the Holidays, family, and tradition. Her answer was that it just didn't fit in our family. This is true, but we have celebrated this festive holiday in the past. I have thought on this a lot. I didn't have an easy answer, and it is not always appropriate to go into the long answer.
      I will start with the easy answer. There is not always time or desire of the recipient to hear the long version. I still want to give an answer and I want my younger children to have an answer to give as the time comes. Jesus did not celebrate Christmas. I want to be more like Him, therefore I do not celebrate it.

Christmas Icon

     Now for the long answer. This has been a long time coming. I have had questions about Christmas for a very long time. "Why do we give gifts to each other on the birth of Christ." "What do you give the creator of the world for His birthday?" "I already gave Him my heart, I can not give it again." (this was actually a quote from my 17 year old while we were discussing Christmas) There is the birdseed idea... I tried giving each child only three gifts because they certainly do not deserve more than Jesus received. The other thing I always heard was we don't actually know His real birthday. How can we not know that. Weren't Mary and Joseph going back to Bethlehem for something important. It wasn't just the census. Caesar did the census at that time because they were all going to be in their hometown. I thought I heard that somewhere, but I can find no reference. We know, though that the likelihood of the story happening in December was about 0%. It is the rainy season and the shepherds would not have been out in the fields at night. The travel would have been far more difficult, especially with a late pregnancy. So, even if we were to guess, December would not be an educated guess. There are theories out there that He was conceived of the Holy Spirit in December though, based on what is known of the birth of John the baptist. Related? maybe. And, what about Mithra? A middle eastern "sun-diety" said to be born on December 25th and the connection between the earth and the sky... HMMMM. Next we have Santa... How did he ever make it into the celebration of the savior of the world? His hat comes from the Greek god Attis. It is called a Phrygian hat and hails from a cult that was popular in Greek world around late 4th century BC, according to Wikipedia. The gifts by the fire look to be of Norse mythology(Sinterklaas). The sleigh and reindeer seem to be a combination of Odin and Artemis.  It looks to me like we just took a little from each culture represented in America and formed him. That kind of sounds like a certain golden cow... So I tried celebrating it without Santa at all. My younger children never thought he was real. Then there is the whole eerie similarities between Santa and Moloch. Scary, to say the least, but you will have to research that one yourself. Next I discovered the history of the wreath. I was looking into the significance of the tree and ran across the symbolism of the wreath. From what I can gather it was merely a way to look forward or hope for spring. Evergreen bows were brought into the house because they were the only living thing that survived the winter. It appears to be an earth worship revolving around the seasons that we as Christians adopted into our culture. Then.... as if it had never been there before a scripture was revealed to me in Jeremiah. It brought to mind Mark 7:7-9 and what I want when I worship God Almighty is for it to have meaning to Him. Seems pretty clear no me. So not we are down to no tree, no santa, no gifts, and we are celebrating the birth of the Son of God on the wrong day.
     So in the end my family and I have decided that to put money and effort and space and time into a holiday that is not Holy, is chalk full of pagan rituals, and has no worshipful meaning to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (who is the God I claim to serve) is a waste. Instead we are learning, ever so slowly, about the biblical feasts that are "the shadow of things to come" col 2:17. This is the way God asked for worship and I am growing daily in my faith as I gaze upon the shadow, focus on the shadow, and anticipate the things to come.
     We each come to our Lord and Savior on different paths. Sometimes we have the pleasure of crossing paths and coming to new knowledge together. Here is the path I have been on. I did not make this decision lightly, in fact, I probably was ready to make the decision long before I actually did it. If you found this, it is because you were led here for a reason. God loves you and is jealous for you. I encourage you to put away your idols and your pagan ways. We have adopted the customs of Christmas blindly and have been deceived. The truth will set you free. The truth is in the bible. Jesus is the Savior of the World. Find Him in the Bible and look back to the old testament for God the Father. He has not changed! Jesus came to complete the instruction of the Torah. It is finished!