What About CHRISTmas???

As soon as it starts turning cooler weather, some people start trying to take over Christmas, saying that we need to change it and change the words used to describe it and change the symbols and traditions of it, just so it will fit their ideas and opinions. Some want Christmas to reflect a modern American frame of mind. Like Americans own Christmas!

Christmas, as a spiritual holiday (that's short for Holy Day, BTW), has been celebrated to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ since the 1200s throughout Europe, the Middle East, and northern Africa (Murray, Alexander, "Medieval Christmas", History Today, December 1986). It is celebrated today in almost every culture in the world, and in those who don't celebrate it, it is acknowledged as a Christian Holy Day.

The only official connection America has to the Christmas Holy Day is through governmental establishment for a federal holiday. Most other connections are through religious organizations. This isn't the only time in history there have been conflicts over the celebration of Christmas. The butcher and murder, Oliver Cromwell, was instrumental in getting Christmas celebrations banned in England. And even more recently in America opposing sides have favored or eschewed the holiday, calling it both a tribute to Christ's birth and an insult to a sacred event which had become an excuse for debauchery and rioting. This was during the earliest days of Pilgrim-led America.

Then there was Christmas's contribution to the Civil War.

The North and South were divided on the issue of Christmas, as well as on the question of slavery. Many Northerners saw sin in the celebration of Christmas; to these people the celebration of Thanksgiving was more appropriate. But in the South, Christmas was an important part of the social season. Not surprisingly, the first three states to make Christmas a legal holiday were in the South: Alabama in 1836, Louisiana and Arkansas in 1838. (http://www.thehistoryofchristmas.com/ch/in_america.htm)

With Christmas celebrations having such a spotted history, perhaps it's time to stop fighting over what to call a particular tree - Christmas or holiday - or whether to show the Christ child or Santa Clause at school, or even whether or not the annual end-of-year sales events should be called Christmas sales. Perhaps we should step back to the original intent of the founders of America and our earliest Founding Fathers who preferred a quiet, family oriented time of peaceful reflection and prayer.

Let the heathens throw their holiday parties and fight over the last of the latest fad gift. Let's, as Christians who are supposed to be celebrating the birth of our Lord of Peace, refocus on praising God for His blessings as we enter a season of cold and bleakness. Let's demonstrate to the world what Christmas should look like.

God bless us, every one!