Christmas- to celebrate or not

Christmas has been touted as the day to celebrate our Savior’s birth. Yet, Yeshua was not born on or near December 25th (or by Jewish calendars, the month of Kislev).

There is Biblical evidence that Yeshua was born on/at/during the Festival of Sukkoth (Booths), generally held around September in our calendar. This makes perfect sense because all of the other Feasts are utilized during Yeshua’s time here on earth except Yom Kippur.

So then, why does society today celebrate this holiday. You have to go back to the history of it. First, the Catholic church instituted the holiday as a special day for Christ (Greek for Messiah). It was originally called: Christ’s Mass. Their purpose was to draw the pagans (who celebrated Yuletide at this time) into the church for the goal of conversion to Christianity.

For those who don’t know, Yuletide uses a Decorated Tree as a symbol in the pagan celebrations. It is not quite crystal clear how this pagan symbol found it’s way into today’s celebration of Christmas. What one can assume is that not all of the pagan ways were eradicated from the “new” converts to Christianity by the Catholic church. This is quite possible because the church needed to grow to survive and compromising some issues would have been a way to accomplish this. Many believe the Catholic church has accepted a large amount of paganism into itself and trying to justify it later.

However, we do not believe the Catholic church’s original concept was faulty. Celebrating with a special Mass for Christ during this time could be very worthwhile. As to whether the Catholic church originally espoused it as our Savior’s birth could be debatable. As with every idea though, it can become completely different than what was intended.

Today, many Christians and non-Christians celebrate this holiday. To most it is not a celebration to Christ (birth or not). Instead, it is a celebration to party, to give gifts, to decorate, and to have a day off from work. The consumerism in American society has not helped. There is so much emphasis on the decorating, presents, and Santa Claus that the meaning intended gets lost. The holiday has been totally commercialized. Why, because it has become, by far, the highest sales time of the year for our society. It is also the highest time for many other things, such as depression, fights, house fires, marriage breakups, and deaths. This does not seem an appropriate way to celebrate our Savior’s birth, if that is what people are supposed to be celebrating.

Although it is not the correct time of the year, celebrating our Savior’s birth here on earth in order to bring us Salvation does seem good on the surface. We are of the opinion that Yeshua never wanted us to celebrate His birth, but rather His death, burial and resurrection.

Some of the problems with celebrating His birth are: People (especially children) see only a Baby Jesus, not the Son of God; the emphasis on Mary and Joseph; and the depiction of the birth in manger scenes. Were you aware that the manger spoken of is the bottom floor of the innkeeper’s own home. That’s right, the innkeeper actually brought Miriam and Yoseph into his home even if it was to sleep where the animals slept downstairs. They would not have been out in the exposed elements as some manger scenes depict them, but rather in an enclosed home with food and warmth.

Okay, let’s tackle presents and Santa Claus. The giving of presents is traditional at this time of year among many cultures, including the Jewish culture during Hanukkah. So this is not in and of itself wrong. What makes the present situation a problem is when all people see the holiday for is the giving of presents to each other. And who brings the presents, not Santa. Most presents are delivered by family members and friends. It is an atrocity that society lies to our children that a fat man in a red suit flies around the world delivering presents to every child on a sleigh pulled by flying reindeer. Such utter nonsense. Why lie to our children? To hide things from them or to focus their attention somewhere else, so they see it as more special?

Unfortunately, Santa Claus gets more attention at Christmas than Christ does. And to top it off, the concept is pure myth/fiction. There is no such person as we portray him. There are very good people who give very good gifts to children and needy people using the guise of Santa to share their blessings. Is this wrong? Not the giving and blessing, but the perpetration of a mythical person while doing so is. It would be better if people were simply themselves and share the blessings and gifts in the Name of Yeshua.

Throw out the tree and Santa, then bring the focus of the holiday back to Yeshua. The holiday would be a great celebration then. Shalom and may YaH bless you always.

(c) Copyright December 2020 Min. Donald H. Garrett and Odon Obadyah Ministries, Inc.

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