Human beings are not short on opinions.  We may be a little short on fresh ideas, but opinions we got.

As a Christian who moves among many other Christians from different backgrounds, I am aware of the many different ways Christian believers think about Christmas.  Some of us get stuck on the pre-Christian history of the holiday.  The winter solstice, for example, was celebrated by lots of people, including pagans, before Christians decided to use the day as a celebration for Christ’s birth.

On the one hand, I can understand the desire to distance one’s self from pagan activities in order to make it easier for the world to see that Christians are different.  We might feel that holiness in our celebrations is a good place to begin demonstrating the distinctiveness of Christian faith and life.

On the other hand, a lot of pagans also ate breakfast, said “Good Morning!” because they were so glad to see a new day, and even washed their clothes.  Pagans gave birth to children, built and lived in houses, had farms, paid bills, died for good causes, and so on.  In other words, if we are going to get really serious about not doing anything a pagan might do, then we might end up living a strange life, indeed.

The idea of celebrating the return of light and warmth sounds perfectly normal and good to me.  Of course, how one celebrates can make all the difference.  The end of a work week in modern times, for example, might be celebrated by both unbelieving and Christian workers.  The Christian might celebrate by putting his money in the bank and then treating his wife to a nice dinner in a local restaurant, or maybe some other simple and happy weekly routine.  An unbeliever might cash his check and then hit the bars and clubs, spending all his money before Saturday comes around.  Or he might not.  Many unbelievers live very thrifty lives, and many do not drink or party at all.

Celebrations of the season can be made to be meaningful and joyous occasions or they can be made to be very bland and quiet.  I am, by nature, a person not prone to a lot of celebration.  I prefer to have my birthday pass quietly by, and was like that even when i was a very young man.  I am not one for Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s, or any of the holidays.  I will go along and behave fairly well, but the days mean little to me.

When our children were first born, I was not one to get trees, string lights, or do much of anything for Christmas.  By the time our youngest was about a year old (and the other two children were about 2 and 3), I began to realize that my wife and I were missing a grand opportunity to share some of the Christian joy of Christ by not celebrating Christmas.  Christmas invites singing and storytelling, and church services, and family gathering and special meals, and lots of good things.

My wife and I realized that we could create a special kind of memory for our children that would help them to better understand what the Christian faith and hope was all about, as well as help make family and home something warm and good.

For me, then, the Christmas season became a time of celebrating Christ and His birth.  And that is what we did as a family.  I had no concerns over trees or lights or presents, and neither did my wife (and we were very conservative in our habits and thinking), so we went out and got a tree, strung some popcorn around it, gathered the family in the living room and sang hymns.  That is how we took our first steps in celebrating Christmas as a family.

We even bought a complete album set of Handel’s Messiah.  And I began playing it in the evenings.  It was a vinyl set, complete with the words.  I had never really listened to Messiah before, except for the Hallelujah chorus and other excepts.  I was shocked to find that the entire things was Scripture, and not just any Scripture.  Handel wrote his music to the Old Testament promises of the prophets about a Savior to be born, and the New Testament fulfillment of all those promises.  It took a little time, but that wonderful music grew on me, and is now forever a part of my heart and soul.

I like Christmas.  I like the season and the snow, the lights and the whole thing.  I love Christmas.  I love to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  I love the idea of taking an old celebration and making it into something good and positive.  I love to give gifts and I like the many opportunities Christmas gives us to do special things.

People need special times, warm times, bright times.  The world is going to hell, quite literally.  Men and women and young people struggle to be happy all year long.  Many also face bitter times and disappointments in the Christmas season.  They need a reason to have some hope, something to smile and laugh about.  They need a real Christmas with old-fashioned Christmas carols and the story of Jesus in a manger.  People need to know that brighter times really are ahead, and to have an opportunity to find the Lord of Light.

How people celebrate or don’t celebrate Christmas is none of my business.  But as for me and my house, we will celebrate the Lord.  And we will do it joyfully with singing and gift-giving and lights and merriment.  I thank God for Christmas!

Jim