In the light of Christmas this year I would like to take this week to blog about some great Christmas traditions that may have lost their meaning through time. It is easy to forget the meaning behind the things we do and the things we take for granted. In the midst of atheism and those trying to remove Christ from Christmas we must not forget what everything is truly all about. What is funny is that many people think society is trying to take God out of this religious holiday but EVERYTHING we do we do out of a religious tradition. So this week I will talk about the many different origins, saying, and symbolisms of the things we associate with Christmas time!

Luke 2:1-12

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.

4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Notice that this verse says, “This will be a SIGN to you.” There are signs all around us that point us to the Messiah the Son of the Living God. We must see the signs that show us Jesus in our day today!

So let’s find Christ in Christmas!

“Happy Holidays”

Now this statement has gotten a pretty bad wrap among Christians lately. The religious community is almost offended by this word that is used instead of Merry Christmas, but before you get too angry about it let me fill you in on this phrase…The word holiday comes from the word HOLY DAY! This was any day that was observed for religious reasons. So the word holy day morphed into the word holiday over time. Holy day is about the birth of Jesus, it was truly a holy day! So the next time someone says, “Happy Holidays” just say, “Happy holy day to you as well, the day Christ was born!” The world doesn’t even know that when they substitute Happy Holiday for Merry Christmas they are still referring to the birth of Jesus!

“X-Mas”

Many Christians also get perturbed about the phrase X-Mas. They believe it is another blatant attempt at removing Christ from Christmas. However, in the Greek the letter for Jesus The Messiah is…guess what…X. X-Mas is short for Christmas! Again, there is no removing Christ from this holy day! Christmas was shortened to X-Mas as symbolic of the letter for Jesus! So remember in the midst of this season that X-Mas is just another form of honoring Christ!

“Christmas”

The word Christmas comes from 2 words…Christ & Mass. One day a year the church would celebrate the birth of Jesus by having a special communion to recognize the birth of Jesus they would call Christ’ Mass. December 25th was traditionally a pagan holiday where society would worship the sun God since it was the longest day of the year. So when Christianity was sweeping across the world Rome combined the 2 holidays in order to promote worship to God Almighty! When this happened the church would celebrate Christ’ Mass on December 25th as worship to the birth of Jesus. Over time this phrase of Christ’ Mass was turned into the modern word Christmas.

Next blog we will look at some of the common symbols of Christmas!