For those of who know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, Christmas is a time to focus our attention on the occasion of his birth. It is a time to reflect on the great reality of the Incarnation, that tremendous, incomprehensible miracle of divine energy that brought God into the ebb and flow of human history. Unfortunately though, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of a myriad of customs and traditions, the real meaning of Christmas may be lost. Satan has cluttered the wonderful story of Christmas with so much needless paraphernalia that its real meaning may become either shrouded or completely lost. Allow me to share a little of the history of Christmas to illustrate my point.

In the middle of the fourth century CE the Bishop of Jerusalem wrote a letter to the Bishop of Rome. He wanted the Bishop of Rome to ascertain the date of the birth of Christ so that he could establish a date for an annual celebration. The Bishop of Rome sent back word to the Bishop of Jerusalem that Christ was born on December 25th. By the end of the fourth century this had become the accepted custom and since then every December 25th focuses on the birth of Christ. Biblical scholars now know that there is absolutely no evidence that Christ was born on December 25th. In fact there is more evidence that he was not born on this date. Well, how did the Bishop of Rome come up with the date of December 25th as the birth date of Christ? The answer to that question lies in a deeper historical search.

In the fourth century December was the major month for pagan celebrations. It was the month of pagan festivals, feasts, orgies, and pageants put on in honor of their gods. December became a time of high, boisterous, pagan revelry as winter reached its fullness and the people were anticipating the thaw, the spring, the planting, and the strength of the sun returning to warm their shoulders once again.

Some of the activities practiced during the month of celebration included adorning homes with evergreens, hanging trinkets on the trees, lighting candles, hanging mistletoe, exchanging gifts, general merry-making and feasting which often deteriorated into drunken orgies. Is any of this sounding familiar?

The Bishop of Rome chose December 25th as the birth date of Christ because this was the high point of all these festivities. He wanted all these wild winter revelries of the pagans to be sanctified by Christianity. So, he decided to impose the celebration of the birth of Christ on the pagan celebrations and therefore sanctify them all.

That was a nice thought, but did it work? What happened was that the heathen festivities went on and the church was unable to make them conform to the intended Christian approach to celebration. What resulted was a strange marriage of the pagan and Christian celebrations that we now call Christmas. Here are a few examples.

Giving Gifts: To the Romans the month of December was important because it marked what was known as the Festival of Saturnalia. Saturn was their god of agriculture. The Festival of Saturnalia was celebrated in honor of Saturn so that he could begin to bring spring and the growth of their crops. One of the common customs of the Romans during this time was the giving of gifts to one another. The most common gifts were little idols made in the image of the Roman deities. As far as we can tell, this is where the whole idea of presents came from. Now some will argue, "But the Wise Men gave gifts to Jesus. Is that not where the idea came from?" If we were giving gifts to Jesus as well I would say, "Yes." It's a little confusing however when it is his birthday, yet we get the gifts.

The Evergreen Wreath: This also came from the Roman celebration described above. During the festival they would hang evergreens all over their houses. This is apparently where the wreath initially came from.

Mistletoe: The Druids, in England, were engaged in a strange priestly worship engulfing demonic and cultic powers. Part of this worship involved the gathering of sacred mistletoe for their sacrifices, which were made in the month of December. These sacrifices were geared towards friendship and peace. The priests cut the mistletoe out of oak trees with golden sickles then gathered and passed it around to the people. After a sacrifice of two white oxen was made the people took the mistletoe and hung it up in their homes. Any time someone came under the mistletoe he was to immediately embrace anyone else under or near it. These are the apparent roots of the Christmas mistletoe.

The Manger Scene: St. Francis popularized the drama of the crib, which we know as the manger scene, in the thirteenth century. You will know that the biblical narrative indicates that the Wise Men, "came into the house" not the stable. So the scene of the Wise Men around the manger is not a biblical one.

The Christmas Tree: Trees with trinkets on them were part of pagan festivals for centuries. But in the Sixteenth century, Martin Luther picked up this idea, brought a tree into his house and put candles on it symbolizing the sparkling stars in the sky over the Forrest. German settlers brought the custom to America and set up trees as early as 1746. England's Queen Victoria married the German Prince Albert, and he displayed the first Christmas tree in Windsor Castle in 1841. Tinsel on the tree supposedly comes from spiders that spun webs on Christmas trees one night. At a touch from the Christ child, the webs turned to silver or gold. Tinsel is hung each year to remember and receive blessings.

St.Nicholas/Santa Claus: St Nicholas was a white-bearded Bishop of Asia Minor who was such a popular fellow that when he died it was believed he came back every December 6th. On his return, he would ride through the streets of Holland on a white horse. All the Dutch kids would put their wooden shoes on the porch and as he rode by, he would put goodies in the shoes of the good kids and leave switches for the kids who were bad. The Dutch called him St. Nicholas Sinterklass, which has now become Santa Claus. Kris Kringle is a variation of the German name for the Christ child, Christkindl. During the Reformation, Kris Kringle became the Protestant gift-bearer, replacing the Catholic St. Nicholas.

The Hanging of Stockings: This is tied to the Dutch tradition of St. Nicholas Sinterklass. It is told that one year, as St. Nicholas was going through his routine of putting things in the children's shoes, he decided to flip his presents into the chimney. In one home some folks had hung their stockings under the fireplace to dry them out and the goodies that were flipped into the chimney landed in the stockings. It was only when he traveled to Scandinavia that he was given a sleigh. Clement Moore, who wrote "Twas the night before Christmas," popularized the reindeer and named them.

Christmas Cards: These began in 1846 when an enterprising man by the name of Sir Henry Cole, who was the owner of a card shop, saw these cards as a way of making a great deal of money. Hallmark and Carleton Cards would not argue with that. The first cards were printed pictures of English drinking scenes.

Christmas Music: Christmas hymns were originally sung in Latin. Because they were sternly theological in nature, there was little joy derived from their words. An Italian named Jacopone da Tordi was the first person known to write popular Christmas songs with warm, tender words. In his songs the Christ child was sweet, Mary gently rocked her boy, and angels sang. This of course is not biblical. Luke reminds us that the angels "said, glory to God in the highest..." There are good theological grounds for arguing that the angels did not sing on the first Christmas night. But the common people loved this different view of Christmas. Soon every country in Europe had joyful songs in their own language. Christmas bells were first used to call worshippers to Christmas services in Campania, Italy, around the year 400.

Twelve Days & Three Men: Twelfth Night, or Epiphany, is the day the Magi arrived and worshipped Jesus, according to one legend. Since the Magi arrived twelve days after Jesus was born, the period between his birth and Epiphany is known as the twelve days of Christmas. According to St. Bebe, an 8th century English historian, there were three Wise Men. The oldest was Melchoir, king of Arabia. He brought the gift of gold. Balthazar, king of Ethiopia, gave frankincense as a gift. Caspar, king of Tarsus, gave myrrh. Forty years later Thomas baptized them all as believers in Christ. Scripture merely says three gifts were presented by Wise Men from the East.

It's all Greek to Me: When people use the abbreviated spelling Xmas for Christmas, they are not replacing Christ with the nondescript letter X. Instead they are following the age-old tradition of using the Greek letter X to represent Christ's name. In Greek the letter X (Chi) represents the first two letters of Christ's name.

English Traditions: King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table were, according to legend, the first in England to celebrate Christmas. Boxing Day in England is celebrated on the day after Christmas. On that day, the village priests used to open the poor box and distribute money to the needy of the village.

Frankly, Christmas is quite a mess. The simplicity of the birth of Christ has literally been lost in a sea of paganism. Should that cause us to stop celebrating his glorious birth? Is it wrong to celebrate Christmas? Should we ban Santa Claus? Bur the tree? Stop buying gifts? Refuse to send Christmas cards? Some Christians are doing these things. But what would that accomplish? How are these people branded by the world? As fanatics perhaps? And what does the world do about fanatics? After they have been gleefully scorned, are they not usually avoided at all cost? Some people seem to have the idea that because the early Christians were martyred they need to find a reason to be persecuted as well. Being labeled a fanatic and subjected to persecution is a noble experience if something can be accomplished for the cause of Christ, if not, it may amount to nothing more than spiritual immaturity or a means of calling attention to oneself.

Should God's people become identified as the Scrooges of Christmas? Some people seem to think so but then those who are Scrooges at Christmas time are usually that way all year long. They look to take the joy out of every occasion. It's as if they have some reason to feel threatened by joy, fun, and happiness. These are the people who have worked hard to tell the world that in order to become a Christian one must have one's funny bone surgically removed.

If anyone has a right to rejoice at Christmas time surely it is the people of God. If the paraphernalia gets in your way, remove some of it. But don't presuppose that you are holier than others because you will have no tree or wreath in your home. And don't pretend that others are less spiritual than you because they will exchange gifts and entertain guests this year. It seems to me that the occasion of the infinite becoming an infant, of God's footsteps coming down to walk in man's footprints demands fanfare, cantatas, and bright lights.

At a time when culture dictates that the people of the world will become more sensitive to one another, we, as the people of God, are not going to have a positive impact on them by launching a campaign to take the fun out of the occasion. We can be most effective by interacting with that culture in such a way as to use the occasion to really worship the King. One of many approaches might be that of spending time with our biological and church families, not in drinking and carousing, but in fellowship and real fun. We can be an example to the community of what is the real meaning of Christmas.

If we really love the Lord Jesus Christ is it not possible to show that love to him, and to the world, at this wonderful time of the year? Are we so insecure in our faith that we need to take away the lights and the tinsel before we can shine for him? Can we not commit ourselves to be in the world, not of the world, but in the world, different, not so much in appearance, as in the intensity of our love and the realness of our joy? This is one scenario where perhaps the Christian ought to relax the war against culture and recognize it rather as an ally with which to wisely negotiate and cooperate. After all Christ did not tell us to retreat from the world but to experience him and help others discover his presence in the world. If we really want to, God's people can outshine the brightest lights in Bermuda this Christmas, not by launching a campaign to remove those lights, but by allowing the light of God's love to shine in our eyes, glow in our hearts, and spring forth in kind deeds to our fellow citizens.

The star of Jesus Christ was the brightest star in the skies of Bethlehem that first Christmas night. Can we accept the challenge to make his light shine through the darkness, paganism, and sin in our country? Remember, the light will not be seen in the sky this Christmas. God has reduced himself to human agents. You and I must make the light of his love shine on our faces and in all we do for others this Christmas season. How bright is the light in your life?