The Christmas holiday is a favorite for so many. I love visiting the mall and smelling the cinnamon potpourri and seeing the beautifully lit wreaths. I enjoy hearing the instrumental melodies declaring the birth of our Savior, but sadly no words are sung out of concern for “offending” others. I love the tastes of the season; pumpkin pie, gingerbread lattes, eggnog…
While there are so many things that make this time of year special, we ought not to forget what Christmas should really be about for a Christian. If you’ve read some of my other blogs (please visit the links at the bottom of this blog) you will know that most of the holiday traditions derive from paganism. The intent of the Roman Catholic Church centuries ago was to use pagan traditions to spread the message of our Savior. By taking people’s pagan beliefs and replacing their deities and traditions with more of a Christian focus, they had hoped people would be won over to the Church. Unfortunately, there seems to be a lot of entwining today of paganism in the Christian churches as a result. It’s important for us as Christians to seek God in His word so we can better discern what traditions we should or should not involve ourselves in.
The Christmas tree, to my knowledge has not been a part of Christian tradition very long. Christians today use the tree and other Christmas décor to symbolize:
- Christ. Using and evergreen Christmas tree is represent of Christ and His life since He continues to live much like an evergreen remains green throughout the seasons.
- Cross. The Christmas tree is sometimes used to represent the cross that Jesus died on for our sins.
- Gifts. Just as the wise men gave gifts to Christ, we lay gifts at the bottom of the tree to represent this. We exchange gifts with each other just as Christ gave all of us the ultimate gift of everlasting life should we accept it.
- Eternity. A wreath being circular represents God who has no beginning and no end.
- Stories. For example the candy cane; aside from looking like an upside-down “J” for “Jesus”, it can be used to represent the shepherd’s staff as Christ is the “Good Shepherd”. The hardness of the cane has been used to represent Christ being our rock. The white representing the purity of Christ and the virgin birth of his mother Mary. The red stripes are used to represent the blood that was shed for us that, “by His stripes we were healed.” (Isaiah 53:5)
There are of course many other traditions that I haven’t mentioned. I hope as you celebrate the holiday this year, you don’t let the commercialism of Christmas supersede the glorification of our Savior. It truly should be Christmas every day in the sense of glorifying God. I believe too we should look at our secular world and prayerfully seek opportunities to reach others with the message of Christ’s love and salvation.
Please view my other blogs related to this topic:
The Roots of Christmas Traditions
Do You Serve Religion or Christ?