Christmas Traditions

Every family has its own traditions and customs for celebrating Christmas. I can vividly recall the institutions of my childhood. I remember adorning our house with numerous lights and decorations. It was always a joyful and extremely frustrating task (those of you who have experience with this understand). Our artificial tree was always erected in the living room window, decorated with red lights and a diverse assortment of mismatched ornaments. Our childhood excitement grew exponentially as the mountain of colorfully wrapped gifts gradually inundated the room. Christmas Eve was always spent at my maternal grandparents’ house where we enjoyed cheese dip, pigs-in-a-blanket with burnt bottoms, and sherbert punch.

The climax of my childhood celebration was Christmas Day. My sister and I would awake to find that Santa had visited the night before. My parents and my granddad would merrily watch as we ravaged the packaging of our presents. Later that day we had a family dinner which always included chicken and dumplins, a vat of dressing and, of coarse, buttermilk pies. After the inevitable impromptu nap for the patriarchs, the present opening maylay began. In the end, hundreds of dollars of toys, electronics, and socks lay scattered amongst the heaps of wrapping paper and boxes. It was a joyful time. Our celebration wasn’t entirely secular. We always attended church and we read the Christmas story in the Bible. Our faith was inseparably intermingled into our decorations and traditions.

As I now embark upon Christmas with my own young family, I am presented with the arduous task of beginning our own family traditions. My goal is to have a joyful celebration that we can happily anticipate. I want our traditions to be fun and meaningful. At the same time, I want to honor and glorify the Lord. After all, He is the entire basis for the holiday.

So how can we celebrate Christmas to God’s glory? Are the traditions of my youth contrary to this notion? I have heard many a sermon blasting those traditions as worldly and unchristian. And they are correct, for the most part. Christ is being systematically removed from Christmas. Commercialism and materialism have hijacked Christmas. The secular world’s treatment of this holiday is sinister and unrighteous, but not unexpected.

The problem comes when we (the Church) allow these distractions to distort our traditions of Christmas. As Christians, we are called to live righteous lives within our culture. Unlike the Jews of the OT, we are not called to be a distinct ethnic group. We are free to celebrate with American (or Mexican or German or Icelandic…) customs and traditions as long as those practices are done in faith and in accordance with Scripture.

The difficulty in this is that there are no clear cut, black and white Biblical commands concerning Christmas celebration. Christmas is not a sacrament or a precedent, it is a human ordained holiday. This does not insinuate that it is innately unrighteous or ungodly. It simply means that it is not spelled out in Scripture and must therefore be inferred from Biblical principals rather than simple proof texts. In other words, it requires moral reasoning based on scriptural criteria.

For example, decorations such as Christmas trees, lights, wreathes, bows, nativities, tinsel, and candles are neutral (nonmoral) in and of themselves. They are simply external expressions which have the potential for either praise or diversion. Similarly, gift giving can be a means to love others and esteem them as more important, or it can be conforming to the materialistic gluttony that is so ever present in our society. It comes down to a heart issue. Even the strictest legalist would not object to spending time with family and loved ones. Yet even this has no direct Biblical warrant (in regard to Christmas celebrations. In the end, the question of Christimas celebrations and traditions boils down to faith and personal conviction. It might be different for different families, and it may change over time.

With this in mind, there are two foundational Biblical principals in which I will use as a guide as I shape the traditions of my family.

1. Love the Lord God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength and love my neighbor as myself.

2. Whether I eat chicken & dumplins or drink sherbert punch or decorate with lights or give gifts to my family or abstain from it all, I will do everything in faith and to the glory of God.

Merry Christmas,

DJ