Yesterday was Christmas. All around the world people took time out of their regularly scheduled lives and celebrated this festival. Not everyone calls it the same name, but it is a world day of celebration. Here is the United States everything stops. Businesses close, and people gather together to spend time feasting. Food and Drink, and often gift giving is had.
But yesterday, as people were celebrating in their homes with family, my daughter and I drove to the airport to pick up my brother, his wife, and my nephew. There was a small snow storm and the roads were not plowed, after all it was Christmas morning. As we drove, we talked about what an inconvenience it was to us that the roads were not plowed. Funny how our view of Christmas had changed so much over the years.
It is hard for our friends and family to truly understand why we have nothing to do with Christmas. For our extended family, Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, Our Savior. So, it is really hard for them to understand why we would not do that.
Today a friend posted on Facebook: “I’m thankful that I grew up in a secular home in which no religious meaning whatsoever was attached to Christmas. It was treated as a “winter festival of kindness and good cheer”, which is what it is to me even to this day.”
This was a very helpful comment to me. It made me realize exactly how to explain to others why Christmas is NOT a day I choose to “set apart.”
My oldest son started working at Wal Mart this year. Since Thanksgiving, he has worked at the store selling things to people getting ready for Christmas. Often he would come home and tell me how rude, stressed, and frustrated many of the buyers were. The people would be grumbling and complaining as they shopped for this special day. I have to tell you I had forgot about the madness of shopping for Christmas. Funny thing is I used to love doing “black Friday” with my mom and sisters, or my mother in law and sister in law. I loved going with them and spending the day together. But as we slowly drifted away from the gift giving of Christmas, it seemed sort of sad to go out and see all the people going crazy over material items. So, I had forgotten that people still do that. I have no problem with bargain shopping or gift giving. I do have a problem with rude, mean, and selfish behavior. And I did not like seeing that in myself or my children. So, that has been such a blessing of peace in our home. The greed and selfishness that is attached to Christmas is hard to see when you are in the midst of it. But now, since we have been outside of it a few years now, it is easy to look back and see we were so selfish and greedy.
But this is NOT the only reason we let go of Christmas.
I was taught that Christmas was always about Christ, and it used to be all about Christ with our children. At least, we thought it was. But when we found out that it wasn’t even about Christ at all, and never was, it sort of rocked our world.
When we first learned that Christmas wasn’t really about Christ, we said, “well it is to us”. But after a while it just couldn’t be true.
You see, we knew.
We knew that Christ was NOT born on December 25th.
We knew that Christmas was NOT a day for celebrating Christ.
For a few years we thought, like my friend, that we could just make it about family and gatherings. But you see even our family and friends that don’t celebrate Christmas as A HOLY DAY, see it as a day to remember Christ birth. So, when we would say we are going to grandma’s for Christmas, everyone, even secular people, would hear we are going to celebrate Christ’s birth. Especially, since, we are indeed, religious people. Everyone who knows us, knows we are very outspoken about our Christian faith. So, it just didn’t sit right with us anymore to pretend we were ok with celebrating Christmas.
The TRUTH is simple. Yehovah God wants us to celebrate and worship Him ONLY.
He wants us to do it in the WAYS He says.
He wants us NEVER TO WORSHIP HIM LIKE THE PAGANS WORSHIP THEIR GODS.
No matter how we tried to pretend, the truth is the catholic church adopted Christmas from false pagan religions.
CHRISTMAS IS NOT IN THE BIBLE. IT IS NOT the Day of Christ’s birth.
Once we knew the truth, we just could not knowingly disobey.
The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
Deuteronomy 29:29
But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
Luke 12:48
You must not worship the Lord your God in their way.
Deuteronomy 12:4
“Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. 3 For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. 4 They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.
Jeremiah 10:2-4
There are more. But as you can see, we truly had no choice but to let go of Christmas. Yehovah God is going to hold us accountable for what we know and understand.
Maybe you don’t know the truth about Christmas. If you don’t here is a short article that will help you get started on finding its true roots. https://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm
The sad truth is the Catholic church proudly admits that they took a pagan holiday, and made it a Christian holiday to make life easier for people to join the church. For us, we can not use the saying, “that’s not what it means to me,” anymore.
It doesn’t matter what it means to me, it matters what it means to God.
As for me and my house we serve Yehovah GOD, not man.
So, Christmas to us is just a day. Our hope is that more will chose to celebrate the fall feasts to honor and obey God’s command to set apart His holiday of Sukkot. It would be so awesome and wonderful if all God’s children closed their businesses, and took a day off to truly honor and obey Yehovah God, and celebrate Him, His Son, and His Second coming.
May you keep learning and growing in Truth. Keep studying and growing.
I struggle with this greatly. I don’t want our family to celebrate Christmas. However, my husband does not agree. We no longer put up a tree and we buy minimal gifts for family (even that makes my heart ache). The grandparents buy tons of gifts and it overwhelms me- I’ve tried so many nice ways to tell them not too but no use. I don’t see it as a happy balance, I see it as wrong. However, it can’t be done away with if my husband does not agree. Advice???
Katie has written:
The truth is your husband is indeed head of your home. So, start by praying daily that he will seek the things of Yehovah and His Ways. Then believe that God will indeed guide him and show him what is best. Don’t nag or complain. If there is anything you truly can’t in good conscious participate in let your husband know in a loving way, and do not make a big display of not doing it. When we first realized Christmas was not about ok, it took us many years to slowly let go of all of it. Our families took it hard the year we finally decided to no longer even attend family Christmas events. But they now many years later respect our convictions and honor our choice. Be patient. In Jeremiah chapter ten it tells us to not do as the pagans do, but it also reminds us that these things have no power over us.
May Yehovah God give you peace and bless you as you seek to walk in His Ways.
Shalom
We are Bible believing, scripture only people. We love to learn about the Hebrew roots of our faith. We believe it is important to not add or subtract from the Divine Word of God. The compiled scriptures that agree with one another and have no contradiction is the 66 books of what is commonly referred to as the Christian Bible, or the Holy Bible.
These writings were originally written by men inspired by God. They were written in the language of the writers and readers of the original documents. Many of the original documents have been lost, but God’s Word is eternal and remains. Therefore, it is important to us to study, learn, and consider the culture, history, and language of the original writers of the scriptures.
In our studies we have learned that the true name of God is Yehovah, and His son, our Messiah, is named Yeshua. Therefore, as you read our posts we will use the Hebrew names of God and our Messiah.
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We are Bible believing, scripture only people. We love to learn about the Hebrew roots of our faith. We believe it is important to not add or subtract from the Divine Word of God. The compiled scriptures that agree with one another and have no contradiction is the 66 books of what is commonly referred to as the Christian Bible, or the Holy Bible.
Thank you
I struggle with this greatly. I don’t want our family to celebrate Christmas. However, my husband does not agree. We no longer put up a tree and we buy minimal gifts for family (even that makes my heart ache). The grandparents buy tons of gifts and it overwhelms me- I’ve tried so many nice ways to tell them not too but no use. I don’t see it as a happy balance, I see it as wrong. However, it can’t be done away with if my husband does not agree. Advice???
The truth is your husband is indeed head of your home. So, start by praying daily that he will seek the things of Yehovah and His Ways. Then believe that God will indeed guide him and show him what is best. Don’t nag or complain. If there is anything you truly can’t in good conscious participate in let your husband know in a loving way, and do not make a big display of not doing it. When we first realized Christmas was not about ok, it took us many years to slowly let go of all of it. Our families took it hard the year we finally decided to no longer even attend family Christmas events. But they now many years later respect our convictions and honor our choice. Be patient. In Jeremiah chapter ten it tells us to not do as the pagans do, but it also reminds us that these things have no power over us.
May Yehovah God give you peace and bless you as you seek to walk in His Ways.
Shalom