Big Bubba - The Holidays Threads Merged

[iSong6:3]

No celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, sent to save the sinner from the pit of hell? :faint

:agree I'm the opposite of the OP, I guess. I only started celebrating the birth of Jesus in the last couple years. It's a freedom I have and I love it!!

"Fall on your knees, O hear the angels' voices, O night divine, the night when Christ was born..." :yeah :sob with joy

[Heffer Wolfe]

I love Christmas! It's one of the best things to happen every year too. :thumb

[romans224]

I have me kids in the early morning then they go to thier mom's so I will be alone on Christmas. Not looking forward to it.

[MidnightCry]

I have me kids in the early morning then they go to thier mom's so I will be alone on Christmas. Not looking forward to it.

You could see if there's a volunteer opportunity for you in the afternoon . . . delivering meals to housebound seniors? Soup kitchen? It will FILL your heart.

[SldOrange91]

do you mean "celebrating" the commercialized christmas?

or celebrating the birth of christ?

because we should always celebrate the birth of christ< but the commercialized christmas has strayed away from the true meaning

[Silas]

Well... I guess that's a negative :lol2

No I don't celebrate Christmas. I also don't judge anyone that does. I see Chrsitmas as a creation of the RCC mixed with ancient paganism and comercialized propaganda. It makes me sad to see thing like that mixed with the good news.

On the other hand I am happy Jesus was born, but I am more eager to celebrate his ressurection than his birth because he is still alive. Which by the way has much more significance to the world and eternity. Yes I know without the birth there would be no ressurection but....

I have a 6 year old girl, four year old boy, and a 1 year old girl. The older two are fine with not celebrating Christmas. They could care less about getting presents. They are more excited about the return if Jesus.

[SaberTruth]

I await the day when we celebrate Jesus' birth when it most likely happened: the fall, and that we never let it become commercialized.

Jack Kelly had an article (http://gracethrufaith.com/selah/holidays-and-holy-days/tis-the-season-2008/) about it too.

I've always told my kids that santa was a fun story and that our **culture** made it a day of exchanging gifts. I haven't yet made a complete break from this just out of consideration of relatives, but we do downplay the greed part.

[Beagler]

Let me preface my comments by saying that I am not a Jehovah's Witness.

I quit celebrating Christmas several years ago and here are my reasons why:

The rampant materialism that goes along with this "Season". This, even among my brothers and sisters in Christ (and myself included), was literally sickening to me and started me thinking radical thoughts.

Christ Mass. Why should a protestant like myself observe a Catholic holy day? Not Catholic bashing here. I don't celebrate any of their other days, so why this one?

Why December 25th? We don't know the day of Jesus' birth, and quite frankly, it doesn't matter. So why pick a day that is a special day for the heathens that celebrate the Winter solstice?

The absurdity of "exchanging" gifts. Why go to all the hassle of buying gifts that others most likely don't want or need, and them return the favor for me? So that we can enjoy fellowship in the return line the day after Christmas?

Don't get me wrong. I love to give gifts, but I believe there are another 364 days throughout the year when I can do so. Why do it on a day that it is more or less demanded of me?

Where did this notion of "exchanging" gifts come from anyway? The Wise Men? They were bringing gifts (quite specific and prophetic by the way) to their new King as was right a proper to do so. Where in the Bible are we instructed to give gifts to one another? The only place I know of where people give gifts to each other is in Revelation chapter 11. Here the followers of the Anti-Christ send gifts to one another to celebrate the fact that God's witnesses have been killed.

Okay. Enough crazy ranting from this old Beagler.

Is there anyone else that doesn't celebrate December 25th?

Anyone....anyone.

:fear

[Silas]

some true facts from the article



1700 years ago the Romans solved this problem by re-making former pagan Holy Days into Christian ones. That’s how we got Christmas and Easter in the first place. Of course they were only trying to replace one religion with another. Today we’re trying to recognize all religions. See the problem?...

we could stop teaching our kids pagan fertility rites instead of the wonder of the Lord’s resurrection at Easter...

And as for Easter, let’s call it by its real name, Resurrection Morning, and celebrate it on the Sunday morning after Passover when He actually rose from the grave....

Researching the origin of the two most important Holy Days in Christianity, you’ll find that right from the beginning the motivation had more to do with profit than piety. There were already pagan festivals in place on these dates ...

As for Easter, remember the word comes from Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of fertility. That’s how the rabbit and colored eggs got included. They’re symbols of fertility. Jesus rose from the grave on the Sunday morning after Passover. It’s the Jewish Feast of Firstfruits, and it’s the day He became our Redeemer, conquering death to prove that all our sins had been forgiven. That’s why He’s called the Firstfruits of those who’ve fallen asleep (died). (1 Cor. 15:20) Let’s get the pagan stuff out of our celebration of His great victory...

He makes some good points but the pagan rituals and sin go a lot deeper and are far worse than what he mentions. I know most peole will say that was then and they are not celebrating those things. That is fine. I don't presume to judge my brother. I have my own convictions but if I ignore those convictions then it beceoms my sin.

Romans 14.

[SaberTruth]

Beagler,

I tried such reasoning on my relatives one year, and it went over like the proverbial lead balloon. I only participate to keep family peace now. I figure that since we are never told to even celebrate Jesus' birth legitimately, but on the other hand that it was never forbidden, that it really is one of those Romans 14 things as Silas mentioned (good point there about properly dealing with convictions). And if my personal conviction (not celebrating, at least not at winter solstice) would "cause my brother or sister to stumble" (or at least ruin all their fun), then I won't impose my personal views on them.

But at home, with my own family, we have been gradually moving toward major gift giving at a person's birthday and not much at Christmas. Eventually (for not even God always just dumps immediate change on people), I hope to make Christmas a time to only give to the needy.