The Pros & Cons Of The Christmas Season

[Buff Scott Jr.]

The Pros & The Cons of The
Christmas Season

Pros​

It is fascinating how our God manages history. A historian in the first century would have thought it strange that God selected a young homespun virgin to bear and give birth to His Son.

Also odd is that God would choose a common carpenter to be Mary’s husband. After all, carpenters in that day were a “dime-a-dozen.” Even Noah, a “middle-class,” common inhabitant of his country, a man who walked with God, was chosen and taught how to be a skilled carpenter when the Lord instructed him to build a “Titanic” vessel. Our Lord has most always favored the ordinary, the obscure.

Of all the Positive factors surrounding the Christmas Season, millions of people, both regenerate and unregenerate, saved and unsaved, are pointed upward and toward a Savior by the name of Jesus Christ. His name is revered and spoken more often this time of the year than any other time. If receptive hearts are to be influenced by heaven’s glories, the proclamation of His Name this time of the year will play a major role.

Another Pro is that this is a beautiful time of the year for families to reunite and express their loyalty to and love for each other. It is a season of sharing and giving—a time to cheer, a time to enjoy God’s bounties, a time to grow stronger, a time to create a closer relationship with each other and with our Creator, and a time for recommitment. The Christmas season gives us a majestic and favorable time to take a deep breath and refresh ourselves, relax, and do a self-evaluation in advance of the upcoming New Year and how we are going to fit into it.​

Cons ​

“The precise origin of assigning December 25 as the birth date of Jesus is unclear. The New Testament provides no clues in this regard. December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus, Christian Historian, in 221 A.D. and later became the universally-accepted date.”— https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas. Consequently, the Scriptures do not give us the Birthdate of our Lord. That He was born, Yes; that He is alive, Yes; That He saves and forgives, most definitely!

It might be wise to note that the hustle and bustle this season of the year are almost enough to enact depression—“hurry, do this, snap it up, do that! Let’s go, we’re going to be late; we need to get there before someone else gets it!” The mad rush never ends. Stress is often seen on the faces of many. There’s hardly any room for quiet time, periods of relaxation, and time to reflect. It is all consumed in the traditional scramble to accumulate even more.

As I view it, the worst Negative is spend, spend, spend, buy, buy, buy. It seems like everyone is striving to outspend others. Credit Cards are maxed out and most probably won’t be paid off until next Christmas season—or later.

Profiteers and “Wall Street Vendors” are greedy for more and more—and still more. I offer no objections to businesses making an adequate profit from their efforts to influence consumers to purchase their products. But when greed in any business conquers common sense, ethics are violated. I like what the apostle Peter wrote, “They have hearts trained in greed” [I Peter 2:14].

Another Negative that bothers me deeply is that the benevolent acts seen this time of the year are largely absent the remainder of the year. Why are we not benevolent year-round? Why do we seem to want to help the homeless and hungry and jobless during this season but drop them when the season ends? It appears that being humane and good and kind and helpful to others have evolved into a once-a-year experience. Pardon me, but I see a lot of inconsistencies here. Yet in spite of the Negatives...
​

I wish all of you a Happy, Delightful, and
Pleasant Holiday Season​

 

[Josheb]

The Pros & The Cons of The
Christmas Season

Pros​

It is fascinating how our God manages history. A historian in the first century would have thought it strange that God selected a young homespun virgin to bear and give birth to His Son.

Also odd is that God would choose a common carpenter to be Mary’s husband. After all, carpenters in that day were a “dime-a-dozen.” Even Noah, a “middle-class,” common inhabitant of his country, a man who walked with God, was chosen and taught how to be a skilled carpenter when the Lord instructed him to build a “Titanic” vessel. Our Lord has most always favored the ordinary, the obscure.

Of all the Positive factors surrounding the Christmas Season, millions of people, both regenerate and unregenerate, saved and unsaved, are pointed upward and toward a Savior by the name of Jesus Christ. His name is revered and spoken more often this time of the year than any other time. If receptive hearts are to be influenced by heaven’s glories, the proclamation of His Name this time of the year will play a major role.

Another Pro is that this is a beautiful time of the year for families to reunite and express their loyalty to and love for each other. It is a season of sharing and giving—a time to cheer, a time to enjoy God’s bounties, a time to grow stronger, a time to create a closer relationship with each other and with our Creator, and a time for recommitment. The Christmas season gives us a majestic and favorable time to take a deep breath and refresh ourselves, relax, and do a self-evaluation in advance of the upcoming New Year and how we are going to fit into it.​

Cons ​

“The precise origin of assigning December 25 as the birth date of Jesus is unclear. The New Testament provides no clues in this regard. December 25 was first identified as the date of Jesus’ birth by Sextus Julius Africanus, Christian Historian, in 221 A.D. and later became the universally-accepted date.”— https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas. Consequently, the Scriptures do not give us the Birthdate of our Lord. That He was born, Yes; that He is alive, Yes; That He saves and forgives, most definitely!

It might be wise to note that the hustle and bustle this season of the year are almost enough to enact depression—“hurry, do this, snap it up, do that! Let’s go, we’re going to be late; we need to get there before someone else gets it!” The mad rush never ends. Stress is often seen on the faces of many. There’s hardly any room for quiet time, periods of relaxation, and time to reflect. It is all consumed in the traditional scramble to accumulate even more.

As I view it, the worst Negative is spend, spend, spend, buy, buy, buy. It seems like everyone is striving to outspend others. Credit Cards are maxed out and most probably won’t be paid off until next Christmas season—or later.

Profiteers and “Wall Street Vendors” are greedy for more and more—and still more. I offer no objections to businesses making an adequate profit from their efforts to influence consumers to purchase their products. But when greed in any business conquers common sense, ethics are violated. I like what the apostle Peter wrote, “They have hearts trained in greed” [I Peter 2:14].

Another Negative that bothers me deeply is that the benevolent acts seen this time of the year are largely absent the remainder of the year. Why are we not benevolent year-round? Why do we seem to want to help the homeless and hungry and jobless during this season but drop them when the season ends? It appears that being humane and good and kind and helpful to others have evolved into a once-a-year experience. Pardon me, but I see a lot of inconsistencies here. Yet in spite of the Negatives...
​

I wish all of you a Happy, Delightful, and
Pleasant Holiday Season​

Good Morning @Buff Scott Jr.,

Wonderful op. I am encouraged to read an implicit acceptance of the "Christmas season," since there was no such season in the New Testament and I know how much you like to keep Church practices looking like the early Church. Another positive is that Christmas is non-sectarian. Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Christ, providing a witness to all. Church attendance explodes one Sunday and hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) who may or may not have heard the gospel preached have opportunity to do so. The season also provides an opportunity for those in Christ's body to assert the sovereignty of Christ over its competitors (religious and non-religious). This is, after all, how we got to having a Christmas season . The season is also an opportunity for believers to contemplate the significance of Christ's birth and renew our willingness and effort at collaborating with the Spirit both personally and corporately in practical ways, observable by others and fruit-bearing in others' lives. I used to take this opportunity to ask my children and clients to reflect upon the previous years progress and set goals for the next twelve months. The season serves as a milestone, or a temporal marker during which exhortations such as Psalm 139:23 may be reapplied. Because this is a birthday celebration and our Savior is not dead, we can bring gifts to him in accordance with the gifts we've received.

The chief negative is how the season has eroded from a Christmas season into a holiday season, especially since the "holiday" is increasingly not holy. In the effort to accommodate Hannukah, Rajab, Pancha Ganapati, and Capitalism the net result among most is the secularization of what is supposed to be holy, the "holi" in the holiday. Because most of us live in a pluralistic society we could/should see the season as an opportunity to espouse and practice the holy nature of the holy days. Perhaps even lovingly present the birth of Christ as the best possible alternative all the religious alternatives surrounding the winter solstice. The date we celebrate Jesus' birth is not a con, imo, because the date bears witness to the sovereignty of God due to the fact the gospel usurped every competing worldview it encountered and appropriated it for Christ. This is cause for more celebration, not consternation. Perhaps one day God will see fit to use the Menorah, the crescent, the sickle and hammer, and other icons to bear witness to Christ. This is our mission. It is how the date, the tree, caroling, and other artifices of prior pagan practice became owned by and for the glory of Christ. This also provides an opportunity for the mature and better learned to address legalisms taught and learned by the less insightful: no Christian in the 21st century is worshiping a tree when they celebrate the birth of the Messiah. We are wheat planted among weeds. God saw fit to have the Gardener enter as a child and demonstrate life as wheat as an example before defeating the disease that made weeds possible. No garden thrives without a gardener to maintain it. Our Gardener is no longer a child. It is good and potentially life changing to celebrate his birth when that is his achievement and sovereignty are remembered.


Blessed and merry Christmas season to you, too, Buff

 

[Josheb]

HERE are a few articles on Christmas (and other topics) from American Vision.

 

[atpollard]

(Life once centered on the Church year round) …

Here is a selection of the festivals and feast days celebrated in the Middle Ages:

January​

The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ​

Then, as now, 1 January was regarded as New Year’s Day, although the year date (up to 1752) did not change until 25 March.

The Octave of Epiphany​

An eight-day celebration (6–13 January) of Christ’s baptism and the arrival of the Magi bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

February​

Candlemas​

This festival (2 February) honoured the churching of the Virgin Mary 40 days after Christ’s birth and, from at least the 10th century, was a major feast day requiring church attendance. Each parishioner – adults and children – came to church bringing a candle, where they would hear mass and make a monetary offering. The candles became the perquisite of the parish clergyman.

March/April​

Lent​

The date of Easter – as it does now – varied from year to year. Linked to the first new moon of spring, the festival could fall at any point between 22 March and 25 April. Easter was preceded by Lent, a period of six weeks beginning on Ash Wednesday. This was a penitential day; ashes would be blessed and then painted on the foreheads of the clergy and laity in the shape of a cross. During Lent a large curtain, known as the Lenten veil, screened the high altar in the chancel from view and all the images in the church were veiled, too. Adults were also required to abstain from animal products other than fish, and to make their confession in church.

Holy Week and Easter​

The last week of Lent began with Palm Sunday, a day of celebration. It was a week full of elaborate ceremonies. After mass on Maundy Thursday, the altars were stripped of coverings and ornaments. The next day, Good Friday, was a day of mourning on which the story of Christ’s passion was read from the Gospel of John. The laity would perform the ritual of ‘creeping to the cross’, crawling or crossing the floor on their knees to kiss the cross. Easter Day required all adult parishioners to receive communion in the form of a consecrated wafer and a sip of unconsecrated wine.

Hocktide​

This folk custom of Hocktide – held on the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter – saw men and women take turns to capture each other. The money each paid for their release was given for the upkeep of the parish church.

Rogationtide​

The three-day celebration of Rogationtide – each day representing one of the three ages of the world – took place six weeks after Easter, with long processions led by a straw-stuffed dragon as a representation of the Devil. On the third day, the dragon had the straw removed from its tail so that it hung limp, and was relegated to the back of the procession. The Devil had been defeated and Christ was now triumphant.

May/June​

Pentecost (Whit Sunday) Seven days after Rogation week, this was the third great festival of the Church year. People were required to come to church to offer their ‘smoke farthings’ – the amount required from every house with a hearth. The following week, the money was sent to the local cathedral in a procession of lay people; the various parish processions often wrangled over who came in front of whom, sometimes leading to fights.

Corpus Christi​

Celebrated on the second Thursday after Pentecost, this feast honoured the communion bread and wine, which were believed to become Christ’s blood and body. A public procession displayed the consecrated elements to the world.

July/August​

2nd July​

The Visitation of the Virgin to her cousin Elizabeth

26th July​

The Feast of Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin

1st August​

The Feast of Saint Peter (Lammas Day)

6th August​

The Transfiguration of Jesus

September​

Michaelmas Day​

The feast of Saint Michael the Archangel was celebrated on 29 September. As summer ended and winter loomed, this and some other Christian festivals sought to deflect the ill effects of the darkness to come. Michael is especially associated with victory over the powers of evil.

October/November​

5th Oct​

The Feast of Saint Raphael

All Saints Day​

Celebrated on 1 November, this was a major feast day, as was All Souls the next day. On All Saints Eve, vigils were kept in churches and church bells rang through the night on behalf of the souls in Purgatory.

23rd & 25th Nov​

According to a proclamation of Henry VIII in 1541, the feasts of Saint Clement (23 November) and Saint Katharine (25 November) saw children dress as “counterfeit priests, bishops and women, and so led with songs and dances from house to house, blessing the people and gathering of money.”

December​

Saint Nicholas Day​

This day (6 December) saw the ceremony of the boy bishop, a custom that was often repeated on Holy Innocents’ Day (28 December). In a reversal of roles, a boy of the parish would act as bishop (with other boys serving as his clergy or servants) for 24 hours, during which he would preside over the liturgy and bless those in church. Afterwards, the boys would tour the local area asking for food and money.

Advent​

The season of Advent began with Advent Sunday, which could fall between 27 November and 3 December, and was a solemn period. The Book of Isaiah, with its prophecies of Christ’s birth, would be read at the morning service and fasting was recommended. Marriages were forbidden, as with Lent and Rogationtide.

Christmas​

This was the last of the three great feasts of the year (with Easter and Pentecost). Three masses could be celebrated, beginning at midnight, and churches could be decorated with holly and ivy or extra candles. The three days after Christmas (those of Saint Stephen, Saint John the Evangelist and the Holy Innocents) were also major festivals. Wealthy households would take the period between Christmas and Epiphany (6 January) as a holiday, exchanging gifts on 1 January, New Year’s Day, rather than at Christmas.

[LINK to source]

 

[Buff Scott Jr.]

Good Morning @Buff Scott Jr.,

Wonderful op. I am encouraged to read an implicit acceptance of the "Christmas season," since there was no such season in the New Testament and I know how much you like to keep Church practices looking like the early Church. Another positive is that Christmas is non-sectarian. Christians around the world celebrate the birth of Christ, providing a witness to all. Church attendance explodes one Sunday and hundreds of thousands (maybe millions) who may or may not have heard the gospel preached have opportunity to do so. The season also provides an opportunity for those in Christ's body to assert the sovereignty of Christ over its competitors (religious and non-religious). This is, after all, how we got to having a Christmas season . The season is also an opportunity for believers to contemplate the significance of Christ's birth and renew our willingness and effort at collaborating with the Spirit both personally and corporately in practical ways, observable by others and fruit-bearing in others' lives. I used to take this opportunity to ask my children and clients to reflect upon the previous years progress and set goals for the next twelve months. The season serves as a milestone, or a temporal marker during which exhortations such as Psalm 139:23 may be reapplied. Because this is a birthday celebration and our Savior is not dead, we can bring gifts to him in accordance with the gifts we've received.

The chief negative is how the season has eroded from a Christmas season into a holiday season, especially since the "holiday" is increasingly not holy. In the effort to accommodate Hannukah, Rajab, Pancha Ganapati, and Capitalism the net result among most is the secularization of what is supposed to be holy, the "holi" in the holiday. Because most of us live in a pluralistic society we could/should see the season as an opportunity to espouse and practice the holy nature of the holy days. Perhaps even lovingly present the birth of Christ as the best possible alternative all the religious alternatives surrounding the winter solstice. The date we celebrate Jesus' birth is not a con, imo, because the date bears witness to the sovereignty of God due to the fact the gospel usurped every competing worldview it encountered and appropriated it for Christ. This is cause for more celebration, not consternation. Perhaps one day God will see fit to use the Menorah, the crescent, the sickle and hammer, and other icons to bear witness to Christ. This is our mission. It is how the date, the tree, caroling, and other artifices of prior pagan practice became owned by and for the glory of Christ. This also provides an opportunity for the mature and better learned to address legalisms taught and learned by the less insightful: no Christian in the 21st century is worshiping a tree when they celebrate the birth of the Messiah. We are wheat planted among weeds. God saw fit to have the Gardener enter as a child and demonstrate life as wheat as an example before defeating the disease that made weeds possible. No garden thrives without a gardener to maintain it. Our Gardener is no longer a child. It is good and potentially life changing to celebrate his birth when that is his achievement and sovereignty are remembered.


Blessed and merry Christmas season to you, too, Buff

Very well written, and very well expressed, my brother. Praise God! Have a cheerful Holiday Season.​

 

[Buff Scott Jr.]

(Life once centered on the Church year round) …

Here is a selection of the festivals and feast days celebrated in the Middle Ages:

January​

The Feast of the Circumcision of Christ​

Then, as now, 1 January was regarded as New Year’s Day, although the year date (up to 1752) did not change until 25 March.

The Octave of Epiphany​

An eight-day celebration (6–13 January) of Christ’s baptism and the arrival of the Magi bearing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

February​

Candlemas​

This festival (2 February) honoured the churching of the Virgin Mary 40 days after Christ’s birth and, from at least the 10th century, was a major feast day requiring church attendance. Each parishioner – adults and children – came to church bringing a candle, where they would hear mass and make a monetary offering. The candles became the perquisite of the parish clergyman.

March/April​

Lent​

The date of Easter – as it does now – varied from year to year. Linked to the first new moon of spring, the festival could fall at any point between 22 March and 25 April. Easter was preceded by Lent, a period of six weeks beginning on Ash Wednesday. This was a penitential day; ashes would be blessed and then painted on the foreheads of the clergy and laity in the shape of a cross. During Lent a large curtain, known as the Lenten veil, screened the high altar in the chancel from view and all the images in the church were veiled, too. Adults were also required to abstain from animal products other than fish, and to make their confession in church.

Holy Week and Easter​

The last week of Lent began with Palm Sunday, a day of celebration. It was a week full of elaborate ceremonies. After mass on Maundy Thursday, the altars were stripped of coverings and ornaments. The next day, Good Friday, was a day of mourning on which the story of Christ’s passion was read from the Gospel of John. The laity would perform the ritual of ‘creeping to the cross’, crawling or crossing the floor on their knees to kiss the cross. Easter Day required all adult parishioners to receive communion in the form of a consecrated wafer and a sip of unconsecrated wine.

Hocktide​

This folk custom of Hocktide – held on the second Monday and Tuesday after Easter – saw men and women take turns to capture each other. The money each paid for their release was given for the upkeep of the parish church.

Rogationtide​

The three-day celebration of Rogationtide – each day representing one of the three ages of the world – took place six weeks after Easter, with long processions led by a straw-stuffed dragon as a representation of the Devil. On the third day, the dragon had the straw removed from its tail so that it hung limp, and was relegated to the back of the procession. The Devil had been defeated and Christ was now triumphant.

May/June​

Pentecost (Whit Sunday) Seven days after Rogation week, this was the third great festival of the Church year. People were required to come to church to offer their ‘smoke farthings’ – the amount required from every house with a hearth. The following week, the money was sent to the local cathedral in a procession of lay people; the various parish processions often wrangled over who came in front of whom, sometimes leading to fights.

Corpus Christi​

Celebrated on the second Thursday after Pentecost, this feast honoured the communion bread and wine, which were believed to become Christ’s blood and body. A public procession displayed the consecrated elements to the world.

July/August​

2nd July​

The Visitation of the Virgin to her cousin Elizabeth

26th July​

The Feast of Saint Anne, mother of the Virgin

1st August​

The Feast of Saint Peter (Lammas Day)

6th August​

The Transfiguration of Jesus

September​

Michaelmas Day​

The feast of Saint Michael the Archangel was celebrated on 29 September. As summer ended and winter loomed, this and some other Christian festivals sought to deflect the ill effects of the darkness to come. Michael is especially associated with victory over the powers of evil.

October/November​

5th Oct​

The Feast of Saint Raphael

All Saints Day​

Celebrated on 1 November, this was a major feast day, as was All Souls the next day. On All Saints Eve, vigils were kept in churches and church bells rang through the night on behalf of the souls in Purgatory.

23rd & 25th Nov​

According to a proclamation of Henry VIII in 1541, the feasts of Saint Clement (23 November) and Saint Katharine (25 November) saw children dress as “counterfeit priests, bishops and women, and so led with songs and dances from house to house, blessing the people and gathering of money.”

December​

Saint Nicholas Day​

This day (6 December) saw the ceremony of the boy bishop, a custom that was often repeated on Holy Innocents’ Day (28 December). In a reversal of roles, a boy of the parish would act as bishop (with other boys serving as his clergy or servants) for 24 hours, during which he would preside over the liturgy and bless those in church. Afterwards, the boys would tour the local area asking for food and money.

Advent​

The season of Advent began with Advent Sunday, which could fall between 27 November and 3 December, and was a solemn period. The Book of Isaiah, with its prophecies of Christ’s birth, would be read at the morning service and fasting was recommended. Marriages were forbidden, as with Lent and Rogationtide.

Christmas​

This was the last of the three great feasts of the year (with Easter and Pentecost). Three masses could be celebrated, beginning at midnight, and churches could be decorated with holly and ivy or extra candles. The three days after Christmas (those of Saint Stephen, Saint John the Evangelist and the Holy Innocents) were also major festivals. Wealthy households would take the period between Christmas and Epiphany (6 January) as a holiday, exchanging gifts on 1 January, New Year’s Day, rather than at Christmas.

[LINK to source]

Atpollard, thanks for all of the Holiday information. Wow - how History is History!