I have religious friends and kinfolk who beleive in good conscience that Christmas can be celebrated, but only – as the traditional term in the prayer between the Lord’s Supper and collection goes – “separate and apart” from any religious connotation.
It’s okay, in other words, to exchange gifts and take your children to sit on Santa’s lap at the mall – but it is condemned by the silence of scripture to mention the gifts of the visiting Magi, or to talk about St. Nicholas, bishop of Myra.
The logic of this conclusion simply escapes me.
Jesus celebrated traditions that predated His incarnation. He went to temple … well, to synagogue. Nowhere in Old Testament scripture is synagogue required, authorized or condemned. Does Jesus stand condemned for violating the silence of scripture?
He also clearly opposed the then-current teaching about keeping the Sabbath – which was, scripturally, to be kept holy to the Lord – in order to heal a man on that day of rest. He even seemed to advocate rescuing an unfortunate animal on the Sabbath; for He is Lord of the Sabbath, and it was made for man – not vice-versa. Does Jesus stand condemned for violating the clear instruction of scripture?
When angels in heavenly host sang so loudly at the birth of the Savior-King that shepherds could hear them in their fields that night, were they in violation of keeping heaven’s silence? Or if they had withheld their praise and celebration, would the rocks and stones themselves begun to sing – as Jesus said during his triumphal entry into Jerusalem years later?
And when we give gifts, do we not imitate our Lord Jesus, His Father and His Spirit – who have made an eternal career of gifting mankind with what we need most? Do we not mimic the generosity of the Christ who gave up everything in heaven to be born, live, teach, die and live again among us?
Christmas a merely secular holiday?
Bah.
Humbug.
Blog In My Own Eye 
I too grew up in that environment surrounding Christmas. Is it not amazing that smart, kind, intelligent people with good hearts can come up with the most irrational and idiotic positions?When the WHOLE world was looking at Christmas, we ran from the opportunity to teach them the reason for the celebration. Go figure. Being “right” was more important than telling the story.THE story! God forgive us. MERRY CHRISTMAS my brother whom I love!DU
It doesn’t matter to me what the rest of the world does. I purpose to relish the truth that “God is with us”. What we lost in Adam we can regain in Jesus.He came to save the wicked from their sins. I fit into that catagory “wicked” and He gave me His life. So, I can say with gusto, Merry Christmas!
Kinda ironic–that when the world around us celebrated Christmas, some churches dared to not teach Jesus’s birth in December, and nowadays…did our kinfolk finally get their way?
Kinda ironic–that when the world around us celebrated Christmas, some churches dared to not teach Jesus’s birth in December, and nowadays…did our kinfolk finally get their way?
I say celebrate the Lord every chance you get.
May your knowledge and experience of the riches of God?s grace, abundantly lavished on us through the gift of His Son as our Savior and King, warm your souls and brighten your days through this holiday season. Merry Christmas! -bill
So I gave all my co-workers a Dove choclate bar as a tiny Christmas gift. Being sensitive to a JW co-worker, I just said “Happy New Year”. He informed me (nicely enough) that he wasn’t a New Year kind of guy either, so I changed it to happy Friday. I feel so bad for folks with that kind of mindset – I used to think basicaly the same way as a church of Christ member. What a wonderful freedom in Christ to realize that celebrating Christmas is not only okay, it has to be in some small way imitating the generosity of God for the greatest gift ever given. God forgive us for our legalistic tendencies. Merry “CHRIST”mas to all – your Savior is born.