So What Is Christmas All About?

Here's a clue: Christ-Mass.

Unsurprisingly, in our post-Christian, post-modern world, even that clue may remain unfathomable to some.

In most peoples' minds, December 25th means some or all of these things: Father Christmas (aka Santa Claus, aka St. Nichols aka Chris Tingel), reindeer, cards, holiday, decorations, lights, food, drink, presents, turkey, excess, indigestion, robins, snow and trees. At a push there may be a passing nod to something about a baby in a stable.

Father Christmass

Father Christmas is based on a real person, St. Nicholas, which explains his other name 'Santa Claus' which comes from the Dutch 'Sinterklaas'. Nicholas was a Christian leader from Myra (in modern-day Turkey) in the 4th century AD. He was very shy, and wanted to give money to poor people without them knowing about it. It is said that one day, he climbed the roof of a house and dropped a purse of money down the chimney. It landed in the stocking which a girl had put to dry by the fire! This may explain the belief that Father Christmas comes down the chimney and places gifts in children's stockings. When the Dutch settled what was to become New York, Sinterklaas became Santa Claus.

Christmas Trees

Some authorities consider the Christmas tree to be a survivor of pagan worship and trace it to Egypt and ancient Rome. Others say that the first real Christian Christmas tree dates back to 8th century Germany where it was used as a replacement for pagan worship. However, it was not until the beginning of the 19th century that the Christmas tree as we know it really became part of celebrations in England. Although Christmas trees were not unknown in England in Georgian times, In 1834, it was Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert of Saxony, who set an example and encouraged people to have a decorated tree at Christmas.

In the early 1840s the North American town of Fitzwilliam, N.H., was lining its Unitarian church with evergreen trees at Christmas time. They seem to have been undecorated, and were left up till late spring, when a bonfire celebrated their demise. By 1850, the Christmas tree had become fashionable in the eastern states. Until this time, it had been considered a quaint foreign custom.

But centuries ago in Great Britain, Druid priests used evergreens during mysterious winter solstice rituals. They also used holly and mistletoe as symbols of eternal life, and place evergreen branches over doors to keep away evil spirits.

Legend has it that Martin Luther began the tradition of decorating trees to celebrate Christmas. One Christmas Eve, around the year 1500, while walking through snowy woods, he saw a group of small evergreens with their branches dusted with snow. He was so taken with the sight that he brought a small fir tree indoors so he could share this with his children. He decorated it with candles in honour of Christ's birth.

Christmas Cards

The Christmas card is a Victorian creation, and was started by Sir Henry Cole who worked for the British Postal Service. He hired an artist named John Horsley. Between them they designed the first Christmas card which was a depiction of a Christmas scene framed in three panels. Underneath appeared the now famous phrase "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You."

Christmas cards went on to be an essential part of Christmas and are now big business.

Christmas Gifts

On New Years' Day in ancient Rome, people gave each other gifts as a means of saying "Happy New Year". These might be gifts of food, or, depending upon the families wealth, more valuable gifts such as jewellery or pieces of gold and silver. With the coming of Christianity, the giving of gifts was established as being in honour of the gifts brought by the Three(?) Wise Men or Kings. When the Apostles brought the Gospel to Rome, the people learned of the Three Wise Men who came from the Orient to present gifts to the newborn King. From then on, the old custom was only slightly changed. The exchanging of presents remained, but now it was done in imitation of the Three Holy Kings.

Customs and dates for Christmas gift-giving vary from country to country, as do the supposed donors of the gifts. Depending upon the place, the gifts allegedly are delivered by elves, angels, the Christ Child, and even by Jesus' camel. They are provided by the Three Kings or Wise Men, or by Saint Nicholas or his derivative, Santa Claus. When the Dutch settled what was to become New York, they brought with them an annually reappearing Saint Nicholas or, as they called him, Sinterklaas. From there his name was altered to Santa Claus. In Brussels, it is a custom to give living gifts such as birds, pets, flowers. In the West Indies it is the custom to exchange or give hospitality, service or talent. Material gifts are not exchanged.

25th December?

The early Christian Church celebrated Christ's birth on various days; Jan 6th, April 21st, May 1st. In the 4th century Julius (337-352), Bishop of Rome, perhaps encouraged by the Emperor Constantine, declared December 25th to be the time to celebrate the birth of Christ. He probably favoured this date to counteract a very popular pagan holiday celebrating the rebirth of the sun. However, although the actual solstice is on 21st December, the 25th was as near as the crude instruments available to the ancient astronomers were able to place the it.

Will the real Christmas please stand up!

The Christmas season has long since degenerated into commercialism and material excess which has little or nothing to do with the birth of Christ or the celebration of Emmanuel, God with us; of God becoming Man. Indeed, in some parts of the UK, the corporate celebration of Christmas has been officially banned by Local Councils for fear of upsetting other faiths. Interestingly enough, one Local Council encouraged the Hindu celebration of Diwali (festival of Truth and Light) without any care of offending Christians. What hypocrisy!

So why do Christians persist in hanging on to the tattered remnants of this discredited season, this Winter Celebration? Is there a valid argument for saying that Christians should stop celebrating the traditional, atheistic, humanistic, pagan Christmas altogether? But if they do stop, there surely should be a time to remember the real birth of Christ?

Step forward a Campaign for the Real Christmas

In the biblical accounts of the birth of Jesus we read that the Shepherds were out on the hills with their sheep. They would not have been on the hills in December in the middle of Winter. It is also unlikely that the census, for which Mary and Joseph travelled to Bethlehem, would have been called in the middle of Winter. So if not December, when?

But let's paint in the background a little. The Jews celebrated a number of "feasts" during their year. One of these was the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkoth). Beginning five days after Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) on the fifteenth of Tishri, Israel's seventh month (Usually around the end of September or beginning of October in the Gregorian Calendar), it is a drastic change from one of the most solemn holidays in the Jewish year to one of the most joyous. The word Sukkoth means "booths", and refers to the temporary dwellings that Jews are commanded to live in during this holiday, just as they did during the wilderness wanderings. The Feast of Tabernacles lasts for seven days and ends on the twenty-first Tishri.

Why is this significant? In John's Gospel the Apostle wrote these words (in English translation), "... and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us". The original meaning of the wording was, "... and the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us". In all likelihood, therefore, it was at the Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus was actually born. It may also explain why Bethlehem was crowded; everyone was there to celebrate the Feast.

We have, therefore a reasonable indication of the true time of Jesus' birth. Not 25th December, but earlier in the year, around Autumn; the end of September or the beginning of October.

Realistically, it is extremely unlikely that the traditional celebration of Christmas on the 25th December is ever going to be "reclaimed". So it might make sense that a new celebration of Jesus' birth be instituted by Christians to coincide with the Feast of the Tabernacles, thus giving the Birth of Jesus the spiritual and Christian, prominence it deserves.

PS - it wasn't a stable either, and the 'Kings' weren't there just after the birth, neither was...... well, never mind for now.

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You