Christmas Traditions

We started December 1st with Luke one, on the date of this posting we should all be on Luke chapter 20 and our lives should be better for it. The purpose of this is to first off get our families in the Word of God daily, and second so on Christmas morning our children will have heard the gospel and understand the reason we celebrate christmas and easter and have had their questions answered.

I’ve heard from some fathers who are doing this, their children want to do this with other books in the bible. That’s amazing. My children have two different catechisms they love going through. You have to find what works, and for my kids they love the read and answer the questions model of family worship. We make it like a game show. You should try it. We have prizes like cookies and fruit snacks.

I just want to say in the next four days your whole will have read Luke, and I encourage you to continue with other books, or topical readings to keep your family engaged.

So onto today's devotional.

I just want to spit out some fact to help you all with the naysayers of Christmas traditions.

“DECEMBER 25 isn’t Jesus’ Real Birthday”

While that may be true, no one knows His actual birthday. The point of the matter is that he was born.  

Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215 AD) was the first to discuss the possible dates of Jesus’ nativity, though he offers little explanation: You can look at “Clement of Alexandria, Stromata-Miscellanies, Book 1 Chapter XXI”

The Christmas holiday has some amazing traditions, but the date of December 25 has absolutely nothing to do with pagenism, or witchcraft rituals. In 354 A.D, Pope Liberius set December 25th as the date of Christmas, Christ’s Mass, Which means the celebration of Christ. He set this date because of a Jewish thought. Great Prophets died on the same day they were conceived. So if Christ died on, or around March 25th “good Friday” that would be His conception date. So 9 months from a conception date of March 25 you get December 25. 

Now no one really know, but this is how and when it was chosen.

“Christmas Trees are from Witches”

Again another false claim by a group bent on destroying Christ.

The Christmas tree origins trace back to the 200 ADs, when early church father Tertullian wrote: “You are the light of the world, a tree evergreen, if you have renounced the heathen temple.”

St. Boniface (680-755), who was also called Wynfred, was the Apostle of the Germans, being sent forth by Pope Gregory II as a missionary to heathen germany. In the year 716, St. Boniface confronted the Chieftain Gundhar, who was about to offer the little Prince Asulf as a “bloody sacrifice” to Thor, their pagan god who supposedly lived in the huge “donar” oak tree at geismar.

St. Boniface boldly took an ax and after a few swings at the mighty “Blood Oak”, an enormous wind blew the tree over. The heathen throng was in awe and converted to Christianity. Then pointing to an evergreen tree that was next to it, or that had miraculously grown up, St. Boniface said this.

“This is the word, and this is the counsel. Not a drop of blood shall fall tonight, for this is the birth-night of Saint Christ, Son of the all-Father and Saviour of the world. This little tree, a young child of the forest shall be a home tree tonight. It is the wood of peace, for your house are built of fir. It is the sign of endless life, for its branches are ever green. See how it points towards Heaven! Let this be called the tree of the Christ child; gather about it, not in the wild woods but in your homes there it will shelter no deeds of blood, but loving gifts and lights of Kindness.”

Now the lighting of this tree didn’t happen until years later in 1520. Martin Luther on Christmas eve walking under the cold December sky looked up and noticed the countless starts illuminating the night. He returned home and to the delight of his wife and children, set up an evergreen tree placing a great number of small candles on its branches. He used this to tell his children the true meaning of the Christ Child, the light of the World, whose birth had so gloriously brightened the sky on that first christmas eve. He set up a creche scene under the tree so that the lights would appear as the stars above Bethlehem.

Finally everyone's favorite: “SANTA CLAUS IS JUST SATAN MISSPELLED”

Now we know that a big fat dude on top of the world, building toys with elves, and flying around in one night giving gifts to every child is untrue, but There really is a Santa Claus.

St. Nicholas, while his origins as bishop are well noted, and how he got there by secretly giving money away to pay a bride fee is where we get secret gift giving from, I suggest you look at the stories of St. Nichols. He saved innocents, talked trash to armies, and even punched another bishop in the mouth for denying the deity of Christ at the council of Nicea in 325 AD. 

Go check out his origin story.

But onto the Santa Claus we have today, where did it start? In Diedrich Knickerbocker’s A History of New York from the Beginning of the New World to the End of The Dutch Dynasty, 1809. By Washington Irving.

In 1823, Clement Moore wrote an imaginative poem for his children titled. “A Visit From St. Nicholas”

You know it. It starts like this, Twas the night before christmas, and all through the house.

Moore was the first person to mention St. Nicholas being pulled by reindeer in a sled. 

Again from the dutch in 1862 Thomas Nast, Mostly known for the democrat mule and republican elephant, sketched his first drawings of Santa Claus for Harper's Weekly Magazine. By this time St. Nicholas had evolved from Saint Nicholas to Sant Niklass to Sinter Klaas to Santa Claus just from evolving language from Dutch settlers. Over the next 22 years Mr. Nast would publish over thirty cartoons depicting Santa Claus as a type of Bavarian Father Christmas, Jolly, plump, with gnome-like features, and an infectious outgoing personality. He carried a long telescope, record book, and a “NORTH POLE” sign behind him, which was a demoralizing moment for the south during the civil war.

All the drawings were black and white until McLoughlin Brothers Publishers asked him to do a final series of cartoons in colors. This was the first time Santa Claus had a red suit with white fur trim, still in his traditional Dutch garb.

These are just a few of the amazing stories around Christmas, and where these traditions come from. For more check the William Federer’s Book “There Really Is A Santa Claus”

Available on the Fort Iron Ministries booklist.

Remember Jude tells us to “Contend for The Faith”, Peter tells us “Be ready in season and out of season”

I hope this is just another arrow in your quiver when holiday conversations arise.

Soli Deo Gloria