The Holidays

Happy Birthday to YOU!
Happy Birthday to YOU!
Happy Birthday Dear YOU!
Happy Birthday to YOU!

How do you feel when you hear that song on your birthday? Special? Loved? That someone cares?

What if your mother came to you the day before your birthday and said,

Child, you know, not everyone in this world celebrates their birthday. You don’t want their feelings to be hurt do you? Of course not! I’ve decided that from now on, we aren’t going to sing “Happy Birthday” to you any more. I’m going to make sure all your friends do it this way too, because my way is best. And, we aren’t going to call it your birthday either. Instead we’re going to call it “World Day”; that way everyone can be included.

Now, just how wonderful, special, loved are you going to feel when the anniversary of your birth comes along? How could that make you feel anything other than unloved, unspecial, and unwonderful? I bet, just hearing your mom say something like that to you, would hurt your feelings, wouldn’t it? What if instead of your mom it was an office collegue? That certainly wouldn’t make it feel much better would it?

What is Christmas? According to Webster’s Dictionary, Christmas is a Christian feast on December 25, or among the Eastern Orthodox on January 6, that commemorates the birth of Christ and is usually observed as a legal holiday.

That is, the primary purpose of Chistmas is to celebrate the time God came to earth in human form, namely as Jesus the Christ.

When I was a teenager some people tried to call it “Xmas”… anything to get rid of the word Christ. Now, we’re supposed to call it THE HOLIDAYS. It’s the day after Thanksgiving and I haven’t heard one single advertisement about Christmas, only about THE HOLIDAYS.

People pretend to be more concerned about hurting the feelings of those who don’t believe in the Christ, than of hurting God. Obviously, they could care less about hurting God’s feelings (that could be a big mistake… huge). I say pretend because those who are working so hard to remove God/Christ from my life are truly only concerned about theirs. You see, if Christ exists, is God, and came to earth to pay the sin debt of mankind that makes us responsible to Him for not doing things His way. Those who don’t want it to be Christmas don’t want to acknowledge God or the Christ because they do not want to admit that they commit sin.

Let me be clear, I sin and I’m a sinner. Why? Because in and of myself I cannot live up to the Holiness of God’s standard. No matter how hard I try I canNOT be perfect. What Christ did on the cross 2,000 years ago (I can’t wait to hear what the world wants to call Easter next year) was payment for my sin. Because of that He is Lord of my life and I can have a personal relationship with God, my Creator. The greatest gift ever given was the good news of the Gospel! I’m sorry Christ had to come into the world and be beaten, spit on, scorned, and murdered for me, but I’m thrilled He did!

Different people do celebrate different holidays around this same time of the year. The Jewish people celebrate Hanukkah commemorating the rededication of the temple in Jerusalem in 165 BCE, the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar (which is November-December on the Gregorian calendar). African Americans celebrate Kwanzaa to celebrate their African heritage, December 26th till January 1. The British celebrate Boxing Day the day after Christmas. So, in one sense they are the holidays (plural) designating that the end of November-December time frame is celebrated by many cultures differently. That’s fine; as a matter of respect for others when I know that an individual is Jewish I tell him or her Happy Hanukkah, because I know they don’t celebrate Christmas, and they do have another holiday.

But, I don’t hear anyone telling the Jewish person not to call it Hanukkah, or the African-American not to call it Kwanzaa, only the Christian is told to call their holiday by “THE HOLIDAYS”. The only holiday I know that falls on December 25th is Christmas. If there are others please let me know.

I wish everyone a happy time with family and friends this holiday season; whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or nothing at all. As for me and my house we will be celebrating Christmas this year. That doesn’t make me better than anyone else, just different. And, as entitled to celebrate the birthday of Christ as others are to celebrate whenever and however they choose.