3 Reasons Why I Am Not Celebrating Christmas This Year
… and don’t get me wrong – I’m Christian. Actually my article is targeted at Christians too!
Today the whole Christian world celebrates Christ’s birth, but for some time now I felt quite at an unease about this holiday and the way we observe it nowadays. For years, though, I went along with it because how can I be right and more than 2 billion Christians be wrong. I am a very black-and-white person, but I understand there is a lot of grey out there and I wouldn’t want to tell people what to do for the holidays. For this reason, I will try to speak for myself.
1. I will not celebrate this Christmas, because Christ was not born on the 25th of December.
How would you feel if you have a birthday on the 27th of July (for example), but all your loved ones greeted and honoured you on November the 5th? I’m pretty sure you would be pissed, right? That being said I should state the obvious and say that Jesus was not born on the 25th of December. Sorry to break it to you if you hear it for the first time, but Jesus was really NOT born on that day and most things you know about Christmas are plain wrong. No one really knows the exact date and the Bible makes no mention of it. However, history tells us that 25th of December marks the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and people used to celebrate Mithra’s Birthday (the god of light). I am pretty sure that if Christ wanted us to celebrate his birthday it would’ve been made clear in Scripture and His disciples would’ve established the tradition among the Early Church members. Not to mention that there are verses in the Bible that are strongly against cutting trees, trimming them, putting them in our homes and decorating them. If you have a Bible, or your grandmother has a Bible, read Jeremiah 10. You can also Google it, I guess it is easier this way!
Anyway, if Scripture is against such practices why then Christmas became so popular and the “Christmas Spirit” is spreading around like the plague? When the word was out about Christ among non-believing communities and tribes, there were already existing pagan holidays and festivals. Unfortunately many of these were accepted by the Church (as a compromise) so that people could be attracted to Christianity more easily. Of course, they were slightly altered and twisted in Christian-friendly ways.
2. I will not celebrate this year because Christmas has lost Christ
In my opinion if there is one reason (and there are certainly more) why this holiday actually dishonours Christ this is it. Christmas has become so commercialized that it is all about money, gifts and booze. We are trading with Christ and the significance of his birth for our own profit. The Chri$tma$ $pirit is everywhere and is all about love, family and buying, buying, buying. It is almost as if you don’t love your significant other, if you don’t buy them this super expensive tablet. It is a social suicide to say that you are not celebrating Christmas and most people just jingle it all the way without actually acknowledging what the holiday is all about. To most Christmas is no Christmas unless they get pissed drunk at the company’s Christmas party, spend all their money on gifts for people (most of whom) they hate and get together with family members that they feel awkward around. In fact, the “Christmas Dream” of love, cosiness, togetherness and reindeers with red noses is so hard to live up to, that many people suffer depression and commit suicide around this time.
It is true that people nowadays are not religious at all (which is not that bad), but it is also true that people are not even believers anymore. In my view this just makes Christmas sad. The one day that is supposed to commemorate the birth of Jesus has changed so much that people no longer remind themselves of the meaning of it all. I am not against getting together with family, I am not against giving gifts to each other, I am not against charity. I am only disgusted by the fact that most people do it because its Christmas, while we should give, love and forgive people every day just as He loves and pardons us all year round. This is a far better way to honour His birth.
3. I will not celebrate Christmas this year, because I believe it deceives children and makes them greedy and materialistic.
Most people believe that children will be deprived on Christmas if the day lacks the traditional crap. Okay, but children nowadays have become so greedy and materialistic around the holidays, not to mention most of them don’t even know who Jesus is. How about giving them random gifts at random times? Random acts of kindness. We need them more on a daily basis more than we need a tree to make us feel home. All this is far better than lying to them that Father Christmas brings them gifts and keeps track of their good and bad behaviour (and lying as far as I know is not very Christian-like, either).
As I said Father Christmas I was reminded why I hate the fat guy so much. I did mention that Christmas has lost Christ, right? Well it substituted Him with Father Christmas. He is used so often to shift the focus from what the holiday is supposedly about. He is pictured as omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient. No thoughtful Christian parent should ever buy into the Satan Claus, ops… Santa Claus hoax.
Now before you stone/trash/bash me in the comments section, actually ask yourself the following questions first: “Am I a Christian? Do I care about this at all?”. Unless you believe that this holiday really honours Jesus’ birth and that’s exactly what you want to do on the 25th of December, than I guess this article has nothing to do with you and you can celebrate the winter solstice in the Northern hemisphere with a clear conscious.