The Truth about Christmas

Look around the Internet sometime. You will find a plethora of explanations about the origins of Christmas traditions. Most of them are shouting warnings. "Beware!" they urge, "Christmas is pagan!" Now, Jesus said, "The truth shall set you free," and Paul told us to "Speak the truth in love," but I'm not entirely sure where all this "truth" is coming from or even why. So give it a shot. Look at some of our popular traditions and see if you can find out the truth.

Christmas trees are known to be of pagan origin. Ask anybody. Or are they? It appears to depend on the source. Over at ... get this ... Realtruth.org, David Pack demonstrates unequivocally that Christmas trees are of pagan origin. They came from Babylon, related to the story of Nimrod and an evergreen tree that sprouted out of a dead stump. Oh, wait, he also assures us that it came from Egypt where the palm tree was sacred. Now, which is it? What am I to conclude when one source is giving two origins? He quotes Jer. 10:2-5 to warn us about the heathen who cut down trees and bring them into the house and decorate them -- clearly a reference to Christmas trees ... which, oh, by the way, couldn't be the case before Christ's birth. This kind of abuse of Scripture is really offensive and has no place in a discussion of "real truth". Stephen Nissenbaum's The Battle for Christmas (and many other sources) suggests that the Christmas tree tradition is actually a relatively new practice, starting up in the last few hundred years. Doesn't sound much like pagan origins to me. Wikipedia succumbs to the truth as well. While citing a variety of possible origins, the truth comes out. "The modern custom can be traced to 16th century Germany, but apart from that, there was neither an identifiable inventor nor a single town to have been the sole trigger for the tradition." In other words, there may be lots of speculation about origins, but the truth is we just don't have any hard trail to follow. Perhaps it was the Roman celebration of Saturnalia where they decorated a pine tree with red berries. Perhaps it was based on the story of Saint Boniface who felled an oak to teach the Germanic tribes that their oaks were no match for God. Maybe it was from the Druids who used evergreen sprigs to ward away spirits. (It is important to note, here, that similarities in usage does not prove origin.) Do you want to know the real truth about the origin of the traditional Christmas tree? The real truth is that beyond a few hundred years ago when German Christians used them in celebration of Christmas and Martin Luther put lights on one to show his family the wonder of God's creation, we don't really know. So when someone tries to assure you that it's a pagan tradition, you ought to wonder how they know for sure when no one else seems to.

All Things Christmas doesn't seem to offer such outlandish suggestions. Christmas, it seems, has its origins in the Bible. The term, Christmas, refers to Christ's Mass and is a celebration of the birth of Christ. Christ was likely not born in December, but that's not the point. It appears that the Catholic Church chose December for its celebration primarily to compete with pagan events -- a sort of counter balance or redeeming the time, if you will. Santa Claus has his origins in Saint Nicholas, the Bishop of Smyrna, who secretly put gold in the socks of some young girls who were on the verge of being sold. (Get it? Gifts ... socks ... secret giving ...). Poinsettias came to America in the 1800's and were likely used in Mexico in the 1700's as part of their Christmas celebration because of the star-shaped flower and a legend about a boy who wished to give a gift to the baby Jesus in the Nativity scene.

The truth is that Christmas traditions have their roots in a variety of places. The early Christians didn't celebrate birthdays, so they didn't celebrate Christmas as Jesus's birthday. When the Church came to power, they attempted to convert their society, including their biggest party in December, to Christianity. They officially declared December 25th as Jesus's birthday. Through the ages, Christmas has undergone a variety of changes. Some were adaptations from pagan parties. Others were ways of demonstrating the truth of the Incarnation. When Cromwell overthrew the king in England, Christmas was banned. In the earliest days of America, Christmas was banned. It was considered too licentious. But Christmas has always come back. It celebrates the Christ child first and foremost and children of all ages after that.

Origins are important. There is little doubt, for instance, that mistletoe came to us by way of fertility rites and holly was used to ward off evil spirits. It is true that ancient cultures worshiped trees. It is true that there is no evidence that the nice story about how candy canes were originally intended to show the purity and blood of Christ is valid. Knowing the truth is good. But I have to ask, how many today are worshiping their Christmas trees, kissing under the mistletoe in the hopes of bearing lots of offspring, or lighting a fire in the fireplace for good luck at the winter solstice? When Dad goes to one knee to grab a gift for little Johnny from under the tree, is he really doing it to worship? Origins are important, but when our culture has already forgotten its Christian origins, it becomes irrelevant that the origins were Christian. In the same way, when the origins of traditions are forgotten and no one practices those origins anymore, is it really an issue? Can't we just celebrate the birth of our Savior without getting our knickers in a self-righteous twist about it? I will.