Christmas is coming…
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Thank you Paul (and any helpers you may have had) for another nicely decorated tree. To check back on your other Christmas trees, click here |
All aboard! Next stop… Christmas! I have heard complaints in Christian circles that the secular world is taking over our festival and trashing it with consumerism, jingoism, greed, selfish excesses and all those other despicable things that are so unfortunately unChristian. I have heard we should claim it back and push “the reason for the season” on to the consciousness of folk instead. I wonder how many know that Christmas as a festival did not begin back there with the babe in the manger, but was celebrated on December 25th only since AD 354, replacing an earlier date of January 6th. Christians had by then appropriated pagan festivals and traditions of the season, many that were practiced in parts of the Middle East and Europe, as a means of stamping them out. There were mid-winter festivals in ancient Babylon and Egypt, Germanic fertility festivals, the celebration of the birth of the ancient sun-god Attis in Phrygia, of the birth of the Persian sun-god, Mithras, and Saturnalia, the festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of peace and plenty. In Scandinavia there was Yule. Celtic culture of the British Isles added a tradition involving mistletoe and holly. Italy added the tradition of re-enacting the birth of Christ with the construction of scenes of the nativity. The saint’s day dedicated to Saint Nicholas occurred on December 6th, he being the forerunner of Santa Claus. The earliest English reference to December 25th as Christmas Day did not come until 1043. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort they cancelled Christmas. By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him came the return of the popular holiday. In America the pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell and Christmas was not considered a holiday. The celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston from 1659 to 1681 with anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit being fined five shillings. |
So what was that about reclaiming Christmas for the celebration of the birth of the Christ child? I’m afraid we share it with other traditions anyway. So a mixed bag has become Christmas, but it is still a very worthy “reason for the season” to consider the birth of Jesus - even although that was most unlikely to have been on December 25th - and celebrate anyway.
The Month Before Christmas
(Anonymous)‘Twas the month before Christmas
when all through our land,
Not a Christian was praying nor taking a stand.
Why the PC Police had taken away,
The reason for Christmas -
no one could say.
The children were told by their schools not to sing,
About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.
It might hurt people’s feelings,
the teachers would say
December 25th is just a ” Holiday “.
Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit
Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!
CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod
something was changing,
something quite odd!
Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa
in hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.
As Targets are hanging their trees upside down
At Lowe’s the word Christmas -
was no where to be found.
At K-Mart and Staples and Penny’s and Sears
You won’t hear the word Christmas;
it won’t touch your ears.
Inclusive, sensitive, Di-ver-is-ty
Are words that were used to intimidate me.
Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen
On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton !
At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter
to eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.
And we spoke not a word,
as they took away our faith
forbidden to speak of salvation and grace
The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded
The reason for the season, stopped before it started.
So as you celebrate “Winter Break” under your “DreamTree”
Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.
Choose your words carefully,
choose what you say
Shout MERRY CHRISTMAS,
not Happy Holiday!


Throughout the time that Judah’s Journal has been up and running, there have been visitors coming from over 70 different countries. By far the majority come from English speaking nations, but over 40 different languages are also represented here. I greatly admire those of you who fluently read or speak more than one language as I have only smatterings of a couple of others.
If the relentless commercial build-up to Christmas with all the tinsel trappings has you pondering where in the whole business is the original meaning, and if it has not been thoroughly abandoned to the worship of something else instead, you could be forgiven for considering taking Time Out from the occasion and leaving the rest of the world to manage it without you.



Twenty or so years ago I included a chatty hand-written letter with a Christmas card that I sent an elderly in-law and received back a response: “Thank you for your form letter with all the news.” I was shocked - and stung. It was not a “form letter” and I had gone to far more trouble than I probably really had the time to spare. Her brief couple of sentences, the only personal comment made, were scribbled hastily on the bottom of a badly typed and photocopied page roughly folded and put in with her card. Thus began my love-hate relationship with the ubiquitous Christmas letter that pads out most of the Christmas cards we receive this time of year.











