History Behind the Celebration of Christmas, Part 2 (TMF:SE18)

Friday, December 08, 2017
Peace to Live By: History Behind the Celebration of Christmas, Part 2 (TMF:SE18) - Daniel Litton
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       An excellent read about the history of Christmas, and particularly the American history, is a book titled ‘The Battle for Christmas’ by Stephen Nissenbaum. I recommend this book to anyone to read. We know that Christmas, as a holiday, originally became a reality in the fourth century (Nissenbaum, 1996, p. 4). This is when the Christian church decided to recognize Christmas, and the day of celebration was placed on December 25, as this was around the period of time that the Winter season began. Now, here in America, the first Americans, the Pilgrims, who were Puritans, didn’t celebrate Christmas and in fact believed it to be a sin to do so. This is because in their eager legalism, they believed that since the date of December 25 for the birth of Christ doesn’t appear in the Bible, that it was wrong to therefore celebrate the holiday. While they were correct in stating that December 25 for the birth of Christ doesn’t appear in the Bible, I think what God really cares about here is the heart attitude we are displaying when we celebrate Christmas. We have made Christmas to be all out giving, and with that attitude, we are in the right.

Reference
Nissenbaum, Stephen. (1996). The Battle for Christmas. New York: Vintage Books.