In one very factual way, encouraging one another to keep Christ central in Christmas is rather naive. Christ is central to Christmas! Christmas is totally dependent upon Christ. The very word, Christmas, has no meaning without Christ.
Keeping Christ Central in Christmas can, and often has become, a cliché. Christians become dismayed with culture’s attempts to retain the “holiday spirit” while making every effort to expunge any mention of Christ. There is a fascinating reality to the world’s substitution of Happy Holiday for Merry Christmas. It is a simple admission of ignorance, since the word holiday is from the old English hāligdæg, that is holy day which, in its context, was a reference to Christmas.
As a young Pastor I had people who wanted to do away with the Christmas tree. They saw it as a pagan remnant dragged into the Christian world. While acknowledging that there were some pagan origins behind the development of the Christmas tree, it was not the intention of those who are responsible for the tradition to impose any form of paganism upon Christmas. My response was to think through the tree with all its various decorations and develop a symbolism for each one. This became the subject of a Sunday night sermon encouraging parents to use the tree and the decorations as teaching tools when they gathered their children around the tree.
The question persists. How do we, as Christ followers, implement practicing keeping Christ central in Christmas? When I was a boy, in the 1940’s, Christmas was about a tree, colored lights and toys. Church was about sitting still and enduring the “man up front” droning on for what seemed hours (it really was only about 20 minutes I learned later). There also were variety of plays in which children were supplied wings to become angels or robes to become either wisemen or shepherds. Obviously, the liberal church of my childhood days did little to keep Christ central in Christmas.
When I became a Christ follower at age seventeen and entered the world of evangelicalism, the message of Christmas was clearly articulated. Nonetheless, the holiday was largely about cultural traditions. Much that took place in the church was more about culture than Christ and looked not much different than my youthful liberal church.
But the question persists! How do we keep Christ central? Certainly, you have heard discussions on this issue heretofore. They run something like this, Only play church music in your home or in your car from Thanksgiving till Christmas. Be sure to be in church every Sunday of the Advent season. Be sure children’s programs revolve around the birth of Christ. Read the Christmas story and not silly things like The Night Before Christmas to your children. You get the picture. All these may have merit and are useful ways of reminding us that Christmas is about the birth of the Savior.
Once more, the pesky question. “How do we keep Christ central at Christmas?” Well here is the answer I propose. Keep Christ central 364 days a year and you will keep Him central on the 365th day. Is Christmas special? To answer that, let me ask, Is communion special? The answer to both is yes. In my denomination (the PCA), we emphasize self-examination and personal preparation during the week prior to communion so that we come to the table with an intensified desire to worship by our participation. So, Christmas is an opportunity to intensify our awareness that God became man in order that man might be reconciled to God and hence, worship the King. Jesus instituted the sacrament to induce our remembrance. Throughout the Bible there are many examples of commemorative holidays intended to remind God’s people to keep God front and center. Christmas, with lights and gifts and glorious music in a variety of genres all enhance our remembering that all this tensile only exists because of Christ. In the final analysis, keeping Christ front and central in Christmas boils down to a personal decision to recognize Him as King every day of our lives.
*Dr. Eyrich is a retired PCA pastor. However, he continues to pursue ministry opportunities from preaching, to counseling, to supervising counseling trainees, to writing and teaching for Birmingham Theological Seminary where he also serves as Director of the Doctor of Ministry—Biblical Counseling Program.