The War on Christmas

Have you ever wondered how the first American settlers celebrated Christmas? It might surprise you to find out that they didn’t.

The original war on Christmas was waged during the sixteenth and seventeenth century by Protestant Christians who opposed the pagan traditions of the Catholic church. The Pilgrims who came to America in 1620 were strict Puritans, with firm views against holidays such as Christmas and Easter, rejecting them because of their pagan origins. They were particularly contemptuous of Christmas, nicknaming it “Foolstide”.

“Shocking as it sounds, followers of Jesus Christ in both America and England helped pass laws making it illegal to observe Christmas, believing it was an insult to God to honor a day associated with ancient paganism” Shocked by the Bible (Thomas Nelson Inc, 2008)

Christmas decorations were considered to be unholy pagan rituals, traditional foods such as mince pies and pudding were banned, and businesses were required to remain open all day on Christmas. They made it illegal to mention the name of St. Nicolas, exchange gifts, or sing carols, and anyone caught ditching their work duties or feasting was fined five shillings.

“Men dishonor Christ more in the 12 days of Christmas, than in all the 12 months besides.” Hugh Latimer, 16th century clergyman

Around the time of the American Revolution anti-Christmas sentiment flared up again because Christmas had become associated with England for so many years. In fact, after the U.S. Constitution came into effect, the Senate assembled on Christmas Day in 1797, as did the House in 1802.

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The Christmas Lie

Should Christians celebrate Christmas? To many believers, it sounds sacrilegious to even mention the idea of not celebrating Christmas. For so many people, Christmas is a symbol of their faith. This teaching goes into great detail about the origins of Christmas and also what the scriptures say about it.

Remember that Satan is the father of lies, and has been deceiving people from the beginning. He is a master of deceit, and so we need to be very careful to seek the truth, and not be deceived. The best way to deceive someone is to make it sound like truth by mixing bits of truth into the lie. You might be shocked when you find out the Truth about Christmas, but remember that the Truth will set you free.

Growing up, Christmas was my favorite time of year. I loved everything about it. The decorations, the food, the family, the gifts; it was all so beautiful and exciting for me as a child. My love for Christmas continued into adulthood. Every year I looked forward to setting up the tree, hanging lights on the house, and buying gifts for family and friends. We were so excited about Christmas that we would start decorating at the beginning of November, and leave the decorations up until the end of January (sometimes even into February). Christmas was my absolute favorite holiday, and one of the main reasons for this was because I thought it was a celebration of Jesus birth.

You see, I have been a Christian all of my life, and I have always loved God. I have always wanted to do what was right, and do what pleased God. I thought that celebrating Christmas was something that was pleasing to God, and that, more than anything else, is why I loved Christmas so much.

Then one day, Truth came knocking on my door. Someone told me that Christmas was originally a Pagan holiday, and that it was just adopted into Church tradition hundreds of years after Jesus died. This was strange news to me, because I grew up thinking that Christmas was celebrated from the beginning of the Church, and that it was a holiday that God gave us. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I wanted to find out the Truth about Christmas, so I started doing my own research, and was shocked at the things that I found out. I was so disgusted and shocked at the Pagan origins of some of our traditions that I began to weep and repent for my involvement in these things. I felt so deceived, and the thing that made this deceit so bad was that it came from people I trusted, family, friends, and especially the Church (who should have known better).

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My last Christmas Letter

Dear Family and Friends,
I decided to write you all a Christmas letter this year to let you know about some changes that are taking place in my life. I have been studying the Bible, and studying Church history, and I have made some startling discoveries that will affect my life forever. I have been studying the roots of many of our Christian Traditions, and I have been shocked to find out that many of the things we do (our traditions and practices) have absolutely no connection to Jesus or the Bible. In fact, many of our traditions are deeply rooted in Paganism. I will try to be brief in my explanation, but I apologize if it gets a little long, there is a lot of history to cover in this note.

The First Christmas Ham

Ham has become the centerpiece of most Christmas dinners. Have you ever wondered why? I was curious, so I did some investigation into the history of this Winter Holiday Tradition, to see where it came from. The answer just might surprise you, as it did me.