What holidays do you celebrate/observe?

[Hestha]

Advent? Christmas? Pentecost? Easter? Lent? Your saint's day as well as your birthday? (The last one is mainly done so in Latin American countries and in Catholic Spain.)

Also, what is the purpose of Christmas? Often, the purpose of Christmas is displayed in Christmas movies during the month of December. For example, in How the Grinch stole Christmas, the purpose of Christmas seems to be against the materialistic universe in which the story is set, but rather suggests that the purpose of Christmas is offering love, kindness, compassion, friendship, humility, and hospitality to people different from you. Another famous story that is often repeated during Christmastime, and one that I actually read in the original text, is A Christmas Carol, written by Charles Dickens. The story is often used to combat materialistic wealth and greediness and stinginess. So, that's the American ideal of Christmas as displayed in popular culture, it seems to be.

What is the Christian version of Christmas? What do Christians do on Christmas day and Christmas eve? Obviously, they do not worship Santa Claus, right? So, that means Christian children DO NOT receive presents or pieces of coal under decorated plastic pine trees based on whether they had been naughty or nice that year, right?

 

[christseeker45]

Advent? Christmas? Pentecost? Easter? Lent? Your saint's day as well as your birthday? (The last one is mainly done so in Latin American countries and in Catholic Spain.)

Advent, Christmas, Pentecost, Easter, Lent, My Birthday, and Halloween, etc.

Also, what is the purpose of Christmas? Often, the purpose of Christmas is displayed in Christmas movies during the month of December. For example, in How the Grinch stole Christmas, the purpose of Christmas seems to be against the materialistic universe in which the story is set, but rather suggests that the purpose of Christmas is offering kindness, compassion, friendship, humility, and hospitality to people different from you. So, that's the American ideal of Christmas as displayed in popular culture, it seems to be.

What is the Christian version of Christmas? What do Christians do on Christmas day and Christmas eve? Obviously, they do not worship Santa Claus, right? So, that means Christian children DO NOT receive presents or pieces of coal under decorated plastic pine trees based on whether they had been naughty or nice that year, right?

You have some strange ideas on Christmas. Of course Children get presents and Christmas is about Christ. Christ Mass

 

[Puptart]

What is the Christian version of Christmas? What do Christians do on Christmas day and Christmas eve? Obviously, they do not worship Santa Claus, right? So, that means Christian children DO NOT receive presents or pieces of coal under decorated plastic pine trees based on whether they had been naughty or nice that year, right?

This is an extremely loaded question. I would imagine you know that many Christian families do keep those traditions.

You're right that what we see in the malls every year is "Pop Culture Christmas", but most people (including myself) don't really see too much harm in the indulgence. It's fun for kids, heck it's fun for adults, so why not.

Most Christians will go to Church for Christmas, but most will also exchange presents with loved ones and watch their childrens' eyes light up on Santa's lap or beneath the not-so-cheap plastic tree (I'd like to call it a cheap plastic tree, but my last Christmas tree cost me a lot )

Is it materialistic? Well you know, a lot of things in life are materialistic. There's a lot of talk in the Bible about not hoarding things of the world and following God instead, but unless you enjoy being an absolute bore in life, most people recognize that life is also fun, and it's worth having fun at that. It's not sinful or unusual.

The fact is, Jesus wasn't born on December 25th and the majority of scholars will agree on this, though the actual date is not known and most scholars can't even agree on the time of year.. point is, we know it wasn't December 25, it probably wasn't even in the winter at all. Pagans celebrated yule around this time and most likely the early church overtook or even absorbed some of those celebrations with the intention of bringing more people into the Church. That was sort of the name of the game back in the day.

Basically if you want to give honor to the "Biblical" birth of Christ, you can do that on any day of the year. We don't need a special day, though it's really nice to have one anyway where everyone comes together and universally celebrates. That's really powerful, knowing every Christian in the world is celebrating the same thing on the same day. It forms a sense of not just community, but national and global community for the people who follow the religion. It's nice. It's probably even Godly.

Is Santa necessary? Of course not. Is he sinful? No

Just a good bit of fun.

 

[Hestha]

Advent, Christmas, Pentecost, Easter, Lent, My Birthday, and Halloween, etc.

Seriously? You celebrate your birthday as a religious holiday rather than a regular celebration? When you say "Halloween", do you really mean All Saint's Day eve?

You have some strange ideas on Christmas. Of course Children get presents and Christmas is about Christ. Christ Mass

Of course Christmas is about Christ. But Christian children get presents? I thought that was a secular tradition.

 

[ViaCrucis]

Of course Christmas is about Christ. But Christian children get presents? I thought that was a secular tradition.

The gift-giving tradition has its basis in the Feast Day of St. Nicholas, which occurs on December 6th. Setting out stockings also comes from traditional St. Nicholas Day practices from Western Europe.

St. Nicholas of Myra was a 4th century bishop in what is now modern day Turkey and was one of the bishops to attend the Council of Nicea. Tradition records that St. Nicholas heard about a poor family where the father was unable to pay the dowry for his daughters, and because of this and their situation that probably meant his daughters turning to prostitution for income. St. Nicholas, finding out about this, having come from a well-to-do family in the middle of the night, not wanting to turn it into public spectacle, dropped three purses of money so that the man could pay the dowry for his daughters. There are variations of the story, according to Wikipedia a variant has at least one of the purses dropped through a chimney.

St. Nicholas was a highly venerated Christian Saint, his Feast Day on December 6th being an important one. As such, in America, German and Dutch immigrants brought with them their St. Nicholas Day traditions, these in the great cultural melting pot of the United States became incorporated into Christmas in the course of the Christmas Renaissance that happened in part in Britain and America because of Charles Dickens' Christmas Carol.

St. Nicholas merging with the folk figure of "Father Winter", and with most thanks being given to the Coca-Cola corporation, the modern Santa Clause was born.

Thus, in fact, gift-giving technically is a religious custom that's been borrowed into the secular customs of Christmas. Spiritual significance is given to gift-giving additionally by the remembrance of the gifts given to the young Savior by the Magi from the East (which while not technically part of the Nativity Story, and who are traditionally celebrated during Epiphany, not Christmas, are nonetheless associated anyway); and perhaps more modernly by referencing Christ as God's sacred gift to us all.

The "secular" customs of Christmas aren't really as secular as some imagine.

-CryptoLutheran

 

[christseeker45]

Seriously? You celebrate your birthday as a religious holiday rather than a regular celebration? When you say "Halloween", do you really mean All Saint's Day eve?



Of course Christmas is about Christ. But Christian children get presents? I thought that was a secular tradition.

You have very strange ideas