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Just Who Is Santa Claus?
Parents assure children that he’s always been there and always will be. He’s rumored to have the ability to be in all places at once, knowing who has been naughty and who has been nice. He knows when you’ve been sleeping, and he knows when you’re awake. And one night of the year, he miraculously fits his gargantuan girth down countless chimneys to bestow gifts on all good children, then whisks back up again, having consumed cumulative mountains of goodies and rivers of milk left as offerings for his pleasure.

Today we may know him as Santa Claus, but the omnipresent, omniscient, jovial fellow’s image evolved gradually through the years, adapting itself to different cultures around the world. Old rituals and beliefs interwove with new, resulting in a colorful tapestry of traditions with many common threads. Eventually, through increased travel and access to the written word, plus predominantly American influences from television, movies and other media, the modern, more singular image emerged.

That the Santa Claus custom is largely based in recent American tradition may seem unlikely, in that early-17th-century Puritan immigrants actually outlawed Christmas and other rowdy nonbiblical holiday customs in parts of the New World. Yet subversive celebrations spread, and the Puritans’ law was repealed before the end of that century. Second- and third-generation immigrants began forming a new middle class with the luxury of disposable income and family-centered leisure time. Wider availability of affordable printed matter contributed to social cohesion, and people devoured it heartily. Whatever was in print became the common reality, and this eventually succeeded in forging the disparate traditions of an immigrant population into a more homogeneous set of customs, including one heroic Christmas figure for all.

But Santa’s pedigree goes back much farther than America’s European immigrants. In fact, by working backward through history, we find that he has been with us in various guises for thousands of years.

NICHOLAS REDRESSED

Nineteenth-century American author Washington Irving was the first of several writers to have a major influence on the development of Santa’s modern persona. Irving and his social circle were concerned that the Christmas season was, for many, a time of excessive drinking and overturning rules; entering homes of the wealthy and demanding favors and refreshments (“Oh bring us some figgy pudding and a cup of good cheer”); and threatening noncompliant hosts with vandalism. With lofty hopes of transforming the saturnalian rampages plaguing the season, Irving wrote of the joys of a different type of celebration in his satiric Knickerbocker’s History of New York from the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty.

In his appealing stories, the popular writer laid a firm foundation for the American Santa Claus by inventively describing delightful domestic scenes and associating them with St. Nicholas (or Sinterklaas, the Dutch nickname). He spearheaded the change in Nicholas’s traditional appearance from a statuesque, saintly man in a long robe and a bishop’s miter to a rotund little man in Dutch knee breeches and a hat. He also introduced St. Nicholas as the patron saint of New York and, speaking wistfully of its early days as New Amsterdam, attributed to him some now-familiar traits: “In the sylvan days of New Amsterdam, the good St. Nicholas would often make his appearance in his beloved city, of a holiday afternoon, riding jollily among the treetops, or over the roofs of houses, now and then drawing forth magnificent presents from his breeches pockets, and dropping them down the chimneys of his favorites.”

From Irving’s tale also comes a tradition that Sinterklaas accompanied immigrants from the Netherlands in the 17th century to New Amsterdam. In a clever attempt to divert the holiday from its pagan associations, he described the masthead of the original ship: “The architect,. . . far from decorating the ship with pagan idols, such as Jupiter, Neptune or Hercules, which heathenish abominations, I have no doubt, occasion the misfortunes and shipwreck of many a noble vessel, he I say, on the contrary, did laudably erect for a head, a goodly image of St. Nicholas.”

After 1822 a pint-sized “right jolly old elf”—flying from chimney to chimney on “the night before Christmas” in a miniature sleigh pulled by eight tiny, named reindeer, a bag of toys slung over his shoulder—became the new standard, thanks to the just-published “Account of a Visit From St. Nicholas.” The immediate and lasting popularity of this poem (attributed to Clement Clarke Moore) undoubtedly owes a debt to the inclusion of elements from numerous cultures. The author combined Irving’s innovative descriptions with longstanding Scandinavian, Germanic, English and Russian traditions. Even the Scottish and the Irish could relate to the little elfin creature, similar to the brownies, “little people” or leprechauns of their homelands.

THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTMAS FUTURE

Across the Atlantic, Charles Dickens contributed to the reformation of Christmas with A Christmas Carol, published in England in 1843. Although Dickens did not mention Santa Claus by name in the book, the spirit is clearly familiar. Embracing Victorian England’s ideals of hearth and home, the book was an instant bestseller. It went a long way toward forming the present Christmas ideal of a family-friendly tradition (see “Christmas: Does It Matter?”) and turning riotous drunken revelry into a mere ghost of Christmas past.

Soon Harper’s Weekly, a popular American publication of the time, began an annual tradition featuring illustrator Thomas Nast’s drawings of Santa in a red fur-trimmed suit, black boots and matching leather belt. Although elements from Dickens’s tale were evident, Nast, an immigrant from Germanic Europe, also used elements gleaned from his own cultural background. This conflation of Continental and American customs continued over the next quarter century, contributing such details as where Santa lives and works.

By the turn of the 20th century, America had accepted Christmas widely enough to make it an official holiday, and colored, illustrated Christmas cards (already popular in Victorian England) became commercially successful. Both factors helped buttress the image of the burly benefactor in red knickers (although other colors still appeared on occasion). By the time the next generation was ready for annual supernatural nocturnal visits, a man-sized, rosy-cheeked, rotund Santa Claus dressed in red with snowy locks and beard had become the norm. This American image of Santa, particularly the iconic illustrations created after 1931 by commercial artist Haddon Sundblom for Coca-Cola advertisements, has now been exported worldwide.

NICK’S NAMES

But what of Santa’s antecedents? Today some of the older iterations remain alongside the new and improved commercial versions. This makes for a peculiar cacophony of interconnected characters. In parts of Europe, a Christ-child representation (Christkindl/Kris Kringle) united with an older tradition: a horned, fur-clad, swarthy Belsnickle/Pelznickel (pelts, or fur, plus Nicholas). This scary figure made late-night, year-end jaunts before the onslaught of Christianity forced a change. Similar devilish characters in various parts of the world, including Knecht Ruprecht, Rumpelklas, Krampus, Schmutzli, Hans Muff, Klaubauf, Père Fouettard and even Beelzebub, may also travel alone or accompany Father Christmas, Père Noël, Papa Noël, and of course, jolly old Saint Nick. And common to each tradition is a connection with Saint Nicholas.

The fourth-century Nicholas of Myra is one of the most revered saints of the Catholic Church. Though evidence is sketchy at best, he is commonly believed to have been appointed bishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, at a tender age. This conviction forms the basis of boy-bishop traditions, in which authority turns upside down and servants and children demand gifts or favors from their masters or parents (for example, yesterday’s “figgy pudding” requests and today’s “I want a pony, an Xbox 720 and a skate park for Christmas”). Such traditions spring from similar Roman Saturnalia rituals relating to the winter solstice season.

Details of Nicholas’s later life and beyond are likewise legendary. He became known as Nicholas of Bari after Italian merchants took what were purported to be his remains to the city of Bari in the 11th century. Some say his tomb, housed in an impressive basilica, is near the site of an ancient shrine to La Befana, the legendary grandmotherly crone or witch on a broom who was responsible for sweeping down chimneys and filling children’s stockings with gifts one night each winter. Although La Befana lore lingered on in Italy, during the following centuries Nicholas’s shrine became the overwhelmingly popular destination of pilgrims.

His larger-than-life story includes much fodder for folklore, which even the Catholic Church acknowledges is not necessarily based in fact. Saint Nicholas’s feast day was even dropped from mandatory observance on the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar in 1969 for lack of proof of his existence, though the Eastern Orthodox Church still observes December 6 as his feast day. According to the Catholic Information Network, Nicholas replaced the Russian “Mikoula, the god of harvest, ‘who will replace God, when God becomes too old.’” Mikoula was said to distribute gifts to children during the winter solstice, a job that Nicholas, Russia’s new patron saint, soon took over in popular imagination.

St. Nicholas has probably been the patron of more locations and occupations than any other saint, but he is best known in the West as protector of children and in the East as protector of sailors. Stories abound in many cultures, often about his kindness and generosity and often incorporating the number three. One such tale centers on his alleged gift of a bag or ball of gold to each of three sisters, the resulting dowry saving them from lives of prostitution. The traditional Victorian-era gift of oranges at Christmastime is understood to represent these balls of gold. (Three symbolic gold balls are commonly used as an emblem of pawnbrokers, another group under Nicholas’s far-reaching patronage.)

Nicholas is even said to have miraculously restored to life the chopped bodies of three boys put into a tub of salty brine by a malevolent butcher. This story seems to be a gory distortion of another legend, where Nicholas simply saved three boys from drowning in the salty sea. As insurance, concerned sailors were known to throw three loaves of bread into the churning sea as an offering to the saint, who could calm and even walk on the water. In some areas he is still offered bread or other wheat products (cookies too!). The wheat offering is related to a tale in which he miraculously saved Myra from famine by multiplying borrowed wheat from passing ships, with enough left over after feeding the multitudes to plant crops for the coming season.

A PANTHEON OF PREDECESSORS

Such tales are reminiscent of an earlier deity: Poseidon, god of sea and streams and father of the winged horse Pegasus, or Poseidon’s Roman counterpart, Neptune. As the Catholic Church gained power, they appropriated many of the popular pagan deities for Christian use (see “The Coming of the Christian Emperor” ). Pagan temples and idols were revamped into churches and shrines for the worship of newly christened saints. The church simply transferred the qualities and powers of the old gods and goddesses to the new saints, and worship and prayer continued as before. In the East, they took Poseidon’s trident and gave it to Nicholas in the form of a crosier—a pastoral staff, commonly said to represent the crook of the Good Shepherd and found today in the form of striped peppermint at Christmastime.

As “Christianization” marched on, more pagan rites and personages were assimilated into diverse adaptations of Nicholas. His name and some of his characteristics tie in with ancient Norse mythology as well: the supreme god Odin assumes variations of the names of Nickar, Hnikar or Nick when appearing as a destructive water sprite capable of walking on the water and calming or raising tempestuous storms. (“Old Nick,” another appellation of the devil, stems from this term.) Odin also appears as a bearded deity with a trident or a spear on a midwinter flight, piloting a windborne Pegasus-like horse and frequently accompanied by diminutive aides of varying deportment who distribute gifts to the deserving and discipline the wicked.

The fact that Odin is pictured as both good and evil seems paradoxical, but it was not unusual for polytheistic societies to have gods with both good and bad attributes. This explains how St. Nick and Old Nick can derive from the same character.

Other ancient Norse and Teutonic traditions familiar today include food and drink offerings set out to placate the divine ones, and sacred trees that reach to the heavens, pointing to a pole star and the home of the gods. Saint Nicholas and his festivals readily absorbed such elements, and the celebrations continued through the centuries.

SINTERKLAAS IS COMING TO TOWN

With the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, Catholic saint worship was reviled as anathema, the reformers being quick to point out that it replicated polytheistic pagan rituals. But Nicholas-related traditions were not easily uprooted. It was now the newly adopted symbolic Christ child who determined which children got gifts and which were punished, but to accommodate public preference, the saint was sometimes retained in a lesser role, appearing as the dark, occasionally horned elfin helper reminiscent of the Greek Pan or Roman Faunus (whose festival was on December 5). In the Netherlands, however, Sinterklaas survived the overhaul nearly unscathed. Each year he arrives by boat with his white horse, accompanied by a helper of his own (Zwarte Piet/Black Peter). The latter distributes delicacies to good children and may threaten to carry naughty children back to Spain in his empty sack, while the mitered saint delivers gifts to people’s homes each December 5, the eve of his feast day.

Sinterklaas notwithstanding, the Reformation managed to suspend many Christmas celebrations and Nicholas-related observances, and the Thirty Years’ War that devastated Europe from 1618 to 1648 further disrupted ancient traditions and customs. Still, with time, travel and tolerance, Santa Claus and his serpentine line of incarnations seem, for now, to be having the last ho-ho-ho.

It’s generally acknowledged that the second-most important festival of the Christian calendar has no biblical support. Most people shrug that off as irrelevant, but is it?

Christmas: Does It Matter?
In a popular 1965 Broadway musical set in tsarist Russia, the main character insisted that tradition provided balance in the villagers’ lives and that, without traditions, their lives would be “as shaky as a fiddler on the roof.” Traditions are indeed comfortable and somehow reassuring. If we leave the security of the customs we have grown up with, we feel shaken and a bit unstable, as Tevye so eloquently said.

Tradition plays a powerful role in the customs that various cultures embrace. Consider Christmas, for example. The Catholic Encyclopedia states plainly that it “was not among the earliest festivals of the Church.” Rather, this Catholic source cites the festival as an example of a doctrine or custom “transmitted from one generation to another. . . . It is an old tradition that Jesus Christ was born on 25 December” (emphasis added throughout).

But is tradition enough to justify a custom that is inherently at odds with the very person or event it claims to celebrate?

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM?

Many people, writers of the Catholic Encyclopedia included, readily accept that the festival we know as Christmas, together with its customs, is not derived from Scripture. They acknowledge that the Bible provides no support for its observance, yet they fully endorse the celebration of Christ’s birth on December 25.

And on the face of it, Christmas does seem like a fine tradition. The season brings families and friends together in celebration. And what does it matter whether Christ was born on that day or not, so long as He is being honored? Why should it make any difference that the traditional trees, lights, holly, mistletoe, tinsel, Yule logs and Christmas gifts all share their genesis in paganism? Doesn’t the spirit of Christmas outweigh the origins of the various traditions, even if the holiday is based on falsehoods?

The answer can be illustrated by the conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman He met near the city of Sychar, in Samaria (see John 4). Many Bible commentators note that the Samaritans were despised as “mongrel Jews”—a mixed population that resulted from foreigners being moved into the area after the ancient northern kingdom of Israel was taken captive in the eighth century B.C. The new inhabitants intermarried with those Israelites who not been removed from their land, and they absorbed many of the Hebrew ways, even to the point of claiming to worship the God of Israel. But they mingled aspects of the Jewish Torah (law) with the worship of the pagan gods they had imported: “They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods” (2 Kings 17:33). Although they professed themselves to be of the stock of Israel and kept the Israelite traditions, they really did not know what, or whom, they were worshiping.

The Samaritan woman put her finger on the problem when she said to Jesus, “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship” (John 4:20). The Samaritans had erected a temple on Mt. Gerizim, close to where the conversation was taking place. She and the rest of Samaria had been keeping tradition by worshiping at Mt. Gerizim and claiming Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as their forefathers. At this moment, Christ had the perfect opportunity to assure her that so long as they were acknowledging God by their traditional worship, it didn’t matter where they did it. Instead He gently admonished her, lifting her understanding of worship to a higher level. He pointed out that correct worship of God must be done “in spirit and truth,” not in the light of humanly devised traditions. By keeping their traditions, they actually remained blind to truth.

The people of Samaria were very sincere in their religious practice and believed that they were following the example of Abraham and Moses. But their customs prevented them from worshiping the Father in spirit and in truth.

VARYING TRADITIONS

Right tradition is an important aspect of a godly life, as the apostle Paul testified: “Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught” (2 Thessalonians 2:15). But Paul clearly did not mean that every human tradition was appropriate, because he later wrote to the Colossians: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

On the one hand, then, there are traditions we should hold to, and on the other, traditions that a follower of Christ should avoid. Some traditions are based on biblically sound doctrine, while others are based merely on human custom at odds with biblical teaching. To appreciate the differences, it’s helpful to review an example given by Christ Himself. The Jewish religious leaders at the time were teaching their community principles derived from oral tradition. Originally these oral traditions were expansions of the law as given to Moses and the Israelites. But over time they moved farther away from the original intent, drawing more on custom than on Scripture. For example, Jesus confronted the religious leaders over the matter of ceremonial hand-washing before eating. The Pharisees unashamedly referred to these washings as a “tradition of the elders.” Jesus’ remarks were quite plain: He described the leaders as hypocrites for “teaching as doctrines the commandments of men,” and added, “You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” Especially poignant was his remark that by superseding scriptural commandments with human traditions, they were worshiping God “in vain” (Mark 7:5–8, English Standard Version). The clear message was that the commandments of God always override humanly devised traditions.

WALKING IN THE WAY

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah exhorted the people of his day to avoid making wooden idols. He said: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles [or, the heathen];. . . for the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. . . . [But] a wooden idol is a worthless doctrine” (Jeremiah 10:2–4, 8). God condemns those traditions and customs that are based on pagan religious practices.

An excellent summary of God’s attitude in this regard is found in Deuteronomy 12:29–32. Moses instructed the nation of Israel prior to their inheriting the Promised Land. He said, “When the Lord your God cuts off from before you the nations which you go to dispossess, and you displace them and dwell in their land, take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them,. . . and that you do not enquire after their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’ You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. . . . Whatever I command you, be careful to observe it; you shall not add to it nor take away from it.”

The festival observed on December 25 was a part of religious celebrations long before the term Christ-Mass was applied to it. Many people today keep it as a secular, commercial holiday, giving little thought to the fact that the central symbolism of the season has roots in the pagan religions of antiquity. Others likewise overlook any pagan connections, celebrating the day on the basis of its relatively recent application to the birth of Jesus Christ. But according to the Bible’s teachings, a pious veneer does not nullify the pagan nature of the celebration and make it acceptable.

The Bible nowhere identifies exactly when Christ was born, nor does it give any instructions for celebrating the day of His birth. However, it is clear and unambiguous in prohibiting the celebration of traditions and customs whose origins lie in heathen or pagan practices that run counter to Scripture. According to John 4:23–24, “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

I'm Dreaming of a Right Christmas
A Christian look at a non-Christian practice.

In its earliest years, the Christian Church didn’t keep Christmas. It wasn’t until more than three centuries after the birth of Christ that the holiday began to be associated with Roman Christianity.

History does not reveal exactly when professing Christians first celebrated the holiday, but it is clear that when its customs were finally adopted, Christianity quickly gained converts. According to some historical accounts, Christmas was being observed in the Roman Empire’s capital by A.D. 336. Within 20 years, the celebration of the Nativity on December 25 was officially embraced by the church at Rome, and its position in church liturgy was thus established.

But why this date? After all, Scripture nowhere suggests that Jesus was born in winter. On the contrary, the shepherds who saw the angels announcing His birth would not have been out in their fields in December; the winters were too cold and rainy. Another argument against a December date, as cited in the Catholic Encyclopedia in its entry on Christmas, is that the census that brought Jesus’ parents to Bethlehem “would have been impossible in winter: a whole population could not then be put in motion.” The author acknowledges that the Gospel accounts “give no help” in determining the actual date of Christ’s birth.

The article goes on to say: “The well-known solar feast, however, of Natalis Invicti [natalis invicti solis, “birthday of the unconquered sun”], celebrated on 25 December, has a strong claim on the responsibility for our December date.” That feast commemorated the birth of the Persian mystery god Mithra, the Sun of Righteousness, whom the Romans also worshiped. The festival celebrated the winter solstice, when the days again begin to lengthen and the sun begins to climb higher in the sky and thus gains strength. Introduced to the empire by Roman soldiers, the worship of Mithra the sun god was the chief rival to Roman Christianity in the fourth century.

There was great tension between adherents of the new religious movement and those who preferred to worship the traditional Roman gods. The Roman emperor Constantine saw this as a threat to the empire’s stability. Some historians speculate that it was he who incorporated the Roman winter festivals into Christianity. From a political perspective, the adoption of the festivals would have helped to extend his power and to unify the empire. Other historians believe that Constantine was sincere in his desire to spread Christianity; thus, commemorating what he believed to be the birth date of Christ would be only logical.

In ancient Rome, however, political and religious motives were often deeply intertwined. Political success was thought to be dependent on religious piety. Much of Rome’s population was still made up of practicing pagans, or those who had not yet accepted the new faith. These non-Christians would not relinquish their celebrations easily, so it was perhaps more convenient to incorporate those holidays into the church’s practice. They agreed to be considered Christian as long as their customs did not have to change. It was against this political and cultural backdrop that pagan Roman celebrations became mixed with the customs of traditional Christianity.

Gift-giving was a significant feature of the festivities surrounding the Roman Saturnalia, another festival that influenced the development of Christmas during the fourth century. Saturnalia was also related to the first day of winter and the “return of the sun” and was the merriest feast of the year for the Romans. As part of the revelry, slaves and masters switched places to act out an upside down world. All work and business stopped during the festival, and moral restrictions were cast off.

This kind of unrestrained behavior has actually dominated the celebration for most of its history. According to Stephen Nissenbaum, a University of Massachusetts historian and author of The Battle for Christmas, if a person from our time were transported back to a Christmas celebration in England anytime before 1800, he would not recognize the festivities as belonging to Christmas. “You wouldn’t think it was Christmas at all,” he said in a television documentary about the history of the holiday. “What would you think it was? Maybe Mardi Gras? Maybe Halloween? Christmas in old-time England was really a carnival.”

A BREAK IN TRADITION

By the 17th century, Christmas had developed a reputation in England as a drunken revel. In 1644, at the urging of the increasingly influential Puritans, Parliament put in place a law that would force businesses to be open on December 25 and churches to be closed. The holiday would not be legal again in England until Charles II came to power in 1660, though the Scots continued to hold to the Puritan view. Some historians believe that the desire of the masses to celebrate Christmas was a major force in bringing Charles to power.

The Pilgrims and Puritans who sailed to America in the 17th century cited this festival as one of the reasons for making a break from the Church of England. They outlawed its observance in the Massachusetts Colony, where they settled. It would not become a legal holiday there for about two hundred years.

Even in the 19th century the festival was frowned upon in most of America. According to Nissenbaum, New York City’s first professional police force was organized as a result of riots associated with Christmas celebrations. Virtually every American Protestant church forbade or at least discouraged observance of the holiday in the 1800s.

As the century progressed, however, authors such as Washington Irving and Charles Dickens wrote stories that contained goodwill messages about the season. The Industrial Revolution was creating a class war in the Victorian era, and these stories conveyed moral lessons that appealed to those most affected by the changing economics.

Although America had been most resistant to the festival, it ultimately was the nation that most forcefully promoted it. The commercialism that now surrounds December 25 has been driven primarily by American business. In addition, marketing through the new media of television and movies did much to change the holiday’s negative reputation.

IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH

Interestingly, many around the world keep Christmas and observe its customs even though they don’t claim to be Christian. In addition, a substantial number of people in Western Christian societies keep the holiday without giving much thought to its religious aspects. It is viewed by many today as a warm tradition that doesn’t need to have deep significance. It is a time to gather with families or to spend in recreation, or an opportunity for a break from the regular routine.

The majority celebrating this season, however, do associate it with deeply held religious beliefs. For them, Christmas is the most sacred time of the year. They observe the ancient custom because they believe that God and Jesus Christ want them to.

The paradox is that Christ said He came to establish truth, yet the very day that supposedly celebrates His arrival is characterized by myth and deceit. Each Christmas, children are seriously asked to believe that Santa Claus flies with his reindeer from the North Pole to come down their chimneys with gifts—provided they have behaved themselves.

It’s a deceit that conflicts greatly with the fundamental reason Christ said He came to this world: to bear witness to the truth. What kind of garbled message is society sending to children about Jesus Christ when such legends are associated with His birth? Most would say that it is a harmless tradition. However, does it help build faith, arguably the most important element in Christianity?

From a belief that it is a harmless holiday about spreading a little happiness and doing something good for family, friends and needy strangers, the matter now rises to a more serious level; for doing the “good” thing doesn’t equate to doing the right thing. No matter how good things may seem from a human perspective, they can be quite wrong from God’s perspective. The Bible talks of “a way that seems right to a man,” stating that such a way has grave consequences (Proverbs 14:12; 16:25).

Does it matter which customs we observe in our worship of God and Jesus Christ? Perhaps Jesus surprised some of His followers when He warned them that their worship of Him could be misguided. In the well-known Sermon on the Mount, He said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). He also referred to some of the most outwardly religious people of His day as hypocrites, saying, “In vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (see Matthew 15:9 and Mark 7:7). These statements emphasize the importance of understanding what God’s will is, instead of determining what we think is best.

Isn’t it time to make the dream of a right Christmas a reality? That’s to say, as some of our forebears did, no Christmas at all.

Christ established that God does not want to be worshiped with half-truths, myths, legends and human traditions. He told His followers, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

The irony is that this most popular of festivals, ostensibly kept in His honor, has little to do with truth.--Fredtucker (talk) 14:58, 8 December 2007 (UTC)