SOME CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS

“And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.  And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch.”  (John 10:22-23)

That line may seem as though it has nothing to do with Christmas.  In fact, it HAS NOTHING to do with Christmas.  If you’re really sharp, you’ll notice it’s talking about Hanukkah.  Jesus never celebrated Christmas- well unless you count LITERALLY when he was a baby in Bethlehem.   But it’s very unlikely that Jesus was born in late December.  Jesus, as a Jew, did celebrate Hanukkah at this time of the year.  Incidentally, with the exception of the “apocryphal” books of the Maccabees, there are no Old Testament references to Hanukkah, but there IS a New Testament reference to Hanukkah, and that’s it!

Christmas was not celebrated by the early Christians.  Now, there WAS a Roman holiday in late December.  It was a very festive holiday.  Many torches and lanterns were illuminated.  There was much drinking of “adult beverages” and much eating and celebrating.  The holiday was “Saturnalia” in honor of the Roman god Saturn.  Howie Carr of WRKO has said that he isn’t really sure what he believes about Jesus (although he’s a nominal Roman Catholic) but he says, “This is such a lousy time of the year, you just NEED a holiday!”  Well, in a sense, he has a point.  That was the reason the Romans had Saturnalia.  

When the Roman Empire had been largely “Christianized” in the 4th Century (most, like Howie Carr were Christians culturally but only a small percentage had a big, serious commitment to Jesus Christ- just like today) the institutional church changed “Saturnalia” to “Jesus’ birthday”.  People loved it.  They could still get drunk.  They could still “pig out”.  They could still light torches and lanterns.  They could give gifts... only now instead of being about Saturn, it would be about Jesus.  (The Christmas tree was German.  My understanding is that it didn’t become a “universal” custom until many centuries later.)

The early Puritans in Massachusetts Bay colony outlawed Christmas.  They called it “Romish Rags”.  In fact, “Christmas” means “Christ’s Mass” (from Roman Catholicism). My understanding is that Christmas wasn’t “REALLY BIG” in the U.S.A. until around the 1870s.  Sure it was celebrated, but it wasn’t close to what it is today.  I believe it was in the 1880s that Christmas became a federal holiday.  The poem “The Night Before Christmas” popularized most of the American Santa Claus (a derivation of “St. Nicholas”) mythology.

In a recent piece I talked about Christmas carols.  I do really like singing Christmas carols.  I do kind of like the lights and decorations.  As a kid, I LOVED the presents.  Like all kids I just LIVED for the presents!  It was in my 30s that I began to really dislike the materialistic side of Christmas.  On our small salaries, we found ourselves buying presents we just could not afford, but we didn’t want to offend family and friends.  My wife used to get really mad at me, because I’d calculate how we “did” for Christmas, and many years I concluded we “ran in the red”- meaning we took in far less than we’d spent.  The whole thing seemed wasteful and stupid to me.  

I will admit that the Christmas that jarred me OUT of hating Christmas to INSTEAD being much more neutral (and genuinely liking parts of it) was Christmas of 1998.  That year was very tough financially for us.  Honestly, we were having a “poor people’s Christmas” that year.  It was Christmas Eve.  We had come home from our Christmas Eve service and were dining on take-out Chinese food.  A late 1980s full-sized Chevrolet pulled up in front of our house.  A young guy dressed in a Santa Claus outfit rang our doorbell.   I opened it and he asked, “Is your name Bob?”  I replied that it was.  He handed me a bag full of presents.

“You must have the wrong house,” I said.  (I really thought he did!)  
“Nope,” he said, “I got the right house,” and he drove off.

There were no $1000 presents in there, but there WAS some good stuff.  I got razor blades and shaving cream.  No joke, I like that kind of stuff.  I also got a book about Gilligan’s Island by the guy who played the Professor!  I loved that book.  Did you know the pilot for Gilligan’s Island was filmed on November 22, 1963 (J.F.K. assassination day) in Honolulu, Hawaii?  Well, I didn't until I read that book!

We were all happy with our gifts and with being thought of.   I try to think of others at Christmas and I try to do things that make them happy.  As you can tell from this entry, though, I’m “all over the ballpark” in my feelings about Christmas.

And, as I said at the beginning, Jesus celebrated Hanukkah!  “What would Jesus do” about the Adam Sandler Hanukkah song?  Well, don’t freak out, but I think He’d laugh and enjoy it!