Can You Have Christmas Without Christ?

Having Christmas without Christ is like a man having a wedding without a bride. Haven't we done enough to distort the true meaning of Christmas without taking away the reason we celebrate it in the first place? It has gotten to the point now that when we begin to see Christmas decorations going up we know that Thanksgiving is just around the corner.

It's true that Christmas is a joyous time of the year and most of us love it when the Christmas season comes around. Actually, a lot of people would love nothing better than to celebrate Christmas year round. But let's face it, not many of us can afford the one Christmas we have once a year.

Jesus Christ came from the Father about 2,000 years ago as a baby and grew up to give His life for mankind. Christmas (Christ-mass) is the day we celebrate the birth of the Son of God which is the greatest gift to mankind and we have been exchanging gifts on this day for centuries. But over the last fifty years we have taken the emphasis off Christ and put it on giving and getting.

Taking Christ out of Christmas is like taking any of us out of our birthday celebration."Happy birthday ...whoever!" If it's your birthday, the celebration should be centered upon you but if people leave you out and simply celebrate for the sake of celebrating, they have taken away the honor that should have been bestowed upon you.

It's just outright ridiculous. Even our radio and television stations refrain from anything pertaining to Christ during the Christmas season. How many songs do you hear about Jesus on the radio during the Christmas season? It's either Santa Clause, Rodolph, Frosty the snowman, Jingle bell rock, or Grandma got run over by a reindeer!

We've already allowed a rabbit (of all things) to take Christ's place at Easter. How far are we going to let this foolishness go? We're all guilty of this. We tell our kids to go to sleep on Christmas Eve or Santa won't come then we take them to church Christmas morning. How do we explain Santa to them when they're old enough to understand what Christmas means?

Most kids understand as they get older that it was all just pretend and that Jesus is the real reason for the Christmas season. However, there are some who, when they learn that Santa is not real, begin to question the reality of Christ. The same applies to Easter as well. We are confusing our kids.

Perhaps people feel that Jesus takes the fun out of Christmas. Having Christmas with Christ doesn't take the joy out of it unless one is an avid atheist who gets seriously irate at the very mention of Jesus Christ regardless of the season. Then of course there are those who get embarrassed because Christianity is not considered socially appropriate in some places. And for these persons it must be said that Christ emphatically stated that He would deny before the Father anyone who denied Him before man.

Then there are those who believe that taking Christ out of Christmas takes the drinking and partying around the holidays out of the picture. They've obviously never seen a festive Jewish celebration!

However, while we're celebrating we must remember what it is that we are celebrating which is the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ. The Cross and a Bible can replace the figure of Santa and his reindeer on the coffee table and a manger scene with wise men would look just as nice on the lawn as those snowmen.

Therefore, you can have a Christmas without Christ if you choose to do so but since He is the reason for the season, why would you want to? He didn't leave any of us out when he bore our sins on the Cross.

Ask true Christians this question then get ready to laugh when you see the expression on their face. True Christians don't leave Christ out of anything- especially Christmas.