Christmas: A Time of Stock Taking, Thanksgiving and Celebration of Christ’s Birth

Alfred Henyo

Year ending is a time of stock taking: Looking at the past, present and the days ahead. As stock taking, we
consider our activities and the actions we carried out.
2Corinthians 13:5: Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know
yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified.
Psalm 139:23-24: Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; 24 And see if there
is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.
If the thoughts of your heart are made known and your life is investigated how real would your character be
rated?
If every detail of your conduct is laid open to the public, what impression would people have about your
conduct? Do people have suspicion about your lifestyle and are there needs for repentance?
How loyal and truthful have we been in our dealings with men and God just as we have been to our businesses?
Where am I? Am I performing well or poorly with regards to service to God and to men?
Did I live circumspectly or allowed the world to dictate my actions.
Did I serve God as my master or served money as my master?
Are there some corrections I should make if I were to write my own tribute?
If someone else were to write, would people question it?
Often times, truthful and loyal workers and perhaps customers are honoured for their commitment to the
growth of the institution.
Those honoured gain some bargaining currency for greater openings into the year ahead.
Question: How truthful and loyal have we also been to God concerning His demands on our lives?
Should God assess our commitment based on His demands on our lives, what would He honour us for? What
would our strongest currency that could bargain our extension for life and blessings?
Nobody is honoured for holding onto their personal views and policies that contradict the dreams and
aspirations of the institution. Such persons may even be punished or their contracts terminated.

- Assessing our lives always comes with mixed feelings. There are sweet/bitter memories. We all have one
common bitter time and that is the passing of a dear one.
One thing that life assessment brings is that, it reminds us that we cannot hold firmly onto our personal views
and attitudes forever. We are denied that right to hold onto what has been placed under our care by God
forever. Money, Job, family, position, wealth, philosophies, etc.
There must be a point in your life that a change becomes inevitable. What views do you hold about life?

= A time of thanksgiving: Purposely to thank God and perhaps show appreciation to committed workers.
1Chronicles 29:11-13: 11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, The power and the glory, The victory and the
majesty; For all that is in heaven and in earth is Yours; Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, And You are exalted
as head over all. 12 Both riches and honour come from You, And You reign over all. In Your hand is power
and might; In Your hand it is to make great And to give strength to all. 13 Now therefore, our God, We thank
You And praise Your glorious name.
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 Psalm 107:8-9: Oh, that men would give thanks to the LORD for His goodness, And for His wonderful works
to the children of men! 9 For He satisfies the longing soul, And fills the hungry soul with goodness.
Christmas: A time to celebrate the greatest gift God ever gave to man.
Luke 2:13-14: 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and
saying: 14 Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!
The joy that Jesus Christ was born into the world was ordained by God but nobody knows the date these
angels visited the earth to do their praises because of God’s gift.
An event that brought angels from heaven to sing on earth. Jesus’ birth brought changes in heaven and on
earth. The calendar of the world changed and it tells us that Jesus brings changes into every situation.
Anyone who encounters Jesus should be ready for a change.
Unfortunately, Christmas has become a controversial ceremony among Christians due to the lack of records on
Jesus birthdate.
= Reasons some do not celebrate Christmas
i. Christmas has a pagan origin.
Which day or festival that existed before Jesus’ birth doesn’t have pagan origin?
The Bible never calls a day by its name. Men decided on days of the names based on their beliefs.
Sunday: Sun's day - Ancient Greek hemera heli(o)u, "day of the sun"
Monday: Moon's day - Ancient Greek hemera selenes "day of the moon"
Tuesday: Tiu's day - Tiu (Twia) is the English/Germanic god of war and the sky.
Wednesday: Woden's day - Woden is the chief Anglo-Saxon/Teutonic god. Woden is the leader of the Wild
Hunt.
Thursday: Thor's day - Thor is the Norse (Scandinavian) god of thunder. He is represented as riding a chariot
drawn by goats and wielding the hammer
Friday: Freya's day - Freya (Fria) is the Teutonic goddess of love, beauty and fecundity (prolific procreation).
She is identified with the Norse god Freya.
Saturday: Saturn's day - Saturn is the Roman and Italic god of agriculture and the consort of Ops. He is
believed to have ruled the earth during an age of happiness and virtue.
It is an error to think that a particular day is better than another. No day is holy without God’s hand in it.
Romans 14:4-8: Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he
will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. 5 One person esteems one day above another;
another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day,
observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats,
eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives
God thanks. 7 For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8 For if we live, we live to the Lord;
and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
Colossians 2:16-17: So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or
sabbaths, 17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

- Is it the gods who made the days? Though Jesus died on Easter, that day was for the celebration of a deity.
Before Christ’s birth, the world was controlled by paganism, we all like sheep had gone astray.
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 - Almost every celebration or festival in this evil world originated from paganism and many Christians
condemned most of our regalia due to the use of them by pagans.
Early European missionaries frowned on our African costumes, branded them as fetish due to our culture.
In 1931 Ephraim Amu preached wearing his African attire on a Sunday, he was summoned to appear before
the church court by Rt Rev. Peter Hall who told him We were taken aback to see you conduct Sunday service
in a native cloth. We hope you will not do this again.
Is it evil to dress in Kente to attend church? Do we say Christianity had fallen into the hands of pagans because
of our African costumes that we parade in churches today?
Christmas has a pagan origin from Europe and Rome. Easter has a pagan origin from Babylon and it is
believed to have started from the time of Nimrod.
In order to hijack pagan festivities, church leaders adopted most of the days in order to absorb the traditions
of pagan festivals so that instead of attending pagan festivals, Christians used the occasion to attend church.
Believers repackaged the pagan festivals to absorb the season and introduced Christ instead.
Emperor Constantine adopted Sunday, made it a holiday for the church to celebrate God on Sundays.
Kenneth Samples: It is an error in logic that focuses solely on a thing’s origin without giving any credence or
thought to how that thing has changed over time.
ii. The early church never celebrated Christmas so modern Christians make mistake if they celebrated it.
In the early 4th century, people argued that Jesus was not born but descended from heaven despite the
prophecies about the virgin’s birth. Believers repackaged Jesus’ birth to consolidate His virgin birth.
iii. The celebration of Christmas is not instructed in the Bible.
It is better to understand the word celebrate. Celebrate (Encarta)
- To show happiness that something good or special has happened. May come with such things as eating
and drinking together or playing music.
- To mark a special occasion or day by ceremonies or festivities.
- To praise something publicly or make it famous.
Heavenly celebration was extended to the earth at the birth of Jesus Christ.

- Oxford dictionary: Acknowledge a significant or happy day or event with social gathering or enjoyable
activity.
Does the Bible ban believers from celebrating Jesus?
Those who celebrate it should not condemn those who don’t and vice versa.
= The characters that surrounded Christ’s birth celebrated His birth.
- Mary: He acknowledged a special event and showed happiness that something good and special has happened.
Luke 1:46-49: And Mary said: "My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.
48 For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call
me blessed. 49 For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name.

- Zacharia: He marked the birth of John as a special time because of his role in Jesus Birth.
Luke 1:68-69: Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited and redeemed His people, 69 And has
raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of His servant David.
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 - Angels: They praised the birth of Jesus publicly to make it famous.
Luke 2:13-14: 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and
saying: 14 Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!

- The shepherds: They marked Jesus birth as a special occasion so they visited Him.
Luke 2:15: So it was, when the angels had gone away from them into heaven, that the shepherds said to one
another, Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known
to us.

- The wise men: They rejoiced with extraordinary great joy when they observed Jesus’ location of birth.
Matthew 2:10-11: When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. 11 And when they had
come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And
when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

- Let your conscience guide your life. Never judge Christians who hold different convictions on trivial issues
like Christmas.
- It is dangerous to use ungodly arguments to support moral convictions.
- Having fun is not bad. If certain fun fairs are ungodly, just go for alternative events that allow your fear for
God to thrive in good conscience.
You can use Christmas time as an opportunity to discuss the birth of Jesus Christ.
iv. Christmas is a worldly celebration that attracts evil and sinful activities.
It is true many believers are not able to balance the sacred aspects of Christmas with the commercialization and
worldly celebration and so we need to be wise. Christmas is not about beaches and extravagant revelries.
Question: Should we allow the world to hijack the message of Christmas and turn it?
Christmas also brings Christ consciousness into town. It is a good time to make Jesus known since most songs
are composed about Christ and they are played at such times.
1Thessalonians 5:21-22: Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
v. Jesus Christ was not born on December 25th.
It is true. We celebrate His birth and not His birth date. His birth is so special to Christianity that it cannot be
ignored.
The bible doesn’t give any specific time or date that Jesus Christ was born. All the days of Christmas have
been speculated. December 26, January 6th and January 7th attest to this.

- December 25th: Christmas Day, Celebrated by about one third of the world’s population
Over two billion people celebrate December 25th as Christmas. By the 4th century, the early church had
plumped for January 6th but as the religion gained popularity across the Roman Empire, they realised that
Christmas Day was competing with the existing Roman festival of Sol Invictus (Sun god).
The Christians therefore decided to switch Christmas day to December 25th, so that both holidays would be
celebrated on the same day and eventually Christmas Day would outlast Sol Invictus.
- January 6th – Armenian Christmas: Observed in: Armenia, Lebanon (by Armenian Lebanese)
In regions outside the influence of the Roman Empire, such as Armenia, there was no competing holiday such
as Sol Invictus.

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 This meant that the Christian church had no reason to move the date of Christmas, so the original date of
January 6th stayed as it was.

- January 7th – Orthodox Christmas: Observed in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine
The Orthodox Church recognises January 7th as the day that Jesus was born. The different date from the
western tradition of December 25th is twofold.

Firstly, in 1582, Pope Gregory XIII, ruled that the Catholic Church should follow a new calendar, called the
Gregorian calendar rather than the Julian calendar which had been established by Julius Caesar in 46BC. This
meant the dates differed by 10 days with Gregorian Christmas on January 4th. Secondly, due to the way that
leap years differ between the two calendars, Orthodox Christmas has moved forward by another three days
since 1582 and is now on January 7th. By 2100 AD, Orthodox Christmas will be celebrated on January 8th.

- January 7th – Coptic Christmas: Observed in Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea (by Coptic community)
The Coptic calendar, also called the Alexandrian calendar, is used by the Coptic Orthodox Church. This
calendar is based on the ancient Egyptian calendar and similar to the Julian Calendar used by the Orthodox
Church.

= The devil doesn’t want Jesus birth to be told or broadcasted. He started it through Herod.
Matthew 2:16: Then Herod, when he saw that he was deceived by the wise men, was exceedingly angry; and
he sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two
years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men.
Today, nations want it to be celebrated like any other holiday without mentioning Jesus’ name.

- The devil doesn’t want humanity to celebrate Jesus because of what His birth stands for.
Neither the devil, sinners nor the world will ever celebrate Jesus for us. If we don’t, nobody will.

Perhaps Jesus may command stones to celebrate Him if living beings are prevented from celebrating Him.
Luke 19:39-40: And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, Teacher, rebuke Your disciples. 40
But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately
cry out.

- We celebrate Jesus to consolidate the truth that God sent Him to save us. Romans 5:8.
- To let all and sundry know that God loves us. John 3:16
- As a reminder that God is with us. He is Emmanuel, Isaiah 7:14.
- Jesus last words were I am with you always. Never doubt His presence with you in every situation.
- To show that God loves us. Nobody loves you more than Jesus. Love gives. Romans 8:32; 1John 4:9-10,
- Christmas is a time to consolidate your love for Jesus and make Him eternally your friend.
- In as much as we try to change our surroundings, it is equally and more necessary to change our stand
before Him.
- Christmas is a reminder that religion is not the solution to man’s depravity but salvation is the way out.
- It is a reminder that genuine peace is possible and God offers it through Jesus. Peace in your life, home,
etc.
- We celebrate the reconciliation God has made with man and we can do same with others.
- Giving gifts to build bridges and diffuse tensions and hatred.

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 - A season to demonstrate love by giving to all, both friends and enemies.
- We celebrate the fact that no matter how God’s word tarries, it shall surely come to pass. The prophecy
took a long time but it finally came through.
- We celebrate the fact that enemies are planning to sabotage God’s plan but whatever God has ordained
shall surely come to pass. Herod tried and he didn’t succeed.

= Jesus wants His name and works to be celebrated.

Luke 19:39-40: And some of the Pharisees called to Him from the crowd, "Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.
40 But He answered and said to them, "I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately
cry out.

- It is Christmas time. Celebrate God’s love, goodness, mercy and tell it everywhere that Jesus was born and
He lives forever.

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The Naming of the Days
The Greeks named the days week after the sun, the moon and the five known planets, which were in turn
named after the gods Ares, Hermes, Zeus, Aphrodite, and Cronus.
The Greeks called the days of the week the Theon hemerai "days of the gods".

The Romans substituted their equivalent gods for the Greek gods, Mars, Mercury, Jove (Jupiter), Venus and
Saturn.

The Germanic peoples generally substituted roughly similar gods for the Roman gods, Tiu (Twia), Woden, Thor,
Freya (Fria), but did not substitute Saturn.

Sunday: Sun's day

Ancient Greek hemera heli(o)u, "day of the sun"
Latin dies solis "day of the sun"

Middle English sone(n)day or sun(nen)day

Old English sunnandæg "day of the sun"
Germanic sunnon-dagaz "day of the sun"

Monday: Moon's day

Ancient Greek hemera selenes "day of the moon"
Latin dies lunae "day of the moon"

Middle English Monday or mone(n)day

Old English mon(an)dæg "day of the moon"

Tuesday: Tiu's day

Tiu (Twia) is the English/Germanic god of war and the sky. He is identified with the Norse god Tyr.
Mars is the Roman god of war.
Ares is the Greek god of war.

Middle English tiwesday or tewesday

Old English tiwesdæg "Tiw's (Tiu's) day"
Latin dies Martis "day of Mars"
Ancient Greek hemera Areos "day of Ares"

Wednesday: Woden's day

Woden is the chief Anglo-Saxon/Teutonic god. Woden is the leader of the Wild Hunt.
Hermes is the Greek god of commerce, invention, cunning, and theft. He is the messenger and herald of the
other gods. He serves as patron of travellers and rogues, and as the conductor of the dead to Hades.

Middle English wodnesday, wednesday, or wednesdai

Old English wodnesdæg "Woden's day"
Latin dies Mercurii "day of Mercury"
Ancient Greek hemera Hermu "day of Hermes". Mercury is the Roman god of commerce, travel, thievery,
eloquence and science. He is the messenger of the other gods.

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Thursday: Thor's day
Thor is the Norse god of thunder. He is represented as riding a chariot drawn by goats and wielding the hammer
Miölnir. He is the defender of the Aesir, destined to kill and be killed by the Midgard Serpent.
Jupiter (Jove) is the supreme Roman god and patron of the Roman state. He is noted for creating thunder and
lightning.
Zeus is Greek god of the heavens and the supreme Greek god.

Middle English thur(e)sday

Old English thursdæg
Old Norse thorsdagr "Thor's day"
Old English thunresdæg "thunder's day"
Latin dies Jovis "day of Jupiter"
Ancient Greek hemera Dios "day of Zeus".

Friday: Freya's day

Freya (Fria) is the Teutonic goddess of love, beauty, and fecundity (prolific procreation). She is identified with
the Norse god Freya. She is leader of the Valkyries and one of the Vanir. She is confused in Germany with Frigg.

Frigg (Frigga) is the Teutonic goddess of clouds, the sky, and conjugal (married) love. She is identified with Frigg,
the Norse goddess of love and the heavens and the wife of Odin. She is one of the Aesir. She is confused in
Germany with Freya.
Venus is the Roman goddess of love and beauty.
Aphrodite (Cytherea) is the Greek goddess of love and beauty.

Middle English fridai

Old English frigedæg "Freya's day"
composed of Frige (genetive singular of Freo) + dæg "day" (most likely)
or composed of Frig "Frigg" + dæg "day" (least likely)
Germanic frije-dagaz "Freya's (or Frigg's) day"
Latin dies Veneris "Venus's day"

Ancient Greek hemera Aphrodites "day of Aphrodite"

Freo is identical with freo, meaning free. It is from the Germanic frijaz meaning "beloved, belonging to the
loved ones, not in bondage, free".

Saturday: Saturn's day

Saturn is the Roman and Italic god of agriculture and the consort of Ops. He is believed to have ruled the earth
during an age of happiness and virtue.

Middle English saterday

Old English sæter(nes)dæg "Saturn's day"
Latin dies Saturni "day of Saturn"
Ancient Greek hemera Khronu "day of Cronus"

Cronus (Kronos, Cronos) is the Greek god (Titan) who ruled the universe until dethroned by his son Zeus.

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Controversies surrounding Christmas
The history of Christmas is not new and the history dates back to 4000 years. Before the
birth of the Christ child, Jesus, many of the traditions and customs of Christians were
there. The bright fires, Yule log, exchanging gifts, 12 days long Christmas celebrations,
parades with floats, the holiday feast and many more traditions were already pre-existing.

Mesopotamian tradition of celebrating New Year was the prime origin of many of these
interesting traditions. Believers of many Gods, Mesopotamians, believed that their main
deity, Marduk, fought for them against the monster of chaos, during the winter. To stand
beside Marduk, Mesopotamians celebrated the New Year festival which was known as
Zagmuk. The celebration of this festival continues for 12 days.

The emperor of Mesopotamians used to get back to the Marduk temple according to their
tradition and pledged his truthfulness to the important Almighty. It was his wish to come
back with Marduk to the battle field after death.

To spare the original ruler, Mesopotamians, used a mock king who was given the honour
of wearing royal attires of the king. The respect and tribute given to the mock king was
like the real king. The crown of the mock king was given to a criminal. At the end of the
ceremony the kingly attire was taken off and the criminal was killed. It spared the life of
the real king.

Sacaea, the similar festival of Persians and Babylonians, was also celebrated during the
winter. During this festival the slaves were honoured with the crown of the master and
master had to obey the orders. Exchanging gifts was also included in the list of the
celebrations.

During winter Solstice, many Europeans, wanted to see the sunlight back and to do that
special rituals and celebrations were held. Early Europeans were firm believers of evil
spirits, ghosts, witches and trolls. They were afraid of the dark cold nights and short days
of prolonged winters.

Sun used to hide him somewhere and was out of vision completely during the winter in
Scandinavia. After thirty-five days of majestic celebrations, scouts would be sent to the
mountain tops to search the sunlight. When the first light was seen the scouts would
return back with the good news. A striking festival was held around the burning Yule logs.
To celebrate the return of sunlight the bonfire was lit. It was also important to remember
that the spring and summer would return again. They used to tie apples to the tree
branches for that.

To assist their God Kronos in the battle against the God Zeus and his titans, old Greeks
used to celebrate another festival which was quite similar to the Zagmuk or Sacaea.

Saturnalia, held between the mid December and 1st January, a Roman festival, was
celebrated when they used to worship the god, Saturn. The list of celebrations used to
include big festive meals, visiting a friend’s house and exchanging gifts called strenae.
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Green trees were lighted and the Roman homes were well decorated with garlands of
various aromatic trees. The slaves used to sit on the master’s place and vice versa.

Even though the festivity was celebrated with lot of fun and interests but Christians
thought it in different way. Christians thought that it was an abomination to honour the
Pagan god. Christians always wanted to celebrate the birthday of the Christ child as a
serious religious festival. They did not like to celebrate the festival like that of Saturnalia.
Saturnalia festival was full of fun and excitement.

But gradually it was found that the celebration of Pagan traditions and Saturnalia were
going on. Christians were anxious and alarmed by that. Firstly, these kinds of celebrations
were forbidden by the church as Christianity started to spread. Churches decided to
control the celebrations of Saturnalia and also decided to celebrate an occasion to honour
the Christian son of the God.

If you look into the history, then you would see that Christians used to celebrate Christmas
to compete against the pagan celebration of December. Religion Mithraism of Persians
was one of the chief rivals of Christians at that point of time as well. So, it proves that it
was not only the Romans against whom Christians fought. Eventually, the church
successfully included the tradition of lights and exchanging gifts in the list of Christmas
celebrations.

It was sad that the exact birthday of the Christ child had never been identified. However,
according to the history it has been celebrated since the year 98 AD. The birth day of the
Christ child as a sombre banquet was celebrated since 137 AD to honour the order of the
Bishop of Rome. Julius I, the Bishop, decided to celebrate Christmas on 25th December.

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The Psychology of Christmas and Its Contradictions
By now, most people know that none of these things were present at the time and place of Jesus'
birth in Israel around 4 BC (yes, somehow, Jesus was born four years before Christ; Dunn, 2003).
Adding more cognitive dissonance is that Jesus and his apostles, all of whom were Jewish (Rich,
2016), celebrated Hanukkah, described in the Gospel of John (10:22) as “the Feast of Dedication,"
and not the holiday that would eventually be named after him.

Another source of consternation is that the exact date of Jesus' birth is still a mystery (Strauss,
2015), despite our longstanding tradition of celebrating this event on December 25.

During the era of the Julian calendar, Dec. 25 was the day the Romans recognized as the winter
solstice, or as they called it, "Sol Invictus," and this event fed into a holiday
called Saturnalia (named after the Roman god Saturn) which marked the start of seed planting for
the new year. However, perhaps as early as 10,000 BC, pagans celebrated the winter solstice. The
winter solstice marks the occasion when light returns to the world as days get increasingly long,
which is a sign that flowers, trees, and plants will soon be resurrected and crops will start growing
again. It also marks a time of psychological rebirth, and a remission of the malaise we now
call seasonal affective disorder.

When and how the date of Jesus' birth was affixed to Dec. 25 is also unknown, but there are many
theories. One such theory is that in the 4th century, after the Roman emperor Constantine
converted to Christianity and legalized the religion within the empire, the early Church assigned
Jesus' birthday to coincide with Sol Invictus and Saturnalia for both symbolic and political reasons.

No matter what day Jesus was actually born — whether it was Dec. 25 or not — one thing that we
can be confident of is that there probably wasn't snow on the ground. Though it’s technically not
impossible for it to snow in Israel, where Jesus entered the world, we’re talking about a country at
the same latitude as northern Mexico, so it's highly unlikely that there were any effigies to Frosty
the Snowman.

Whether it's visions of snowflakes, sleigh rides, or jingling bells, most of our associations of
Christmas are accouterments that were added centuries after Christmas was established as a
holiday in the Roman Empire and spread to other parts of Europe. It then merged with another
solstice festival called "Yule" (which was celebrated by the Germanic peoples of Europe),
sometime around the 9th century (Eldridge, 2022), and this added another layer of traditions,
imagery, and mythology to the mix.

This growing amalgam of celebrations was then revised by the British (Flight, 2022), who appear
to have standardized the beliefs and customs around what we now call "Christmas" and they
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spread their own version of this holiday throughout English-speaking world during the Victorian
era of the 19th century. The British Empire, which was the largest in history and once included the
American colonies, peaked in the early 20th century: a time when telecommunications was starting
to come into its own. This enabled the world's most powerful entities — especially the British
Empire — to spread their cultural beliefs and practices (including those about Christmas) more
easily than ever before. It is this version of the holiday that seems to have become the foundation
of what we, in 21st-century America, believe to be a "traditional" Christmas celebration, but
ironically it's a modern creation, sharing little in common with most aspects of the original nativity
story in the New Testament.

The hodgepodge of beliefs, customs, and traditions about Christmas that we've inherited has
created confusion and cognitive dissonance among the masses who call themselves "Christians," of
which I consider myself one. This has led to a growing schism between secular and devout
Christians about how to celebrate Christmas, with the latter imploring us to "keep Christ in
Christmas," even though the original form of this holiday had nothing to do with Jesus.

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