Why I stopped celebrating Christmas

Here are the 10 reasons I haven’t celebrated Christmas in 33 years.

REASON #1
I am quite sure that one of the last things our Savior would ever want is to “acquire the traits of solar deities.” Rather than Christianizing a pagan holiday, it seems to me they paganized the Messiah.

Job 14:4 – Who can bring out clean from unclean? No one!

I don’t want to do that to Him. I love Him too much. I want the roots of my worship to be in the scriptures, not paganism.

REASON #2
Although Christmas may not mean this to many of us today, I don’t think it matters what it means to us. All that matters is what it means to Him. He is the one being worshiped.

REASON #3
If it was wrong then, it would still wrong now. Sin doesn’t die of old age. Otherwise, what hour, minute and second did it become “okay?”

REASON #4
There is no proof that December 25th was ever His birthday, and scripture does not tell us the date of His birth. Our Savior knew that billions would want to celebrate His birthday, yet He never bothered to tell us when it was. His silence is deafening.

REASON #5
For me, to honor the Messiah’s birthday with pagan customs is like a wife celebrating her husband’s birthday by looking at pictures of her ex-boyfriend. No thanks.

REASON #6
It seems that we hear more about the idol Santa Claus during this time of year than we do about the Messiah. The world is mad with its adoration of Santa. He is the star of the Christmas show, in TV commercials and movies and magazines and newspapers. You would think that it entire holiday was all about him.

I know it is a sin to tell a lie, and I teach my children not to lie. So why would I lie to my children by telling them Santa Claus knows when they are sleeping, when they are awake, and that he is keeping a record of their good and bad deeds? Our children, they look to us for truth. And they believe every word we say. Do they not deserve the truth?

There is no way I could ever condone telling our children to fear Santa Claus, and in so doing, creep an idol into the conscience of a child.

REASON #7
Some may feel that we can take pagan practices or symbols and somehow sanitize them or Christianize them, and that gives our Savior a victory. But would we Christianize Baphomet symbology, or a swastika, or the satanic pentagram?

There was a time in biblical history where there was actually an opportunity to sanitize things and that was when Yahweh brought the children of Israel into the land of Canaan. Instead of sanitizing things, He said:

(NIV) Deuteronomy 12:2-4 – Destroy completely all the places on the high mountains, on the hills and under every spreading tree, where the nations you are dispossessing worship their mighty ones.
3 Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their mighty ones and wipe out their names from those places.
4 You must not worship Yahweh your Mighty One IN THEIR WAY.

So I’m not going to take something He hates and then try to honor Him with it. It looks to me like He is against the whole idea of adopting the traditions and customs of idol worshipers.

Lev 18:3-4 – According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do; and according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, you shall not do; nor shall you walk in their ordinances.
4 `You shall observe My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them: I am Yahweh your Mighty One.

REASON #8
I know from scripture that all idol worship is actually satan worship.

1Co 10:20 – the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to demons and not to Elohim, and I do not want you to have fellowship with demons.

In light of this, would it be okay for a believer to consult satanists about their seances and other observances, and try to “Christianize” them?

What Christians did in selecting December 25th as the birthday of the Messiah is give our holy, precious Savior the character traits of a demons, doctrines of demons and thereby made the Messiah more demonic looking, and more attractive to devil worshipers.

How can anyone do that? I can’t justify what was done.

We don’t need to win the world by imitating the world. We need to win the world by imitating our Savior, living as He lived!

REASON #9.
The entire foundation of the Christmas holiday is a lie. I don’t see where He was born on December 25th, and He did not ask us to celebrate his birthday. He certainly did not say to set up a tree in our house and decorate it and our houses with anything. Santa Claus does not exist. He doesn’t have reindeer that fly and he isn’t going to come down anyone’s chimney on December 25th and leave any gifts. Everything is a lie.

And so I ask myself, is My Father in Heaven the originator of this holiday? Or is it the father of lies?

Exodus 23:7 – keep thee far from a false matter;

I want to be far, far from a false matter!

REASON #10.
There are already holidays in the bible that are all about Him. Passover commemorates His death, the Day of Firstfruits His resurrection, Pentecost the giving of the Holy Spirit through Him, the First of Trumpets commemorating His return at the last trump, etc.

It seems to me that we need to stop trying to save Christmas and instead seek to save the Messiah from it. It’s okay to take Christ out of Christmas because I’m convinced He never wanted to be there to begin with.

So for me, I will continue to honor my Savior with holidays that the bible itself says are all about Him. I don’t need to copy the pagans to come with traditions fo men that actually violate scripture. My Savior said:

Mark 7:9 – “All too well you reject the commandment of Elohim, that you may keep your tradition.

The command in scripture is to not copy what the pagans do, and try to honor our Heavenly Father with their customs. So I will heed what is written:

Deuteronomy 12:30-31 – take heed to yourself that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed from before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying,`How did these nations serve their gods? I also will do likewise.’
31 “You shall not worship Yahweh your Elohim in that way…

Jeremiah 10:2-4 – Thus says Yahweh: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them.
3 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.
4 They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not topple.

Believers weren’t even supposed to inquire about the pagan customs, and they were told not to “learn the way of the Gentiles,” let alone incorporate it into how we worship our Father in Heaven.

Yet, we have one of those customs clearly spelled out to us that displeases our Heavenly Father. Why then would I imitate that by having a Christmas tree in my house?

So for me, I’ll continue to not celebrate Christmas, in spite of tremendous pressure from the world and from the local community to celebrate it.

In the end, I would rather stand on what I see His word saying than stand with what the world is saying and doing.

I will need to be accountable for everything I do on the day of judgment. I don’t want to be found guilty of doing something that scripture clearly teaches us not to do.

He deserves to be loved with HIS love language. He tells us precisely how He wants to be worshiped. So I want to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth, not with the lies associated with the “Christmas holiday.”

John 4:23-24 – But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
24 “Elohim is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Now I understand that few people are intentionally trying to paganize the Messiah by celebrating Christmas. I understand that most people really are trying to honor Him and draw attention to His life, enjoy a good time with their families and love each other.

In all of this, however, I hope we all know that what’s most important is not what Christmas means to us, but what it means to Him. The only way to find out what it means to Him is to examine the scriptures about how He wants to be worshiped. Just because we are having a good time doesn’t mean He approves of the ceremony.

In 2 Samuel 6, David was bringing the ark into Jerusalem on a cart with great joy, music and fanfare. But then Yahweh crashed the party by killing Uzzah for touching the ark. David was very angry. After all, weren’t they just trying to honor Him? They had no idea why He would be displeased. It seemed unfathomable.

Later, David learned how Yahweh felt about the celebration by searching the scriptures. In 1 Chronicles 15:12-15 David recognized that they were not transporting the ark as commanded, with Levites carrying on their shoulders, using poles. It was the pagans who had taught them to put it on a cart in 1 Samuel 6.

He is not honored by the ‘way of the heathen’ and how they do their worship. In Jeremiah 10, He said not to even learn it, let alone practice it and apply it to Him. He is holy and must be treated with respect.

It was the theology of pagans who came up with a Dec. 25th celebration for various sun gods, because that marked the time when the sun would return to the northern hemisphere and the days would again grow longer. The customs associated with Christmas, the Yule, the mistletoe, the evergreens, etc are all from idol worship.

I just don’t think we should be copying the pagans and giving our beloved Savior the attributes of sun gods, no matter how much joy and music and fanfare.

Who will be like David and search the scriptures, with a desire to find out whether or not this is a celebration He is pleased with?