The Reformed Home Schooler

Starting a New December Tradition Dec. 22, 2006

Why we don't celebrate Christmas.

We do not celebrate Christmas because it is a holiday who's origins are pagan and are not Biblical.  Like many things in the early church (and even going as far back as Israel of the Old Testament)  Christmas was adapted to be something for God's People not based on Scripture but rather by taking a belive of another Religion and trying to make it "Christian" to appease people, to make it easier for them.  While this might seem like a way of opening up the Church to more people while it does this it waters down what the true church really is.  To put it bluntly there are no Holy Days that we as the people of God are to keep other than the Christian Sabbath.  This should be the focus of Christians keeping the Sabbath and making it Holy by keeping it as God commanded, not taking another day that God has not commanded and try and put our thoughts of what is Holy into it.

This being said not everything about Christmas is Bad, gathering for fellowship with friends and family, sharing gifts with others these are all good things, commerating Christ's Incarnation is a good thing but how to do it right. 

Our Family in trying to do this is starting a New Tradition this year, it is based loosely upon an Old Testament Feast or Celebration time.

We are starting from the Sabbath Before Christmas until the Sabbath and setting it apart as a week of feasting and celebrating Christ's Incarnation.  The truth is the world rightly or wrongly is focusing on Jesus this time of year so it is a good time to witness to others (in our case our family who are non-believers)

What we are doing is to take the focus of the "Baby Jesus" who born in Humble "circumstances" but put the focus  on Jesus being God who humbled himself to come to this world as a man to die for our sins, and that this is not a happening of circumstances but rather part of our Father's eternal plan.

What we hope to do is to have a series of feasts (part of this is because of the travelling we do) but also a Feast is Biblical way of celebrating and expressing Thanksgiving to God.  We are goin to use our Family worship time to read about the prophesies of Christ's coming, His Coming and His Saving Work.  I am also hoping to have a time of reading about the work of his people throughout the world, concentrating each day on a different Continent.  Basically we read about a missionary or missionary work  (past or present) each day.  To make it fun for the family we'll try and have our feats meal based on the cultural of that region. 

We still exchange gifts but what we are doing is giving one or two small gifts to each child every day (other than the 2 Sabbaths) Our families will still give the kids loads of gifts on Christmas Day, and that's their perogative and it is appreciated. But we really want to try and keep the greed and coveteousness that goes along with it away.

Seven other things about how we do the Holidays.

1. Much to my mother's dismay we do not, nor have ever have done Santa Claus.  While it might seem harmless our reasoning is simple, if we tell our young children about this person who sees what they are doing and will judge them by giving them a great reward and they find out we are lying to them and it is all made up, how are they going to belive them when we tell them about the one who really can see all they are doing and will judge them and provide the Greatest reward.
   
2. Christmas Tree's we're not really against (we don't have one this year because we are going to be away for over a week and it would just dry out) They are just a decorative plant.
   
3. Nativity Scenes we are against because they break the 2nd commandment and they are not even biblically accurate
   
4. Special Church services on Christmas are unneeded, we should worry about filling our churches on the Day the Lord has commanded instead of on man made days.  Interesting enough around here last year when Christmas fell on Sunday many Churches cancelled their services, which is quite ironic because other years when Christmas is another day of the week they would open for a special service.
   
5. Christmas Carols are fun to sing but are not a reliable source to get Biblical doctrine from.
   
6. Christmas comes from the words Christ and Mass which is really interesting because a Mass is a Ritual Sacrifice (or in this case Resacrifice) so this was a day set aside to Honour Christ by having a Ritual Sacrifice where the Priests would resacrifice him. Doesn't make sense to me especially since the Bible clearly states that Christ attonement was enough.
   
7. As much as we do not like using the word Christmas it is still a hard habit to break

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Hello!

hrlabonte - 10:50 AM - Dec. 23, 2006

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Canadagirl - 11:16 AM - Dec. 23, 2006

Amen

floridasnowflakes - 1:41 AM - Dec. 24, 2006

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MoreLittleWilsons - 3:37 PM - Dec. 24, 2006

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OurHomeSweetHomeschool - 3:01 PM - Dec. 25, 2006