I wish you a truly Christmas

Not one as we know it. It has become far too commercial for my liking. Are we really in “the Christmas spirit” or could it be that some other spirit has stolen the meaning?


for two centuries after Christ's birth, no one knew, and few people cared, exactly when he was born. Birthdays were unimportant; death days counted. Besides, Christ was divine and his natural birth was deliberately played down. In fact, the Church even announced at one point that it was sinful to contemplate observing Christ's birthday "as though He were a King Pharoah."

We can read in the bible about the birth of Jesus in luke 2

It is interesting to consider that the sheep were kept in corals during the cold rainy season, that it was in the spring, when the grass was fresh and the ewe were lambing, that the shepherds were keeping watch through the night with their flock.
So why did it come about that we’re celebrating on December 25th? In ancient times, Dec. 25 was the date of the lavish Roman festival of Saturnalia. It was a time when gifts were exchanged; homes, streets and buildings were decorated; people came home for the holidays and everybody was in a happy, party mood. It is also a time for many cultures around the world to have a yule is an other one)

Some scholars maintain that December 25 was only adopted in the 4th century as a Christian holiday after Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity to encourage a common religious festival for both Christians and pagans. As a mean to make conversion easier?

And there came the 3 wise man to worship and bring gift to the infant Jesus, well, maybe not quite as we think. is it just me who’s under the impression that our culture feel the need to tell a story with a conclusion that come within 30 minutes and that includes the comercials.

Next in line would be boxing day. The day when we need to take out all the box and wrapping and return the gifts that don’t fit or need to be exchanged for one reason or an other. Once again, we’re celebrating something we don’t quite understand.

And what would be christmas without Santa Claus? Now, i got this question poping in my head. Ok, yeah, he’s been part of chirstmas all my life, he’s that magical mistical figue that brings us gifts when we sleep, if we’ve been good. But, but who is he realy and where does he fit in with the story of Jesus? In French we call him Pere Noel, and I was also told that he was St Nicolas.

We seem to have made him the most apealing part of our celebration. He’s everywhere and kids still write him letters. Have we turned him into a big marketing tool for an ever comercial holyday. (now that realy sound oximoron, comercial holy day, please, holyness is not for sale) first off, we celebrate the feast day of St Nicolas on December 6th, again we’re trying to cram everything in one day. And he wasn’t always portrayed in that red suit. Much was atributed to coca cola for cementing that image as yet an other marketing ploy.

I could go on about our traditional decoration and other christmas parafernalia, mistletoe, wreath, yule log ( the french named it the “buche de noel”), stocking, tree…. And other custome, wish I’m not familiar with, my family enjoyed decorating but wasn’t keen on ritual like kissing under the mistletoe and whatnot. if you're interrested, i'll leave links on an other post, i think this one is already too long.

In a few words I feel that For today's Christian, the origin of Christmas is, and should be, the birth of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Bible. Nothing more and nothing less. However, most of what we witness on December 25th each year has absolutely nothing to do with that blessed day. When we think about it, the word Christmas mean Christ’s Mass. A religious ceremony in high honor of Jesus, for His birthday. Come to think of it, every Sunday mass are christ’s mass, after all He’s the whole reason of any and all Christian mass period. So I guess it should be Christmas every day!

One new thing I learned from this research is that Although it is a common misconception that the term Xmas is disrespectful, its origins show it is neither modern nor disrespectful. The Greek word for Christ is Xristos, and the letter "X" was frequently used as a religous symbol. Thus Xmas is merely an abbreviated form of the word Christmas and was first used by Europeans in the 16th century. Andy 'Xian' is also sometimes used as an abbreviation of the word 'Christian'.

I was hoping to make a tidier research but I’m all researched out.
Merry Xmass and a Xly New Year

Chantal, rethinking about the way to celebrate