Family, Fun, and... Fighting?

It's that time of year again. The time for family, fun, and... fighting.

Besides the normal family feuding, this time of year tends to bring with it a lot of disagreement on how things should be celebrated, how things should be said, how things should be decorated. You name it. When the truth is, we have two separate holidays happening at once (not including the multiple other traditional religious celebrations).  You have Wintertime (or, Winter Solstice, if you will) Festivities and then you have Christmas. It seems like with each passing year, the two opposing views collide more than they did the year before.

One of the reoccurring themes in recent years is the changing of the name "Christmas Tree" to "Holiday Tree", along with the change of the greeting, "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays".

Upon pondering this "Holiday Tree" business, I have wondered why a tree is involved in the first place. And I still don't see the significance as to how it relates to Christmas. It has nothing to do with the birth of Christ. And on top of that, the Evergreen originally was used to celebrate pagan gods. I guess, for those celebrating the Savior's birth, it's purely to make the room look pretty--or in some cases, individual families have turned the bringing of Evergreen trees into the home as a form of significance toward Christ's birth in some way--and yet others, have attempted to combine the two holidays into one. But for what people typically use Evergreen trees for during this time of year (attempting to celebrate both holidays at the same time), I would rather call it a Holiday Tree, or simply, an Evergreen Tree. For, to call it a Christmas Tree and attempt to make it a part of celebrating Christ's birth only distracts from the Nativity. Evergreen trees, and Santa Claus, and presents, and reindeer, and elves, etc. Are all a distraction from what we are really celebrating.  For those who do not celebrate Christ's birth, all of those things are how they celebrate. To attempt to bring those things into the Nativity Celebration and call the whole thing Christmas is to spit in God's face, in my opinion. Celebrating, remembering, and rejoicing over the Nativity, and our Savior humbling Himself to the lowly place of a human being,  and being born on this earth so that he could pay the penalty for our sins, is Christmas. Anything outside of that is simply a Wintertime Festivity.

So the next time someone says, "Holiday Tree", don't get angry. When someone says, "Happy Holidays", don't get angry. Those people most likely do not celebrate Christ's birth. For them to call their celebration "Christmas" would be incorrect. And I believe for us to call their celebration "Christmas" when it does not involve the Nativity of Christ is dishonoring to Christ.

To be clear, I don't think there is anything wrong, necessarily, with participating in all of the Wintertime Festivities, just don't call it Christmas (something I am having to train my brain on). The two things are separate.

Click here to read the history of Christmas.

Click here to read the history of the Christmas Tree.