Christmas?

What is the true meaning of Christmas?

[This originally occured as a response a friend's post on his blog page. He had rightly pointed out that the "true meaning of Christmas" is often lost today. However, the point I am making is that the "meaning of Christmas" IS equal to "the birth of Christ." Christmas wasn't meant to celebrate the life and resurrection of Christ. The reason for the birth of Christ WAS about more than just the birth of another baby... but the holiday of Christmas was meant to celebrate this birth... so let's not beat up Christmas for peoples' misunderstandings of the total importance of the Christian faith. Anyway, here's my post...]

I enjoyed the blog, but lately with all the talk I hear about people "missing the meaning of Christmas," I agree and disagree. I agree with the fact that many people miss the point of Christmas - like you said: Christmas has become commericial and all about money, etc. However, many Christians in an effort to "bring people back to the true meaning of Christmas" commit a subtle error (in my opinion, anyway).

Here's the way the argument breaks down in my mind: 1) Christmas is the most popular, upfront Christian holiday and it has to do with the birth of Jesus Christ; 2) We, as Christians, know that Christianity is about much more than just the birth of Jesus (as you have rightly pointed out); 3) People are missing this point that Christianity is about more than a birth; 4) Therefore, to argue against this tendency, we correct people by saying that the "true meaning of Christmas is about more than a birth."

I think the heart behind this is good, but I think we end up attacking Christmas for the wrong reasons. I feel more comfortable with claiming the following to statements:

"Christianity (not Christmas) is about more than a birth - the resurrection is key."

"The true meaning of Christmas (that being the BIRTH of Christ) has indeed been lost in our culture as a whole because of the commercial focus of the season."

My issue, I suppose is that believers often wrongly think: the meaning of Christmas = the meaning of Christianity. This isn't true at all. Christianity is just a holiday that we have set up (not even in the right time of year, mind you) to celebrate the birth of Christ. From my understanding, it wasn't even a celebrated holiday until the 4th Century. Before that, Easter was the main Christian holiday and the birth wasn't even celebrated.

I guess my beef is just this: Christmas is a HOLIDAY meant for us to celebrate the birth of Christ. Has the meaning of this holiday been lost? Yeah, I think so. But, let's not attack Christmas because people misunderstand that Christianity is about more than a birth. The holiday of Christmas is meant to celebrate one aspect of Christianity and it isn't meant to teach people about the sum total of Christian belief and practice. Was the reason that Jesus was born in order to die and resurrect? Yeah, and that is why Christmas wasn't even celebrated for hundreds of years while Easter was. So, in our arguing against misunderstandings about the Christian faith, let's not say more about the holiday of Christmas than what is meant to signify.