I am a Christian, but I hate Christmas. Shocking, isn't it!

So why would I hate Christmas? Well, first of all, it is a feast that is not mentioned in the Bible and secondly Jesus was most probably not born on the 25th of December. In fact the Bible does not mention his date of birth, it is very vague about it. Why? Because His birth date is unimportant, but what is important is His death, because His death is what sets us as Christians free, not His birth. The Bible is very clear about when He died, it was at the beginning of the Passover (A feast to which God gave instructions in detail).

So, what is the harm in celebrating His birth? That in itself would probably not be that bad, but then we don't really know WHEN to celebrate it as the Bible does not give any clear indication. All we know is that it must have been during summer or autumn as the shepherds was in the field with their flock during the night. During winter it was too cold to keep the sheep outside during the night, so His birth must have been some time between June and September. So December is way off.

Some people argue that sheep was kept out all night during the winter under certain conditions or certain kind of sheep, but if this was so, it is grasping at straws as there would not be many shepherds out there and when I read the Bible about the birth of Jesus I get the idea that these were shepherds that was out there as a rule, not the exception.

His birth is also only described in Luke, not in any of the other gospels but his death is described in all 4 gospels.

We can also look into historical archives to see when the star appeared and when the census was held, but the information around that is also very vague as far as I can determine. So it is difficult for us to determine WHEN Jesus was born, but it is very easy to determine when He died. This indicates clearly that celebrating His birth is not important for God.

So then where does this celebration come from?

From what I can gather it originated around 350 to 400 AD when the Christian 'Church' in Rome wanted to convert more pagans, but the pagans ware reluctant because it would mean that they had to give up the Saturnalia, a week long festival of indulgence that ended around the 25th of December. So they instituted Christmas to allow the converted pagans to still have their festival.

If we look at the festival of Saturnalia, we instantly recognize our current Christmas festival. Fir tree that is decorated, gifts placed under the tree, eating, drinking, singing of carols and general merry-making.

Unfortunately those Christians in Rome did what God specifically forbid us to do and that is to merge customs and traditions of other religions with our own.

The Yule festival was apparently incorporated in a similar way by King Haakon of Norway that converted to Christianity, but wanted to unite all the Nordic tribes and thus moved the Yule festival to Dec 25 (it used to be on the Winter Solstice which is around the end of Dec) to coincide with the Christmas festival and thus the Yule traditions also became part of Christmas (Misletoe, yule log, 12 days of Christmas)

I was totally disgusted to read that the early Christmas celebrations that lasted 12 days included the appointment of a Lord of Misrule and people swapping social roles. This is directly from the festival of Saturnalia and it is also directly against Christian morals.

Below I list a number of links for more interesting reading. These are just a few links, Google turns up a whole lot. I also found some that tries to prove that Christmas is not a Pagan festival.

But, even if I disregard all the information on the net, it is still clear to me that Christmas is not from God:

1) A festival for the birth of Jesus Christ is not mentioned in the Bible anywhere

2) The date of the birth of Jesus Christ is not given, not even hints as to when it was

3) The customs around Christmas is totally against Christian norms

3.1) Eating and drinking in abundance is prohibited

3.2) Putting a tree in your house and decorating it is also prohibeted (Jer 10:1-6)

3.3) Giving of gifts to each other is not mentioned in any biblical festival. The wise men gave the gifts to Christ, not to each other or to Mary or Joseph or anyone else. The giving of gifts was (and still is) a tradition relating to when you visit a King or ruler.

4) Santa Claus - He became the god of Christmas. A magical being that brings presents and joy to everyone in one night. Now that cannot be supported by any Christian. Is Christ not supposed to be the bringer of joy and good news to us?

There are other indicators too (yule log, eggnog, mistletoe, the whole monetary connection and all the information about the history of Christmas), but the above few points alone is enough to convince me that Christmas is not from God, so I will not have any part in it.

Here are some links to ponder:
http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm
http://www.allaboutjesuschrist.org/origin-of-christmas.htm
http://www.realtruth.org/articles/461-actc.html
http://www.history.com/topics/christmas
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule