Should Christians Celebrate Holidays?
6/29/08
In 1979, I started attending a church that took a strong stand against celebrating holidays, especially the ones with a lot of occult and pagan practices in them, like Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. After reading up on the paganism that is behind most of the symbols and practices of these holidays, I was convinced that I shouldn't have anything to do with them. But I quickly found out that most Christians didn't agree with my conclusions. I found out that instead of bringing more people to agree with me, I was chasing more and more people away from me when I expressed this anti-holiday perspective.
After a period of a few years, I noticed that many of those that once believed that they shouldn't celebrate holidays, began to compromise and started celebrating them again. Over the years, I've met many Christian leaders who have said that they used to be opposed to celebrating Christmas and other holidays, but now they have returned to celebrating them. They too expressed that one reason for their return to celebrating holidays was because they were chasing too many people away from them by having such a seemingly extreme position on the subject. So, gradually, I began to rethink my position on this subject also.
Certainly, we need to know what our unshakable foundational beliefs are and not be contentious or argumentative on any of these minor issues. The First Principles of the Oracles of God, such as the Blood Covenant and the inerrancy of Scripture, are unshakable foundational doctrines on which we should never compromise or waiver. However, whatever your stand on the holidays is, there is room for us to disagree without being disagreeable. How you look at this issue isn't something that we should break fellowship over.
The word "holiday" stems from a word meaning "holy day". Certainly not all holidays are holy, in fact some are very unholy. Should the unholy holidays be completely discarded? There are many unholy holidays that have been sugar coated with a lot of holy symbolism to make them look holy. What should the Christian stance be concerning holidays? Let's begin this discussion by looking at the big three controversial American Holidays.
Halloween is an obvious anti-Christian holiday. It isn't just an un-christian holiday, it is an anti-Christian holiday. No Christian should have anything to do with Halloween. It should be extremely easy for a believer to dismiss this holiday from the life of a true Christian. Nothing about Halloween is good. Everything about Halloween is based on fear and death. But God hasn't given us a spirit of fear but of power, love, and a sound mind. Halloween glorifies demons, witchcraft, and other occult practices.
Instead of celebrating Halloween, I always encourage Christians to celebrate Reformation Day on October 31st. Instead of celebrating demons, fear, ghosts, and witches, Christians should celebrate something positive that took place nearly 500 years ago on October 31st, 1517. The most significant event of Christianity since the Canonization of Scripture occurred on this date. The preservation of the gospel of Christ is always worth celebrating, now as in any era.
In 1517, one such notable defense was carried out by Martin Luther as he strove to return the church to purity of faith in the midst of growing corruption. His challenge to draw the church back to a life founded upon the Word of God was issued in the form of ninety-five theses. A world-wide movement which became known as the Protestant Reformation began and radical changes occurred in Christianity. In honor of the 31st of October's Reformation Day (a day meant to celebrate the preservation of the glorious gospel of our salvation), we gather and celebrate God's abundant goodness to us.
But also, Christmas, seen by many Christians as the prime Christian holiday, is saturated with pagan and occult symbols and practices. I don't want to go into the details at this time, but from the decorated tree and wreath to the mistletoe and holly, we've saturated this holiday with things that have absolutely nothing to do with Christ, but actually tell a story of the pagan and occultic roots of our celebration.
First of all, Jesus Christ couldn't have been born in December. He was probably born in the late summer or early fall. But so what? I have no objection to taking a day in December to celebrate the birth of Jesus and to remember the events surrounding His birth. But truthfully, when you celebrate a birthday of a friend or a relative, you don't normally spend your time remembering the events surrounding his/her birth. On a birthday, you celebrate the person himself and you remember the accomplishments and milestones of the person's life.
But I have no objection to celebrating the birth of Jesus on the 25th of December. In fact, we should look for opportunities to bring up conversations with people about the birth of Jesus Christ. More people have their mind tilting more toward a spiritual attitude in December than any other time of the year. So, let's take advantage of their slightly more spiritual mindset and share the Gospel with them.
But whatever your view on Christmas is, there is absolutely nothing Christian about Santa Claus. Christians should have absolutely nothing to do with the jolly fat elf in the red suite. For many years I've been disturbed by the continual and seemingly increasing emphasis on Santa Claus during the Christmas season and the de-emphasis on Jesus. Even in the Catholic school where I used to be employed for years, one year I counted 27 "Santas" (pictures or figurines) and only one Nativity Scene in the school cafeteria. It seems to me that Santa is a diversion of Satan to refocus the reason for the season. Throughout December you can see Santa posters on nearly every retail store window and throughout every neighborhood. Nativity scenes are getting harder and harder to find.
In a popular Christmas song we hear, "he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake...", and they're not talking about Jesus, they're talking about Santa. Is Santa omniscient? We also are told that he circles the globe, visiting every single home in just one night. Is Santa omnipresent? He is depicted as having great magical powers. Is Santa Omnipotent? We are also to understand that he is very old and has been around for hundreds of years and will probably never die. Is Santa Eternal? We Christians know that only God has these Divine attributes! Santa is simply a tool from Satan (notice the similarity of these names) to divert attention away from Jesus!
I strongly discourage Christians from having anything to do with Santa Claus. The story of Santa Claus is a total lie, not even closely resembling the real Saint Nicholas from many centuries ago. God's greatest joy is that we walk in Truth (III John 4) and Santa Claus is a lie. We could almost even go so far as to say that Santa Claus is an anti-Christ, because in all the stories about him he has all the powers and characteristics of God and is a tremendous distraction from the true story of what we call Christmas. Sure celebrate Christmas, but keep it focused on Jesus. Reject Satan's counterfeit, Santa.
Now, let's talk about the Holiday known as Easter. Just like Christmas, Christians are led to believe that Easter is all about Jesus and His resurrection. Yet, bunnies, eggs, easter baskets, and many other factors of this holiday have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus or His Resurrection. All these things and even the name Easter stem from pagan and occult traditions. I don't celebrate Easter, but I do celebrate Resurrection Day.
So are there any holidays that Christians are free to celebrate? Absolutely! In Christ we are free! All things are lawful. It is okay to use any of these holiday seasons to start a discussion about our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, Thanksgiving began with Christian origins, giving thanks to God, and Independence Day began with godly men spending time in prayer and seeking God's guidance.
"One man esteemeth one day above another*: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks." (Romans 14:5-6)
