[Continued from Part 2] So what do you do when you’ve exhausted your Christmas options? Admittedly, my inherited tradition was a bit schizophrenic: trying to balance Santa Claus and Jesus Christ on the same day, obsessing over gifts and then trying to concentrate on God’s gift in worship, attending the drunken office parties as well as the cheesy nativity plays and extravagant mega-church cantatas. The dizziness is encapsulated in Bart Simpson’s one-liner, “Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.” Just think about that for a moment and you’ll see how ridiculous it sounds.

So our first paradigm shift: celebrating the incarnate Son of God alone. Shifting to a solitary focus was such a relief! No Santa, no gifts, no tree—nothing that would detract from the preeminence of the Lord Jesus. And it worked for several years. It brought sanity and calm during the annual storm of commercialism and frenetic shopping madness, something we had never experienced as a family during the holidays. Yes, our decision bothered our family and friends; and it raised a few eyebrows with our casual acquaintances.

Our second shift was influenced by the writings of A. W. Pink, whose close reasoning and biblical arguments convinced us to give up Christmas altogether. Talk about a strange sensation: sort of like a Christian Science practitioner who just severed his right hand on a table saw, but whose theology told him that it was just an illusion. From Thanksgiving Day forward every year, we tried our best to ignore Christmas, but the reality continually reminded us that it was a pretty big deal to everyone else.

So nearly twenty years ago, we made our final decision concerning Christmas, realizing that we could no longer ignore the 25th of December and hope it disappeared from the calendar. And yet, our commitment to Scripture also had to be considered; while Mr. Pink’s views on the subject have never been popular, he was always a man of integrity in approaching God’s Word. He would stand alone—like Luther of old—even if every theologian or church leader in Christendom stood against him. I could discern no biblical evidence for celebrating the birthday of Jesus: no clear command of Jesus or the apostles, no biblical examples in the New Testament, and no evidence from contemporary historians (like Josephus or others) that the early church celebrated Christ’s birth at all, much less on the 25th of December. It was a religious tradition that we felt free to celebrate, or not.

So here’s our quirky, admittedly bizarre approach to Christmas: we no longer celebrate it as the birth of Jesus. In our home, Christmas is simply a secular and cultural holiday—an exciting, delightful, colorful, and happy time of year—like Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. We trim the tree, decorate our home with lights and snowmen and candy canes, play Bing Crosby music (with a little Alan Jackson and George Strait thrown in for good measure), cook all sorts of scrumptiously-special recipes, exchange cards and gifts with friends and family, watch It’s a Wonderful Life every year, and we fully enjoy the Christmas season without the religious trappings.

Here is one of my favorite Christmas quotations:

I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round…as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely. —Charles Dickens

However you celebrate this season, I wish you a Merry Christmas!