There Is No

Secular Christmas

11/24/2023

Anton Lavey was the founder of the Church of Satan and author of the Satanic Bible. He is often credited saying, “I am glad that Christian parents let their children worship the devil at least one night out of the year. Welcome to Halloween.” There is dispute over whether he actually said this, however the message still carries weight. It is obvious that whatever, or whomever, is being celebrated on Halloween is not Jesus. It is the opposite of Jesus. In response to this, my family decided to celebrate Reformation Day instead of Halloween. There was German cuisine, candy, and merrymaking in honor of what Martin Luther started in Wittenberg.

This had me thinking recently; perhaps Mr. Lavey is right, and the majority of Christian families are “worshiping the devil” one night a year, but they worship Christ on Christmas every year for a whole month. Allow me to explain; it’s the day after Thanksgiving and suddenly everyone is in Christmas mode. Christmas music is everywhere, people are buying gifts for their loved ones, and people light up their homes in grandiose displays. There is a sense of joy all month long in anticipation of the big day.

Now you might be saying that not everyone celebrates Christ on Christmas. They might tell their kids about Santa Claus instead of the birth of Jesus Christ. Which is hilarious. They teach their kids about a benevolent, eternal figure who on the night of Christmas Eve brings gifts to all the children of the world. Yet, somehow the very idea of Jesus, the most benevolent being of all eternity who came on Christmas as the greatest gift of all to all people, is ludicrous to them.

We all watch movies this time of year that portray Santa Claus as the victim of doing all of his work unrecognized and if only people believed in him, they could experience the true meaning of Christmas (Elf, Miracle on 34^th Street, The Santa Clause, The Polar Express, to name a few.) The reality is, that is the story of Jesus being retold. Jesus came on Christmas, lived the life we could not live, died, and rose again so we could have eternal life with him, the greatest gift of all. If only the world could see it, believe in him, and experience the true meaning of Christmas.

Yet, isn’t Santa just a distraction from Jesus, the true meaning of Christmas? Santa is based on church figure St. Nicholas, who had a hand at writing the Nicene Creed and is even believed to have punched a man named Arius in the face for promoting heresy. I do not mind teaching my children about the real Santa. The real Santa also believed in Jesus.

People try so hard to secularize Christmas that they try to take “Christ” out of Christmas and make it X-mas. Once again, their plans backfired. In Greek, the first letter of Christ is X (pronounced chi.) Throughout church history the letter “x” has been used as a symbol of Christ. In other words, people trying to secularize Christmas by taking the name of Christ out of the name of the holiday, have succeeded in only putting his name back in.

No matter which way you look at it, anyone who celebrates Christmas is celebrating Christ. People might think they are avoiding it with Santa, but they aren’t. Christians aren’t wrong to watch Santa Claus movies with their kids so long as they are not lying to them by saying he is real. Just like we wouldn’t lie to our kids by saying Luke Skywalker or Frodo was real. Those movies tell fun stories, and the mimic the story of Christ. So, we do not need to respond to Santa by being sticks in the mud. If we are clever, we can use those stories to embolden the faith of our children.

Those of us who know the true meaning of Christmas should take extra joy this time of year, seeing every house, on every street, all month long, whether they know it or not, celebrating Christ’s arrival. This time of year points to a time where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. So, we can say that we are glad that those secular families celebrate Christ for a whole month out of the year. Our job as Christians is to show them how much sweeter the celebration is when you know and believe in the true meaning of Christmas.