Christmas Celebration

I think traditions are important. Traditions reinforce stability and closeness within relationships; They are a predictable ritual between two or more people that cultivates a shared identity. They also reinforce ideas and values; They corroborate what two or more people find significant.

Celebration and tradition are often found together: Birthday traditions, holiday traditions, anniversary traditions, et cetera. What ideas and values are corroborated by these? Celebrating birthdays and observing funerals is evidence that people find the lives of their loved ones significant. Celebrating weddings and wedding anniversaries is evidence that couples find their marriage significant. Birthdays, anniversaries, and weddings are the most obvious examples that celebrations usually have something to do with the lives of those who have brought joy to ours.

Christmas is the king of traditions. Hundreds of families set up a Christmas tree, bake sugar cookies, hang decorative lights, sing old songs, and give gifts to each other to celebrate. Clearly, something really important—Something really significant—is behind the Christmas holiday. If Christmas had something to do with the life of someone who had brought joy to ours, surely this is the greatest life and the greatest joy.

For followers of Jesus Christ, my ambiguity is probably not effective. We know Christmas as the day we set aside to celebrate the human birth of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Anyone who has truly received God’s free gift of salvation knows that Christ’s birth was very significant! Christ’s earthly ministry, death, burial, and resurrection were sufficient to restore for everyone the greatest joy—A relationship with God!

So here’s my point: Celebrate Christmas as best you can. Put up a tree. Sing some old carols. Gather your loved ones. Read the Christmas story. And make it obvious that Jesus Christ’s earthly life was the greatest life, and the beginning of our greatest joy.