I must confess I do have strong opinions on how the Henderson family celebrates Christmas and Advent. We have convictions, but God gives me neither the right nor platform (pulpit, blog, relationships) to demand people to conform to our convictions. Our lives, thoughts, desires are to conform to Christ not to the pattern of this world (Romans 12:1-2). But our convictions are the applications of the transforming work of the Spirit, and we know that convictions will differ from person to person (Romans 14). Even to the point where some things might be sin to some and not to others.
We live, or at least I do and probably the few readers I have do, in America. We have American Christmas traditions. As a result, our celebration, will have an American feel to it. And that is fine. The celebration of Xmas is isn't in the bible per se, but we do say many folks celebrating our Savior's birth. So it's probably a good idea to do so.
But our celebration of Jesus' birth takes place within a culture; if he were born today in America, we wouldn't be bringing gold, frankinsense, and myrrh. Gifts and celebration would look more American. And they should today.
Yet that is only part of it. Because culture is shaped by people made in the image of God (good stuff will be present) yet fallen (bad stuff will also be present) we can't simply say, "We're Americans and this is what we do today."
So in lieu of a Christmas rant from a Christmas prude, I want to pose a few questions that may be helpful in discerning what God would have you do this Xmas season. I realize people have strong convictions about other issues, so this is how I would want them to treat me. Ask me questions, and trust I'm in God's Word, prayer, and in community. If we do those things, we can be confident that we're in God's will. So here they are!
1.) How does God want us to celebrate Xmas today? It is scary how fewer and fewer professing Christians even ask this question (in reference to anything). We all do a number of things to celebrate Xmas that are culturally conditioned, but the question is to what extent should that be the case? Does he want me to continue with Santa, Elf on Shelf from Hell(f), etc.....? Or in other words, is Jesus really cool with Santa, Elf on a Shelf, Frosty or any other myth we feel the need to perpetuate? On a side note, I think we all need to evaluate what we do each year (did we spend too much on our kids, did we bless other needy families or widows, did we care about others then but now?).
2.) Are these extra cultural figures things which harmlessly add to the anticipation of Xmas Day, or do they detract/distract/take away, serving as replacement saviors? In other words, are they primary or supplementary? I can see how kids enjoy Santa and Elves (though personally they are kind of freaky to me), and how parents find joy in them. But they need to be made supplementary. Just because kids enjoy them, doesn't make them good. I stole that idea from this article on kids and Sabbath keeping. Novel isn't it? Anything good can distract us from He who is great, particularly when it is something kept in front of us for a month.
3.) If you decide that they are supplementary, then how will you intentionally make them supplementary? If we don't intentionally make Jesus big (or rather reveal to our kids He is bigger), then these things will naturally replace or overshadow Jesus. This of course applies to the whole year. Idols are never satisfied with a 50-50 share of the glory. Its probably more like a 75-25 % kind of thing, just enough so that we can still think we're honoring Jesus in theory without actually honoring him in practice. There are only so many hours in the day, and after that only so many teachable hours in the day, and now we're really talking more minutes than hours. So it does take effort and intent to pull it off.
4.) Santa traditionally understood- and I"m less familiar with Elf on Shelf but I think its the same deal-seem to promote shallow moralistic manipulation, doesn't it? I made it into a question! If you're good, then you'll be rewarded. If not, well, tough stuff. But no one ever really follows through on the "if you're bad scenario," and I'm glad. However I heard of a kid say, "I don't want anything for Xmas, so I'll just behave how I want!" Smart kid.
Yet Santa could actually be turned into an example of grace, if he were to give good things to bad boys and girls much like God our good Heavenly Father lavishes grace upon His undeserving children. In teaching your kids about grace, how helpful/hurtful are some of these cultural forms of Xmas? Maybe you don't feel these things hinder, but certainly something each parent has to discern.
5.) Isn't it presumptuous to assume our kids cannot have the same excitement about Jesus that they do with Santa or Elves or whatever? OK that was rhetorical! Sorry. Now I know my kid gets excited even when a vacuum salesman comes to the door, but isn't it possible that other kids can still love this season without Santa? My wife did growing up. I know other kids who are full of joy now despite never believing in Santa. I'm talking kids who have faced real trials with joy. You shouldn't feel sorry for them that the "magic" has been taken away. Perhaps making much of Jesus the whole year had something to do with that?
And if our kids can't get as excited, is that an indictment on the faith of the parents (that Jesus isn't exciting to them)? After all, Jesus is as exciting as He is glorious.
If you made it this far, thanks. I'm fine if you disagree with me. We don't need to be a people who always arrogantly and angrily have all the answers at our disposal, we but I think we need to be a people who always ask ourselves questions. That is how we sharpen and shape our convictions to conform them to Christ's design for our lives.
If you celebrate Christmas with or without Santa or Elves or Blake Shelton, just remember to make much of Jesus, because He has made much of us by coming down here in the first place.
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