Decking the Halls with bells of holly

The whole idea of Christmas has always intrigued me.

Why were my parents all secretive around a certain time of the year, barricading themselves inside their bedroom with the rustling of paper, hushed bickering about who is getting what and the sound of sellotape stretching? When I was told that, on Christmas morning, that the large plastic sacks of presents had come down the chimney, I wondered to myself how he managed to do that when we had a gas fire? I asked too many questions apparently, but all the doors were locked. I checked.

So what is Christmas?
The early christians never celebrated it, the bible doesn't tell people to observe it and biblical references to shepherds tending their flocks indicate there is no way that Christ was born on the 25th December in winter. This date was originally celebrated by pagans in the north who refusedto stop their winter solstice celebrations to celebrate the return of the sun.
Pagans in the south celebrated the birth of Mithras (a god predating Jesus) on Dec 25th. Our current traditions of festive singing, exchanging presents and having Christmas trees again hark back to the pagans. They decorated their evergreen trees with decorations, food and runes to help keep the tree spirits clse to their villages, sang joyous songs and swapped presents. The Christian authorities tried for years to stamp this out, so the pagans merely took their trees indoors, which is why we are still doing this to this day.

We still follow these traditions and many churches present day proudly display a tree. It was only as the Church began to drift from apostolic doctrine and practice into corruption that Christmas began.

It was for this very reason that in Calvin's Geneva you could have been fined or imprisoned for celebrating Christmas. It was at the request of the Westminster Assembly that the English Parliament in 1644 passed an act forbidding the observance of Christmas, calling it a heathen holiday.
In an appendix to their "Directory for the Public Worship of God" the Westminster divines said: "There is no day commanded in scripture to be kept holy under the gospel but the Lord's day, which is the Christian Sabbath. Festival days, vulgarly called 'Holy-days', having no warrant in the word of God, are not to be continued." When the Puritans came to America they passed similar laws. The early New Englanders worked steadily through December 25, 1620, in studied neglect of the day. About 40 years later the General Court of Massachusetts decreed punishment for those who kept the season: "...anyone who is found observing, by abstinence from labour, feasting, or any other way, any such days as Christmas Day, shall pay for every such offence five shillings."
Because of its pagan and papal associations, Christmas met strong objections during and after the Protestant Reformation. This opposition was especially forceful among Presbyterians. The concept of the Mass is embedded in the English term Christmas, its etymology being traced to the Old English words Christes maesse, meaning "the mass or festival of Christ." A consistent application of Reformed and Presbyterian principles of worship requires the repudiation of Christmas. Answer 109 of the Westminster Larger Catechism forbids "any wise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself."
Early Christianity adopted the 25th as Christ's birthday around the 3rd or 4th century BC birthday, as the early scriptures do not record the day of Christ's birth. This is generally accepted to have been a way of amalgamating Christmas with the older festival of the sun, which was still being observed by the Pagan community. It also helped to replace the worship of Mithras, which once rivalled Christianity in popularity.
Yule was the traditional name for the celebrations around the 25th; the festival lasted for twelve days, which are now the twelve days of Christmas. The origin of the word Yule seems originate from the Anglo Saxon word for sun and light. Another theory is that the festival is an extension of the Jewish Festival, Hannukah.

The earliest direct written evidence of Christmas being celebrated is 25th December AD 335. This is contained in a list of Christian festivals written by Philocalus.
At the same time the gospel was being presented to Northern European countries. In these areas it was traditional to hold midwinter feasts to entice the gods to make sure that spring came round again. Rather than trying to stop the locals from holding this celebration, the theory goes is that they tried to christianise it.

My hope is that the church be liberated from the corrupting influences which destroy the spiritual vitality of her worship; and may a zealous concern for our worship flow from a desire to glorify the triune God, your inner God and belief, the worship, the love for each other, our neighbour whatever colour, creed or perversion.

So what is Christmas?
While you are tucking into your turkey today, take a thought for others and wonder about the true meaning of the holiday.

Father Christmas or Santa Claus is based on St Nicholas who is the patron saint of children, canonised after resurrecting three boys after they had been murdered. He was associated with the giving of gifts to the poor and needy, and was widely famed for his generosity. Over the centuries his image became amalgamated with other archetypes to become Father Christmas.
There are many and varied explanations of how St. Nicholas evolved into the character we know. All that can be said with certainty is that Santa's roots lie in folk customs and beliefs from a sackful of sources. These include the British Father Christmas, the French Père Noël, the Dutch Sinterklaas, the Danish Jules-Missen, and even the Romanian Mos Craicun.
The Protestant church also influenced the evolution of this icon. When Martin Luther objected to the practice of gifts being given to children in the name of a Catholic saint, Nicholas was joined during the Reformation by a child, the Christkindlein. This would mutate back into the Father Christmas figure Kriss Kringle in English-speaking society.

The Dutch are often credited with transforming the saint into the character we know today. Their custom of giving presents to children on the Day of St. Nicholas was brought to America by early Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam (renamed New York when the British took over the colony). There Sinterklaas, the colloquial Dutch for St. Nicholas, evolved into Santa Claus.
Parents use the belief in Santa Claus to control children, to induce children to defer demands for gratification to Christmas, and to make it appear that Santa, not the parents, causes the deprivation of children.

Anyway's I don't want to get all Dr. Seuss and grinch-like, I'm determined to have a better Christmas than the last. xx