Christmas Update

Wow, I have gotten some interesting phone calls an e-mails about my last post! There are a couple things I'd like to clarify: a lot of people have said it sounds mean-spirited, overly harsh, and not giving Jesus the glory at Christmas. I apologize if that's how you perceived it, but I believe that if you read it carefully you will see my true intention is to preserve Christianity, not tear it down. I am simply warning against getting caught up in these little details and traditions and missing the big picture. I have no problem with those who want to dedicate Christmas to the Birth of Christ. Although that is not the origin of the Christmas celebration, and the Bible doesn't specifically command us to commemorate His birth, I certainly don't think it will hurt anything! In my opinion, anytime you can bring honor and glory to God you should. I just want other Christians to be careful not to be harsh and judgemental as if they can lay some kind of claim to ownership on Christmas. I was raised in a church where it was practically a sin to mention Santa Clause, and some families even called him Satan Clause for "daring" to take the focus off of Christ. I think taking this extreme view only pushes non-Christians away. (Not to mention, the families that go to these extremes after several years generally ended up very worldly and/or their kids went wild when they got older.) At the same time, I don't put any special emphasis on Santa Clause as anything other than an imaginary Christmas character, like Rudolph or Frosty. Whenever you blow things out of proportion it always blows up in your face. Try to keep a balanced attitude and keep your perspective Bible-based instead of Bandwagon-based. Again, sorry to those I offended! I was actually laughing while I wrote it - I wasn't trying to be mean. I can have a harsh sense of humor, though, and I certainly didn't want to come off like I am some anti-Christmas Scroogette. I was just a little taken aback that with all of the things in our society that are offensive to Christianity and God, "Happy Holidays" seems like the least of our worries!