The word “Christmas” literally means “Christ’s Mass,” Mass being the principal service of the Church commonly called the Divine Liturgy in the Orthodox Tradition; therefore, Christmas refers to the Divine Liturgy served on the Feast day of our Lord’s birth in the flesh from the Virgin Mary (December 25). One cannot technically or properly celebrate Christmas unless one prepares for and participates in the Divine Liturgy – by definition, receiving Holy Communion – on the Feast of Christ’s birth. Already in this simple explanation, we realize how far many, if not most, people are removed from the basic fact of Christmas in their understanding and practice of the day.
How many people even associate Christmas with the birth of Christ, let alone the worship of Christ in His Church? Yet once the original association is lost, other explanations inevitably fill the void, especially if the event remains firmly planted in the collective consciousness now used for some other purposes. The immense popularity of Christmas in our Western culture increasingly devoid of its original meaning has resulted in many other explanations, and these Christmas fables require the corrective of Christmas facts. The fact of Christmas means nothing less than our eternal salvation, something no fable can accomplish.
Fable 1: This is the holiday season of which Christmas is not an exclusive part.
The phrase “Merry Christmas” has given way to the generic “Happy Holidays”; indeed, it is now considered insensitive among many to say “Merry Christmas” because that is too exclusive. What about Hanukkah? What about Kwanza? What about people who just want to put up lights, have a tree, and exchange gifts with their family members? The holiday season is about good cheer, brotherly love, inclusivity, and celebrating one’s own origins however diverse they might be. This is the fable.
The fact is Christmas is the fulfillment of all that in the birth of God’s Son in the flesh. The very word “holiday” means “holy day,” and nothing is holier than the Holy God coming to make mankind holy by sharing and transforming our nature away from sin and death to the will of God the Father.
Taking Hanukkah for example, as great as this holiday is among the Jewish people, Christmas is greater because it is the fulfillment of Hanukkah (the rededication of the Jerusalem temple during the time of the Maccabees, 2nd century B.C.). Jesus celebrated Hanukkah (see John 10:22-23); more than that, Jesus is Hanukkah: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…He was speaking of the temple of His body” (John 1:14; 2:21). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).
Fable 2: The Christians took over a pre-existing pagan feast.
Around the time of the winter solstice, the Romans kept a feast of the Unconquered Sun celebrating the triumph of longer days with increasing warmth and light. As the number of Christians grew throughout the empire, they used their influence to re-purpose the pagan feast into one of their own citing the Prophet Malachi to show that Jesus Christ is the true Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 3:20). This is the fable.
The fact is the Christian feast of Christmas was becoming so influential in pagan Roman society that the Emperor Aurelian around the year 274 instituted a new feast of the Unconquered Sun attempting to diminish and supplant the Christian Feast. The effort obviously failed.
Furthermore, Christians celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25 not because of proximity to the winter solstice, but because that day is 9 months after the conception of Jesus Christ celebrated on March 25 (Feast of the Annunciation). Christ’s conception occurs 6 months after the conception of St. John the Baptist which happened on September 23, just after John’s father Zachariah’s service in the temple for the Day of Atonement (see Luke 1:9-10, 24, 26, 36). Christmas is celebrated as a historical reality, not a vestige of man’s wishful observations of the heavens.
Fable 3: Life is magical, exemplified by Santa Claus and other myths.
Once a year on Christmas Eve a man from the North Pole brings gifts in a sleigh drawn by reindeer to children throughout the world who have been good. His name is Santa Claus, or Kris Kringle, or Father Christmas, among others. He puts the gifts in stockings and under the Christmas tree proving he’s been there by consuming milk and cookies if they’ve been left out for him. Add to the story a whole cast of supporting characters: Rudolf, Elves, Frosty, the Little Drummer Boy, Ebenezer Scrooge, O Tannenbaum, etc., in countless songs, shows, and movies. This is the fable.
The fact is the mythological Santa Claus is a warped version of the actual Saint Nicholas, an Orthodox bishop of Myra in Lycia (modern day southern Turkey) who lived in the late third and early fourth centuries. The real Saint Nicholas is known as a wonderworker, that is, worker of miracles, because of his faith and love of God. Plus, he was a staunch defender and confessor of the Orthodox Faith: Jesus Christ is the Son of God “begotten of the Father before all ages…who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became man” (Nicene Creed). Saint Nicholas, a participant in the Council in Nicea (325), embodies the meaning of Christmas.
We see how easily people substitute fantasy for truth, magic for miracles, and myth for reality. Fantasy, magic, and myth are easy accommodations to the ways of the world; they make whatever one wants to believe convenient and palatable. Based on these fables, the Christmas season has become nothing more than an extended marketing campaign for the selling and buying of worldly goods to satisfy the worldly desires of people.
The truth, on the other hand, is narrow and difficult (Matt. 7:13-14). Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (Jn. 14:6). The Apostle Paul writes: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2). Saint Nicholas for one – and especially him – exemplifies this transformation made possible in the Incarnation (lit., “enfleshment”) of God’s Son at Christmas. How many people know the real Saint Nicholas was imprisoned for a decade for confessing Christ and gave away all his inherited wealth for the sake of God’s kingdom?
In conclusion, let us keep the Feast according to the Feast! Look at the faithful Joseph the betrothed, guardian and protector of Mary and her Son. Look at the Virgin Mary the Mother of God, the ark and holiest place containing God the Word. Look at the feeding trough holding the Creator and nourisher of every living thing. Look at the star leading to the One more glorious than the heavens who enlightens the universe with wisdom and the knowledge of God. Look at wicked King Herod and his Bible scholars, lovers of their own positions in this world who only sought the Lord to destroy Him. Look at the shepherds beholding the angelic message and finding the Savior just as indicated in swaddling clothes. Look at the Magi bringing gifts of worship to the King, Priest, and Sacrifice of salvation. Look at the Bishop and Saint presiding at the Liturgy, his earthly life devoted to the Life beyond this world, guiding his flock to that same goal.
Let us contemplate Christ Jesus, the Son of God in the flesh, who became one of us that we might participate in the divine things of God. Let us celebrate Christmas in fact, and not in fable.
