How To Redefine Christmas & Center It On Christ

I recently accepted an invitation to speak to a group of homeschool mamas on how to have a Christ centered Christmas, and I have to admit that I was more than a little nervous to speak because I don't feel as though I am perfect in this area myself.

The way that my own family celebrates the holidays has continued to evolve as the Lord grows me, and as my priorities or worldviews change with age.

As I began to prepare for these women through prayer and reading scripture, an old memory from my childhood came to mind.

One Christmas, my mother, younger brother, sister and myself were decorating the Christmas tree and preparing the house like so many other families do during December.

For us kids, it was always a really fun and exciting time. No waking up early for school, no homework, lots of get togethers with incredible food and my most favorite part...lots of gifts.

Well, my dad walked into the living room and without warning announced that he wanted to cancel Christmas and not celebrate it any longer.

We all froze and stared at him in disbelief. Who in their right mind cancels Christmas so close to the actual holiday and what parent just announces it so flatly and without emotion like that?

After a few minutes we all laughed thinking it to be a joke or something but my dad did not let up, he was serious and the fear of not getting the gifts I wanted began to flood my mind.

My mom ended up saving the day by telling my dad that we were definitely not cancelling Christmas and then she proceeded to tell him that he needed to go somewhere else.

My dad left the room, the rest of us laughed it off and we continued to carry on with our holiday decorating.

The subject never came up again and the memory was stored in the back of the old filing cabinet of my mind.

Fast forward to me as a mother preparing the house for Christmas with my own children, and I finally began to understand my dads heart at the time of his poorly done announcment.

My dad truly loved the Lord and I believe that he was seeing just how much the cultures way of celebrating Christmas was invading our family's hearts.

He was seeing less and less of Jesus during a holiday that we say is supposed to be focused on Christ.

I've wrestled with the same dissatisfaction in my own life and today I want to share with you what I shared with those sweet ladies at that recent speaking event.

I want to share with you how we as Christian women can view and celebrate Christmas so that it brings honor to the Father and leads others to the cross.

First things first, before we can have a Christ centered Christmas, we must first have a Christ centered life.

Mathew 5:13-15 says:

13 You are the salt of the earth. But what good is salt if it has lost its flavor? Can you make it salty again? It will be thrown out and trampled underfoot as worthless.

14 You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

15 No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house.

As women with so much on our plates, we can become distracted and deceived by the busyness of our day to day tasks. 

We work so hard to do all. the. things. that we miss out on opportunities to see God work in the lives around us, through us.

Our families and homes are the most important mission field that we will ever encounter, and the spiritual plus physical success of our family is highly influenced by us, the keeper of our home, but if we are not prioritizing time with our Saviour daily, then we lose the power, effectiveness, direction and example needed to lead others to the cross.

We can't get so busy going through the motions of cooking, cleaning, being there for our husbands, caring for and teaching our kids, serving at church, listening to friends and all the stuff, that we lose sight of the most important thing, and that is souls.

We are called to glorify God with our lives as a living sacrifice and to share the good news of the gospel with our actions and words. 

Our main goal should be that we are united in Heaven not just with our Savior but also with our spouse, children, extended family, friends, co-workers, neighbors and all the strangers we've served with our time and money. 

After seeing Jesus and hearing "well done my good and faithful servant" we should want to see hundreds if not thousands of people affected by our walk with the Lord. 

We should also want to see hundreds if not thousands of people that were affected by our spouse and children's walks with the Lord because of what we planted within them through our obedience to the Lord.

Now, you might be wondering how all of this leads to having a Christ centered Christmas.

Well, when we have the priority of time spent with the Lord each day, and the purpose of our lives is to share the gospel using whatever gifts the Lord gave us, then it changes the way that we see everything, including Christmas.

Before we start getting into ways to view and celebrate Christmas, let's get on the same page about the different types of holidays.

There are 2 types of holidays, Biblical Feast Days and man made holidays, and within the man made holidays, there are 2 sub types.

1. Those that are rooted in world, country or state historical events like Independance Day, Presidents Day or 9/11.

2. Those that are spiritual or religious in nature like Easter, Halloween and Christmas to name a few.

Moving forward I will only be speaking of biblical and spiritual/religious man made types of holidays.

Just in case you were curious, the biblical feast days include:

• Passover

• Unleavened Bread

• First Fruits

• Pentecost

• Trumpets,

• Day of Atonement

• Tabernacles

Now let's look at the differences between biblical and spiritual/religious man made holidays.

Biblical Holidays / Feast Days	Man Made Holidays
were appointed by God himself focus on Christ and remembrance have historical roots represent stories of God's faithfulness use symbols to represent the memories and events	are created by faulty men focus on greed, self indulgence, entertainment and consumerism have mythical roots represent feel good stories use symbols attached to pagan worship

Now that we see the differences between the two, you might be wondering how in good conscience you can continue to celebrate Christmas, or if you even should.

Yes you can continue to celebrate Christmas my friend, but my hope is that you pray about it and possibly redefine how you do it if Christ has not been at the center of it.

Should you choose to keep going with Christmas, below are 3 different lenses to view it through so that it becomes something that leads your family to the cross of Christ and into deeper bonding with one another.

1. The Set Apart Lense

Romans 12:1-2 tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice and to not be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewal of your mind.

This means that we have permission to opt out of celebrating holidays the way the rest of the world does.

Instead of over indulging in the entertainment and consumerism aspect, our focus should be on worship, deepening relationships, giving and serving others.

2. The Eternity Minded Lense

Romans 6:23 and Matthew 25:46 remind us not only that the wages of sin is death, but those with salvation will have eternal life and those without it will go away into eternal punishment.

While not a fun thing to think about at Christmastime, the souls of any unsaved spouses and children are at stake here so we must not let the holidays distract us from the fact that satan takes no breaks just because we've chosen to.

Our enemy slumbers not and looks at every opportunity to steal, kill and destroy so when you are choosing which gifts to give and which stories to tell, ask yourself what the consequences or long term effects of those decisions might be.

When it comes to gifts, you might want to think long and hard about that new video gaming system, video games and cell phones plus anything else that will absolutely draw your child away from family time in worship or bonding.

Remember that many gifts are designed to isolate and hinder creative thinking so choose very wisely.

Also, be very intentional about the stories you encourage and tell, even if just for fun.

If we want our children to know and love the Lord then we should not ever push the lie of santa clause coming down the chimeny, flying reindeer that get him there and little elves that make the toys.

These stories being told to children whose hearts are not surrendered to Christ can end up leaving them confused and mistrusting of you when they finally learn the truth so be honest up front.

If you started down this path then pray and ask your children to forgive you. After that tell them the truth and be ready to answer their questions.

We want our children to understand that it is God who provides for them through their parents not a stranger that sneaks into the house in the dark of night.

We want our children to know that they are being watched at all times by a merciful, loving and righteous God who doesn't make them earn His goodness by doing things to get their names on a naughy/nice list.

Tell stories of God's genorosity, faithfulness and care for us from the Bible and from the lives of saints that have placed their trust in Him.

3. The Mission Ready Lense

This means that we should not become so busy that you miss golden opportunities to share the gospel and serve others.

We need to leave margin in our schedules during the busy holiday season so that we can answer inconveniences with grace and kindness not yelling or irritability.

By leaving room open on our calendars, we can plan evenly spaced events that give our families rest and time to create strong family traditions.

So there you have it, hopefully you have a new way to view how to celebrate Christmas.

If you're feeling the need to burn your Christmas tree and cancel your cookie decorating club meetup, don't do it.

Learn a lesson from my dads mistake and please stop to pray first.

This post and all of the information within it is not meant to leave you feeling judged or like a failure.

It is meant to open your eyes to any nudgings in your soul that have made you uneasy about celebrating Christmas the way you have.

With your eyes open you can now start to be intentional so that you create memories, traditions and opportunities for others to see the glorious One that should be at the center of our celebrating.

For His Glory & In His Name,

Christine