Featured The commercialization of Christmas has been a very good thing...

Now do Easter.

 

There is always a scrooge in the bunch!... Brother Glen

Handel's Messiah!!!

 

You make some good points, however, hearing Christmas songs on secular radio has been going on for almost 100 years now. The difference is the emphasis on buying stuff was much less than it is today, and didn't start until after Thanksgiving. Also, people HEARD the Christmas story on secular radio until about 60 years ago. The President's annual Christmas message/prayer was also heard. Do they even print that in the newspapers anymore? Nowadays, it is a constant barrage of advertising of merchandise that starts earlier and earlier every year.

I saw Christmas ads on TV the day before Halloween, the earliest in my memory. As far as the actual Christmas story of Christ's birth, you don't hear much besides a couple of traditional Christmas carols.

It is kind of strange for you to praise the buying and selling of stuff as a way to preserve a couple of songs on secular radio.

 

I would prefer no Christmas.

Christmas came late for the US. An americam woman on our local radio a few years ago, said that in New England Christmas was not celebrated till the late 19th century. Before that it was considered a papist trivia.

I read minutes and letters from two local Baptist Churches from the 19th century. They never mentioned Christmas, only refering to it as December 25th. One even had their church business meeting on 25th December.

 

Sure, I'll do it. But I'm saying in the 40's, 50's, and into the 60's, when there were radio dramas on the air, there would be many retellings of the actual Christmas story on the radio, sometimes dramatized, sometimes simply read and explained as a historical fact. There's nothing like this anymore.

 

Who celebrates "Christmas"? The world.
Tertullian said "The pagans are faithful to their festivals." If that is so, why do those who are not Christians, and even hostile to Christianity celebrate christmas?
Even the word is blasphemous. Christmass = Mass for Christ. The anglican 39 articles say the mass is a blasphemous fable and a dangerous deceit. Quite rightly.
Scripture doesn't say when Jesus was born, We don't know the date, but one day we do know is wan't was December 25th.
Scripture doesn't tell us to remember the birthday of Jesus. There were only two birthdays mentioned in scripture and they both resulted in someone losing his head.

 

Spugeon, Treasury of David,

Psalm 81

Verse 3. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon. Announce the sacred month, the beginning of months, when the Lord brought his people out of the house of bondage. Clear and shrill let the summons be which calls all Israel to adore the Redeeming Lord. In the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. Obedience is to direct our worship, not whim and sentiment: God's appointment gives a solemnity to rites and times which no ceremonial pomp or hierarchical ordinance could confer. The Jews not only observed the ordained month, but that part of the month which had been divinely set apart. The Lord's people in the olden time welcomed the times appointed for worship; let us feel the same exultation, and never speak of the Sabbath as though it could be other than "a delight" and "honourable." Those who plead this passage will keep such feasts as the Lord appoints, but not those which Rome or Canterbury may ordain.

Verse 4. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. It was a precept binding upon all the tribes that a sacred season should be set apart to commemorate the Lord's mercy; and truly it was but the Lord's due, he had a right and a claim to such special homage. When it can be proved that the observance of Christmas, Whitsuntide, and other Popish festivals was ever instituted by a divine statute, we also will attend to them, but not till then. It is as much our duty to reject the traditions of men, as to observe the ordinances of the Lord. We ask concerning every rite and rubric, "Is this a law of the God of Jacob?" and if it be not clearly so, it is of no authority with us, who walk in Christian liberty.

 

As a teacher and performer, I got very tired of Christmas, and by the time the time came, I was rarely in any mood, yet needed to present with a joyful attitude. I learned to fake it.

What I cherished is Christmas at home, with family, in a private celebration of each other being born from above, by the one who came to be born below.

What I now cherished are the memories now beginning to fade and are but shadows in mists of tears, of friends now crossed over, of the promises my Redeemer gave that still spring from the heart just as that little child's anticipation on Christmas Eve.

So, I let others perform, teach, present, while I allow my Redeemer residence and shelter in my heart.

 

Britain celebrates the Queen's birthday in June, regardless of its actual date. Perhaps a principle to be derived.

 

Yes that is ridiculous as well.

 

You didn't read the post.

Who celebrates Christmas? The world. That was the answer. The world are pagans

 

But the question is 'Is Christmas Christian or pagan invention?" As it was a pope that invented Christmas, I say the fesival is pagan as Catholicism is paganism dressed up as christianity.