Refusing the Scrooge Spirit
Every holiday season, I enjoy and appreciate the thoughts of Pastor Jack Hayford as they relate to celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas. He has written and preached much over the years about sanctifying, redeeming, and celebrating the holidays.
Here is a portion of one of his many articles available on his website about Christmas. This particular one is called "Refusing the Scrooge Spirit."
"Over the years, I've encountered an amazing number of people who have decided not to celebrate Christmas. They've been taught it was designed after a pagan holiday. Or they say that nobody knows when Jesus was born, so it's hypocritical to celebrate on December 25th. It is true, of course, that we don't exactly what day Jesus was born. But the fact is, we don't know it wasn't December 25th! At issue isn't which day, but that there ought to be some day. And Christmas on December 25th is the day that has been celebrated for a long time.
Many people were raised in a "good Christian home" where they were told, "We don't celebrate Christmas because it's commercial, and it compromises the truth of the gospel and who Jesus really is." And built into them is a deep resentment toward anything that has to do with church and God and Christ and the Bible. Sadly, they pass that along to their kids.
In other cases, it's not that people don't like Christmas, but the season carries with it certain demands that may cause them to heave a sigh and think, "Celebrating the season is going to be a lot of work." If we have a family and kids, there's the decoration of the house and the tree, plus shopping for and wrapping presents. There's extra cooking that goes on, invitations to the homes of friends, and special events at the church."
