Loving Christmas

I love Christmas time!

From boyhood days right through to the present, I have always looked forward to the Christmas season – and I love it all.  As the lights start to go up and Christmas songs begin to be included in the radio selection, I begin to have that sense of anticipation.

Having said that, there are, of course, a number of Christmas traditions which have absolutely no place in the true Christmas story.  Whether it be Christmas trees, Santa Claus or fairy lights, we would all admit that these are just traditions that have crept in from different sources that have intrinsically become part of our December customs.

But even when we look at the Christmas story itself, if we look very carefully, some things that we often take to be true are actually traditions which were not there in the original record; many of them appearing in our much loved carols.  

Let us look at a few of them:-

“In the bleak midwinter”. The first lines of a carol that is so well loved, but was it in winter time? We are not told what time of year – or the date – of Jesus’ birth.  In fact it was more likely to have been summer or autumn as the shepherds would not have been out on the hills in the winter time.    

“Hark the herald angels sing.” This is actually one of my favourite carols – apart from the first line! No, it was not a heavenly choir.  Luke’s gospel tells us that it was a “multitude of the heavenly host” that appeared to the shepherds.  Another word for “host” is army.  This was God’s angel army who were “praising God and saying…….” (not singing).  We actually never read of angels singing anywhere in the Bible.  What a sight that must have been!  No wonder the shepherds were terrified.

Then what about “We three kings”?  No, they were not kings, they were Magi or stargazers who travelled looking for the one “born King of the Jews”.  Oh, and we do not know how many of them there were either.  The tradition that there were three probably came from the fact that they brought three gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh.

Oh, and just to add the straw that broke the camel’s back – there was no “little donkey” either! 

So what is this all about.  Am I playing Ebenezer Scrooge in trying to take away what is familiar to our hearts?  Not at all. 

As I said at the start of this message, “I love Christmas” along with all the traditions – including the ones that are not one hundred percent accurate.

But sometimes we need to look passed the things we think are right and focus on the things that we know are right.

So what IS right in the Christmas story? May I encourage you to read the story for your self in Matthew chapters 1 and 2 and Luke chapters 1 and 2 in the Bible.  If you do, you will find that there were two people called Mary and Joseph, and Mary did have a baby – miraculously – which was laid in a manger.  There were magi who came from the east seeking a new born king, and there were shepherds who saw a huge host of angels.

And the message of the angels was true and is still true for us today.

“I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.  For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.”

Let us focus on those wonderful words, that Jesus came to be our Saviour and this message was for the shepherds and all people. When we focus upon that, Christmas becomes real because it becomes personal.

DAILY MESSAGES WITH MEANING (14/12/25)

Written by STEPHEN TRESEDER

All photos courtesy of Unsplash