Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

So, in Ireland, schools get Christmas holidays, Easter holidays, and summer holidays. When I was a Roman Catholic, we also used to get holy days of obligation off school. The word “holiday” is actually derived from “holy day”. On holy days of obligation, you had to go to Mass, but you didn’t have to go to school 😀. Saint Patrick’s Day is one of them, and that’s still quite big in Ireland and around the world.

Summer holidays aren’t public celebrations as such. And Easter has spiritual elements and Easter eggs. As a child, I suppose I was more interested in Easter eggs. But gradually, I came to see the spiritual meaning. We celebrate the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, at Christmas, we celebrate his birth. Christmas was the best because you got presents off Santa Claus on Christmas day. And I still enjoy the run-up to Christmas, which generally begins around now (September). I never enjoy the months between Christmas and Easter much, but when Easter arrives, it’s often a time of sunshine in Ireland, the beginning of Spring.

Currently, I’m reading a book named Hot Protestants: A History of Puritanism in England and America. The Puritans were radical Protestants in the UK and US immediately after the reformation. They didn’t just want to make minor tweaks to the church. They wanted to go right back to the New Testament, start from scratch and model their churches on the New Testament pattern. Their regulative principle meant that you don’t include anything that’s not present in the New Testament church. It was obviously a turbulent time, because even Puritans themselves had different opinions on what form churches should take. Anyway, Puritans wanted to stop celebrating Christmas. Like other holidays and feast days, you weren’t asked to keep them in the Bible. Many holidays originate in paganism. Perhaps it made sense to put a new Christian meaning on them rather than attempt to stop them altogether. People cherish traditions. I recently watched a video showing an Amazon tribe that had little contact with anyone. I wondered how I would handle them as a missionary. I would think that it might make sense to encourage them to keep as many traditions as possible if they didn’t impact too much on their Christian faith. But others might argue that they should change their customs to avoid them being tempted back to their old religion.

I have met evangelicals who don’t like Christmas and who refuse to celebrate it. Some even see Christmas trees as sinister pagan items. For me, I don’t see Christmas primarily as a spiritual event. I just like the tradition because it breaks up the winter, and it tends to direct people to doing good, although it can be a time of drunkenness, violence, and promiscuity too. Some would see The Pogue’s Fairytale of New York as a realistic depiction of how Irish people celebrate Christmas – it’s a pretty sordid picture 😀.

But I love hearing all the Christmas hymns. And it reminds people of Jesus. Where would we be if Christianity remained a little-known sect? Perhaps, it’s the will of God that such traditions should come about to remind the wider world about Jesus. Maybe the same can be said for all the great church buildings and cathedrals around the world, though the New Testament doesn’t command us to have these. And we should be pleased that 2025 is 2,025 since the Christ was on the earth. There’s no command to do this either, but we should be pleased that the world is aware of the impact of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I was on a Charles Dickens walking tour in London once, and the guy leading us made the point that Charles Dickens gave us the modern version of Christmas.

And you can celebrate the birth of Jesus even if you don’t view him as the Son of God or the Messiah. Most religions, and even atheists, are positively disposed towards Jesus.

Some “woke” people try to exclude Christmas from popular culture and the public arena, claiming that it militates against multiculturalism. But very often, I hear of people of other faiths resisting this. The more extreme “woke” people remind me of the Puritans. It’s funny because, though I’m similar to Puritans theologically, I wouldn’t have warmed to them at the time. Some of them seem very controlling. But many of them were fine. And I’m sure some “woke” people are fine too. My concern is that some “woke” people want to exclude old traditions because they themselves want to control how we all think. It can sometimes feel like Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge, who believed that Cambodia needed to be completely reset—a concept they called “Year Zero.” “Woke” people might have valid points, but they shouldn’t bully everyone into implementing their precise version of what it is to be “woke”. The same thing happened with “political correctness” in the 1980s. It’s a miracle that they didn’t ban The Simpsons. The Simpsons sometimes mocks the Irish, but I’m happy to be mocked, as long as it’s kindly done 😀. And it’s not just “woke” people who are bossy. We evangelicals can be quite bossy too – even among ourselves.

So, how do I celebrate Christmas? The odd thing about Christmas is the best part of it nowadays is the anticipation of it. There isn’t anything particularly special on Christmas day, except the feeling that everyone is celebrating it. We have a nice meal, and we see more of the family. And we buy Christmas gifts. Life would seem strange without it.

I always like to listen to the radio or watch TV at Christmas to feel a connection with all those who celebrate it. One incident that caused me to ponder some years ago was this: I recorded the Christmas BBC Songs of Praise show. I didn’t have time to watch it. I waited a week, until Christmas was finished. But when I watched it, it didn’t give me that sense that I was celebrating Christmas with others. And the peculiar thing was that the show was probably recorded a couple of months earlier. So even if I had watched it at Christmas, it wouldn’t have been live, though I would be watching it with thousands of other people. And it’s that sense of togetherness that’s such a crucial part of Christmas.

Another thing that gets me thinking is that most evangelicals that I know (including me) aren’t really ecumenically minded. Our focus is evangelical churches. We distance ourselves from the Roman Catholic denomination because it includes too many unbiblical traditions. We distance ourselves from liberal/modernist churches because we feel that many have lost confidence in the Bible altogether. And we distance ourselves from cult-like sects because they’re heretical in various ways. But you do feel a sense of togetherness at Christmas. I even feel that each Sunday, when I listen to Sounds Sacred on Radio Ulster. It might be hosted by a priest or a modernist, and you might hear a Mormon choir sing a hymn, but I don’t allow any of that to upset me. I just enjoy the hymns and the fact that so many are listening together. BBC recently restricted access to listeners outside the UK. Nowadays, you can only listen to Sounds Sacred live. You can’t listen again during the week. But I discovered that if you are listening and your wife calls you for your tea, you can pause it, and when you come back, you can hear the rest of it even if it’s already finished. I thought that it would be nice to share that little scam with you all 😀.

Anyway, let me close by listing some of my favourite Christmas songs and hymns. I’ll list 10 old songs, 10 pop songs, and 10 hymns.

• White Christmas – Bing Crosby (1942)
• Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town – Harry Reser & His Band (1934)
• Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Gene Autry (1949)
• Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow! – Vaughn Monroe (1945)
• The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting) – Nat King Cole (1946)
• Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas – Judy Garland (1944)
• Jingle Bells – Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters (1943)
• All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth – Spike Jones (1948)
• Frosty the Snowman – Gene Autry (1950)
• I’ll Be Home for Christmas – Bing Crosby (1943)

Of these, Jingle Bells was always regarded as the main one in my house. I’m not sure if it is much fun riding on a one-horse open sleigh though 😀. There’s actually nothing about Christmas in the song. And we rarely get snow in Ireland. If you live in Australia, it makes even less sense.

• Merry Christmas Everybody – Slade (1973)
• I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday – Wizzard (1973)
• It’s Gonna Be a Cold, Cold Christmas – Dana (1975)
• Mary’s Boy Child / Oh My Lord – Boney M. (1978)
• December Will Be Magic Again – Kate Bush (1979)
• Wonderful Christmastime – Paul McCartney (1979)
• Last Christmas – Wham! (1984)
• Do They Know It’s Christmas? – Band Aid (1984)
• Merry Christmas Everyone – Shakin’ Stevens (1985)
• Driving Home for Christmas – Chris Rea (1986)

It mentions “watching TV all day”. TV was a very special part of Christmas when I was growing up. That’s when you were able to see all the old films and TV specials. I remember being very excited about Gilbert O’Sullivan on RTE on Christmas night in 1973. I went in next door to watch it in colour. He had a nice song out in Christmas 1974, calling for peace. And another little-known Irish artist, Tommy Drennan, from Limerick, had a song called Beautiful Peace at Christmas 1973. These were very troubled times for Northern Ireland. The song mentions Vietnam, Egypt and Ireland. Thankfully these conflicts have ended. The prayer was answered for these nations, although the prayer was directed to Santa, not to God 😀. But I don’t think he really meant that we should pray to Santa. The song was about a child writing to Santa. But you can see why some might get confused. And when your parents tell you the truth about Santa, your first question is always, what about God? With our kids, we included Santa, but only in the way we might include Mickey Mouse and Bart Simpson. We never said that he was real.

Finally, 10 hymns, but there are loads more that I love.

• O Come, All Ye Faithful
• Silent Night
• Joy to the World
• Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
• Away in a Manger
• O Little Town of Bethlehem
• It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
• Angels We Have Heard on High
• The First Noel
• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel