Yesterday I wrote a testimony about my history and experiences with Santa Claus. Today I would like to talk about two posts I have read concerning Santa Claus and the celebration of Christmas.
The first post is by Lindsey over at Enjoy the Journey. The post is called For those of you who don’t “do” Santa Claus. This short post basically explained that we should not judge those who do (or don’t do) Santa Claus. And that we should respect each other and make sure our Children know to respect others beliefs about Santa. There were 32 comments, some agreed and some disagreed. Some comments even got to the point of saying that Lindsey (and others who “do” Santa) are bad parents. I think sometimes, we as Christians, take things way too far.
The second post is by Mrs. Black over at Dave Black Online. The post is called Why We No Longer Celebrate Christmas. In this post, Mrs. Black writes about some of the research Dr. Black did a few years ago concerning Christmas and how its history has convinced them to not celebrate the holiday. Some of the reasons for not celebrating was because of the materialistic attitude during the season, but also because of some scriptural mandates that seem to go against celebrating such holidays. Mrs. Black does a very good job explaining her position, but at the same time I never once thought she was attacking people who celebrate it with or without Santa. What is sad is that I am sure there are Christians out there who will persecute the Black family for not celebrating Christmas as there are who choose to celebrate it with Santa Claus.
These two post have revealed a lot to me this season. A lot of Christians believe that you have to celebrate a holiday that is not mandated by God exactly the way they do or they will break fellowship with you. I wonder if this is not a sign of the state of the church in America. Why are we so worried about these things? Doesn’t Paul tell us to hold to our own convictions and not to judge those who are weaker or stronger than us?