I believe a Christian may set aside Christmas to thank God for sending His Son, and another Christian may leave the day unobserved. Neither choice gives us permission to judge the other person’s love for Christ. The day is not commanded in Scripture, and our customs cannot acquire the authority of a command simply because we are fond of them. We still have to consider whether what we do is truthful, free from idolatry, and consistent with a conscience taught by God’s Word.
The Promised Son Came to Save
If we choose to remember Christ’s birth, we need to understand why He came. That explanation begins long before Bethlehem. In Eden, Adam and Eve sinned and hid from God, unable to remove their guilt or repair what they had done. God called to them, confronted their disobedience, and pronounced judgment. He also announced a promise that gave hope where they had no remedy of their own.
And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.
The Hebrew word zera, translated “seed,” can describe offspring or descendants, including a particular descendant. The promise concerns conflict between the serpent and the woman’s offspring, and I understand its ultimate fulfillment in the Deliverer revealed through the rest of Scripture. God had begun to announce His answer to the evil that had entered the world.
The serpent would bruise His heel, but the promised Seed would deal the decisive blow to the serpent’s head. In Christ we see a victory that involved real suffering: He shed His blood and died, then rose bodily from the grave. His birth belongs to that work of redemption. Remembering the manger while refusing to speak about sin and the cross would leave out the very reason the Son came.
God made the promise while Adam and Eve were still unable to rescue themselves. His mercy came before any religious observance they could devise. A Christian celebration should therefore direct our gratitude toward what God has provided, rather than suggest that a holiday is something we offer to earn His favor.
God later promised Abraham that all families of the earth would be blessed through him, and He promised a King through David’s line. The prophets also foretold the coming Son’s birth, identifying His birthplace and announcing that He would be born of a virgin.
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.
Immanuel means “God with us.” Matthew applies this promise to Jesus, the eternal Son who took on true humanity. Micah 5:2 names Bethlehem as the place of the coming ruler’s birth, yet His goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. Jesus did not begin to exist when He was born. He became fully man without ceasing to be eternally God.
Jesus Is More Than a Seasonal Symbol
Matthew explains the name Jesus by telling us what He came to accomplish.
And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name JESUS, for He will save His people from their sins.
Jesus was born of a virgin and lived without sin, the innocent substitute who came to save sinners. He willingly gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked men tortured and crucified Him, and He shed His blood and died to redeem us. Father and Son acted in unity; the Father did not punish, curse, abandon, strike, bruise, or pour wrath on Jesus. His saving sacrifice was complete before His burial and bodily resurrection. The promised Deliverer will finally destroy the devil’s work.
Christ died for the whole world, so God’s offer of salvation is genuine for every person. People can resist His grace and reject Him, but everyone who turns to Jesus in repentance and faith is forgiven and justified, meaning declared righteous before God through faith. God gives the believer new birth and makes him a new creation, and the Holy Spirit dwells within him and seals him. Those truly born again are eternally secure in Christ, though that assurance never permits lawlessness. Obedience is evidence of new life; it neither earns salvation nor keeps us saved. Calling oneself a Christian does not establish that new birth has occurred.
That is much more than a message about being kinder for a few weeks. If we use Christ’s name while avoiding the sin He came to save us from, we may have a familiar celebration without seriously considering Him. The angel’s announcement to the shepherds was explicit about who had been born.
For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
We need a Savior because we cannot rescue ourselves from sin. The title Christ identifies Jesus as God’s promised Messiah, and Lord describes the One with rightful authority over our lives. Warm feelings toward a baby in a manger are no substitute for receiving Him as He is.
After hearing the announcement, the shepherds went to find Mary, Joseph, and the baby. They spread the message they had received about Him, while Mary kept and considered all that had happened.
But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Joseph and Mary later brought Jesus to the temple in obedience to the Law. The Holy Spirit had promised Simeon that he would see the Lord’s Christ before he died. Holding the child, he spoke of salvation reaching beyond Israel.
For my eyes have seen Your salvation Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.
Through Israel’s Messiah, God would bring revelation to the Gentiles while fulfilling His promises to Israel. Simeon also warned Mary that Jesus would be spoken against and that hearts would be exposed. His coming would bring division as well as joy. The biblical account does not give us a harmless symbol that we can each redefine to suit ourselves.
I can fill a calendar with church events, meals, and visits without giving much thought to what Scripture says about the incarnation, the Son of God becoming man. If I celebrate, I need time to consider those truths, even if that means declining an event or leaving something out of my plans.
John takes us back before Bethlehem to explain who came into the world. The Word was with God and was God; the Son who lived among us was not a created savior or merely a human teacher.
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The Greek verb skenoo, translated “dwelt,” carries the language of dwelling in a tent or tabernacle. God had made His presence known among Israel in the tabernacle. John now describes the Word becoming flesh and His glory being seen among us. The eternal Son truly lived as a man without ceasing to be God, making the Father known in grace and truth. That gives us reason for gratitude whether or not we observe a particular date.
Christian Liberty and the Observing of Days
Romans 14 addresses believers who disagreed about food and the observing of days. Paul was not writing about Christmas specifically, but I believe his principle applies to an optional annual remembrance of Christ’s birth.
One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.
A family may set aside the day to read about Christ’s coming, pray together, and thank God. They might sing, give generously, or welcome someone who would otherwise be alone. Another family may abstain because the customs trouble their conscience. Both can act before the same Lord in gratitude.
I cannot measure someone’s love for Jesus by whether he celebrates Christmas, or his purity by whether he refuses it. Paul tells believers to be convinced before the Lord, not to take the Lord’s place in judging His servants over an optional choice. My freedom from a human rule about the day does not free me from Christ’s authority or His command to love other believers.
That freedom also has limits. Romans 14 does not turn idolatry, drunkenness, greed, or deception into matters of preference. Nor does a family tradition become a command for the church. Jesus warned people who honored God with religious words while withholding their hearts.
These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.
A decorated house and a full church calendar cannot tell us whether we are honoring Him. A family can use ordinary customs gratefully, or use the same occasions to display its money and status. If I become impatient with everyone around me because my celebration is not going as planned, I need to address my conduct rather than defend the tradition. Attaching Christ’s name to an activity does not sanctify my pride.
A family is free to keep the day simple or not observe it at all. Choosing not to spend money, decorate the house, or attend a gathering is not disobedience to God merely because someone else considers it essential to Christmas. We should be able to hear another believer’s concern without pressuring him to conform to our household’s customs.
Origins, Idolatry, and Jeremiah 10
If I use history to defend or condemn the day, I should be able to support what I say. Scripture does not identify December 25 as Jesus’ birthday. A Roman church calendar preserved in the Chronography of 354 lists Christ’s birth at Bethlehem under December 25. It supplies evidence of fourth-century Christian observance in Rome, not an apostolic statement of His birth date.
Why the date was chosen remains debated. Some explanations connect it with Roman winter festivals; the same compilation’s civil calendar marks a festival of Invictus on December 25. Others point to Christian calculations about Christ’s conception and death. Augustine records a tradition linking His conception and suffering with March 25 and His birth with December 25. These records do not by themselves settle how the date was first selected, and they do not establish the sweeping claim that Christmas was simply stolen from one pagan holiday.
I would not give either historical explanation the authority of Scripture. A believer may find the associations troubling enough to abstain, while another may regard the modern occasion as an ordinary setting in which to remember Christ. We still need to examine what a practice involves, because a claim about its origins cannot replace the biblical commands about worship.
Deuteronomy 12 forbade Israel from adopting the nations’ idolatrous worship and redirecting it toward the LORD. They were to destroy the pagan worship sites and worship where He chose. We cannot take a false religious rite, rename it, and assume God approves. That command does not make every ordinary cultural practice an act of worship, but it does forbid treating pagan worship as something we can offer to Him.
Paul makes a comparable distinction in 1 Corinthians 8 and 10. An idol is nothing, and food remains God’s provision. A believer could buy meat in the marketplace without investigating its whole history. Participation in a sacrificial meal at an idol’s temple, however, involved fellowship with false worship; Paul called it the table of demons. Christians had to refuse that participation and respect the conscience of a believer who associated the food with the worship he had left behind.
Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
Jeremiah 10 is often quoted to condemn Christmas trees because the passage mentions cutting wood and decorating it with silver and gold. But Jeremiah is describing the manufacture of an idol.
For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not topple.
The next verse describes an idol that cannot speak or walk, has to be carried, and can do neither good nor harm. Jeremiah is exposing the helplessness of a manufactured god. He is not accusing everyone who decorates a tree of worshiping it. His warning does apply if someone gives an object religious reverence, trusts it for protection, or treats a seasonal ritual as necessary to obtain God’s favor.
A custom that has become an idol must be abandoned. If I keep a tree, it should be a household decoration, not a sacred object that makes my home more acceptable to God. A believer who cannot use it with a clear conscience should leave it alone.
Faith, Conscience, and Truthful Practice
Paul’s warning in Romans 14 concerns someone who eats while doubting whether he should.
But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.
Family expectations and church events cannot justify pressuring someone to celebrate against his conscience. If I insist that he join in while he believes the act is wrong, I am encouraging him to do what he cannot do in faith. My choice may be permissible for me without being something I should urge on him.
Conscience also needs to be taught by Scripture. My fears do not automatically become God’s commands for everyone else, and someone else’s confidence does not settle my questions. We should examine the passages patiently and allow room for understanding to grow. Shaming someone into participating or abstaining is no substitute for that work.
If buying presents becomes an attempt to impress people and drives us into unnecessary debt, we should change it instead of calling it generosity. A holiday gives no excuse for drunkenness or bitterness, and nostalgia does not justify holding on to habits that repeatedly cause family conflict. We can simplify or abandon those habits without losing anything Christ commanded us to keep.
Parents should also be truthful about Santa Claus. Family make-believe is different from deliberately teaching a child that a fictional person is real. We should answer direct questions honestly rather than prolong a deception to keep an annual custom going. That dishonesty risks undermining a child’s trust in the parents who also teach him about Jesus.
The same care belongs in the way we retell Christ’s birth. Luke describes shepherds finding the baby in a manger, while Matthew describes wise men entering a house to see the young Child. Matthew does not place them beside the shepherds at the manger or tell us that there were three. Three kinds of gifts do not establish a head count. We can explain which details Scripture gives and which have been added by tradition without making the account any less remarkable.
Truthfulness also includes keeping our promises and admitting when a historical claim is uncertain. A celebration intended to honor the One who is full of grace and truth cannot excuse deliberate dishonesty. Whatever we choose about the day, we should be able to do it before Him in faith and with love for His people.
My Final Thoughts
If a family gratefully remembers Christ’s birth on Christmas, I can rejoice in the Lord with them. If another family abstains, I should respect their desire to obey Him rather than demand that they share my customs. The day is optional, but truthfulness, a clear conscience, and the refusal of idolatry are not optional. Jesus is the eternal Son who came to save sinners, and our response to Him must reach beyond the way we observe a season.