I once read an article by Scott Ashley, managing editor of Beyond Today magazine, on his top 10 reasons why he didn’t celebrate Christmas.

One, because it is driven by commercialism.

Two, Christmas is nowhere mentioned in the Bible. In fact, the disciples never celebrated Jesus’ birth.

Three, Jesus wasn’t born on or near December 25. Some scholar suggests He was born in the same month in which He died.

Four, the Christmas holiday we celebrate now is mostly a recycled pagan celebration invented by the Romans. The Church in Rome decided to replace the pagan festival of Mithra, the Persian god of light that was practiced by the Romans on December the 25^th.

Five, in Deuteronomy 12:30-32, God condemns using pagan customs to worship Him. The Apostle Paul reiterates this same thing in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18; 7:1.

Six, Christmas is worshipping God in vain. This is what Jesus said in Mark 7:6-7

Seven, it’s impossible to “Put Christ back into Christmas.” It sounds nice, but it’s only an attempt to replace Santa Claus and his flying reindeer, the Christmas tree, and mistletoe. If you want to put Christ back into Christmas, then you must return to the manger in Bethlehem and hear the angels sing to the shepherds. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill to all.”

Eight, the Bible nowhere tells us to observe a holiday celebrating Jesus Christ’s birth, but it clearly does tell us to commemorate His death. The Apostle Paul passed this along to the Jews and Gentiles in his letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 11:23-28).

Nine, Christmas obscures God’s plan for mankind. Passover, mentioned above, has enormous significance in God’s plan for humanity. The Old Testament Passover, described in Exodus 12, was symbolic of Jesus Christ’s future role and sacrifice. As the blood of the slain Passover lambs on the Israelites’ houses spared them while the firstborns of the Egyptians were killed, so does Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death on our behalf save us from death— eternal death.

Ten, instead, he’d rather celebrate the Holy Days Jesus Christ and the apostles observed. The first known use of the term “XMAS” was back in 1551 AD. That’s because “X” is the symbol for Christ, from the Greek letter “chi” – (X), which is the first letter in Χριστός – Christós. So “Xmas” is shorthand for Christ (X)mas. When the Roman church decided to replace the pagan holiday celebrated by the Romans, they planned to celebrate a Mass on December 25^th to honor the birth of Christ, not the Persian god of light, Mithra.

It appears to me that Scott is really saying is that he refuses to take the Christmas holiday celebrated by the world as the real expression of the birth of Christ. So we, too, can delineate between Christmas and Xmas. But when it is all boiled down to a simple principle. Jesus wants us to celebrate His death in honor of His death in our place on the cross. But I’m sure He doesn’t mind when we celebrate a seasonal holiday that all came about because of His birth as long as our celebration is not construed with worship. – Dr. Robert R Seyda