From previous study and understand Christmas was started long ago by pagans. The pagans would go out and kill there enemies, chopping off their heads and hanging them on a tree to celebrate. In the effort by Christians to reach out to the pagans, they adopted their holiday. The Christians modified the day by declaring the day to be the birth of Christ.
The Christians never actually knew the birth of Christ, and we still don't know the exact day. But we have figured out that it is in the middle of spring sometime. From the middle of March to June has been the estimate from many calculations. The Christmas tree has ever evolved from what it was then. From heads to sparkling flickering lights.
Understanding that the birth of Christ was adopted by the Pagans, eventually made the day seem more like a celebration to the conversions of the Pagans. As they adopted the holiday celebration the Christians took and modified from them; many people were took into celebration. This is why this celebrating time period has changed into the time to show your love to one another through gifts. My family is the type that doesn't think about the birth of Christ, but about the Time of Giving.
The Time of Giving as commonly known in Hallmark cards as the time where we come together and reward each other for no apparent reason. But, honestly I hope that I get something too. Yes it is strange to say, but I want to feel as special as I want to help others feel.
I have learned in my Hebrew class that those people in the past during the time of Christ actually marked the name of the Lord differently in the Bible. For instance if you came across the actual name of the Lord “Yawaa”, more commonly know you were supposed to replace it with Adoni. This is significant because the people that practiced this were more accustomed to the laws rather than to the love of the Lord. And when we ignore the fact that Gods birth actually happened and rather turn the holiday into a more practical celebration, we are actually taking away the real reason for Christmas.
Remember the book written by Charles Dickens “The Christmas Carol”, well in this tale he is talking about how there are spirits, which come to revolutionize Scrooges heart so he can have the choice to choose a better life, well I suggest that this is a mirror representation to the changing ways of the Pagans. Charles Dickens may have never learned about the real reason for Christmas, but he sure emphasized the reason for the holiday.
So the holiday season is for celebrating the Time of Giving but in the giving of people's hearts over to the Lord, the giving of the Son of God to be born, and then his selfless giving to die on the cross.
