Chuck Norris is missing his own point

While I agree with what Chuck Norris is saying (who knew he could write?), he misses the point. This time of year has always been a time of celebration for pagans around the world. They celebrate the winter solstice. Some of their celebrations have slipped into the Christian's celebration of the birth of the Savior. Worse yet, they/we (Christians) not only seem oblivious to this fact, but get downright nasty when it's pointed out to them. The point is, it's been happening for centuries. This is not a recent phenomenon.


Let's count the ways from the past that we take for granted as being part of "Christmas".

1. "Christmas Tree": Most historians agree that the origins of the "Christmas Tree" was with the Romans at their Saturnalia celebration. This celebration honored their Saturn God and started on Dec 17th. A "Christmas Tree" has noting to do with Christmas.



2. Mistletoe: Passed down from the pagan Druids who think that the plant is "all healing" and brings fertility to animals and is an antidote for all poisons. They considered mistletoe to be sacred. Known as "Druid's Weed". A pagan belief that has nothing to do with the birth of the Messiah.



3. "Bringing in the Yule and burning the Yule log": bringing in the Yule was the practice of a festival by the Scandinavian peoples of sacrificing (sometimes human) to the god Odin. Burning a Yule log cut from a fruit tree is a token of the fertility of the next year in the land. Nothing to do with the birth of the Messiah.



4. Santa Claus is a lot older than we think. He's really an ancient pagan shaman, from either Lapland or Siberia (just one of the places we get this old story from), who climbs in and out of tent smoke holes to return with gifts of prophecy and wonder from the Otherworlds. We tried to "Christianize" him by associating a story about "Saint" Nicholas of Patara to him. But he's way older than that, older even than the birth of Christ. Nothing to do with the birth of the Messiah.

I could go on, but wouldn't want to ruin your "Christmas spirit".

So, Chuck is right in that Atheists want to rid Christmas of Christ. But it looks to me that we (Christians) are doing a pretty good job of that without the atheist's help.

Christmas (Christ's Mass) is a remembrance / celebration of Christ's birth in Bethlehem, to a virgin....with the purpose of providing a sacrifice for the world's sins.

Santa Claus, "Christmas" trees, Yule logs, Reindeer, mistletoe, etc, etc......have nothing to do with the birth of the Messiah, no matter how many good intentions, reasons, explanations we offer for continuing to use these pagan items at Christmas time. One thing to remember, this is the time of the winter solstice and it's good to know which of these items belong in which celebration.