Don't Forget Jesus


Christmas is a special time
To reflect on Jesus Christ
The wonder of His lowly birth
Brings meaning to our lives

There really is no other reason
We celebrate this day
The birth of God’s precious son
And the life He willingly gave

But so much seems to distract us
In the busy-ness of our lives
We lose our focus in all the happenings
Not knowing, we leave out Christ

We lose sight of the true meaning
As we endlessly rush about
Trying to find that perfect gift
Seems to cloud our Saviour out

We need to stop and reflect awhile
Remembering our precious Lord
His birth, His life and sacrifice
And all that He stands for

For though the world may celebrate
It seems though for other reasons
Let’s keep in mind that Jesus Christ
Is the true meaning of the season

This is What Christmas Is About


Christmas will always be for us
A time to reflect on Christ
The gift God gave to all the world
Was the gift of His life

We know Christmas is not about tinsel
Nor fancy Christmas wreaths
Nor is it about all the decorations
That adorns our Christmas trees

And it’s not about Holly or Mistletoe
Hanging from our doors
Nor is it about the gifts that are left
By the jolly Santa Claus

Christmas is more than all of this
And the only reason why
We celebrate Christ’s birth together
And the wonder of His life

So remember as you celebrate
Just what it’s all about
And invite the Lord to join with you
Instead of leaving Him out

For He will always be the reason
We celebrate this day
No substitute the world may offer
Can take that meaning away

I dont think anyone is forgetting the Jesus. Christmas is ALL about Jesus. Yule isnt.

Just putting it out their.......they were perfect for a few threads.....not taking anything away from Yule I am after all part German.

Yule is simply the origional holiday pre-dating the Christian adoption and influence which came much later. They are actually very similar. The Christians simply added Jesus and Santa. Santa is of course based on Saint Nicholas

In the Western world, the birthday of Jesus Christ has been celebrated on December 25th since AD 354, replacing an earlier date of January 6th. The Christians had by then appropriated many pagan festivals and traditions of the season, that were practiced in many parts of the Middle East and Europe, as a means of stamping them out.

There were mid-winter festivals in ancient Babylon and Egypt, and Germanic fertility festivals also took place at this time. The birth of the ancient sun-god Attis in Phrygia was celebrated on December 25th, as was the birth of the Persian sun-god, Mithras. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia, a festival dedicated to Saturn, the god of peace and plenty, that ran from the 17th to 24th of December. Public gathering places were decorated with flowers, gifts and candles were exchanged and the population, slaves and masters alike, celebrated the occasion with great enthusiasm.


http://www.christmas-time.com/cp-hist.html

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interesting

can we change our birthday dates around

the thought may be in the right place

but an untruth is still an untruth

We simply didn't add Jesus...For me like the poems say....it's all about him.....Now other Holiday traditions I don't take away from.....but please don't again make Jesus like Santa Claus...not even close.

It still doesn't take away what is....

How the Date was Chosen

December 25th isn't believed to literally be the day Jesus was born. It's possible this date was chosen because of several festivals that already occurred around this time of year.


http://yulebemerry.com/history-of-christmas.html?gclid=CIO0h6b6x5cCFQUWGgodvTQVSg

that is why i said

the thought may be in the right place

----

the plan was to convert the pagans to christianity

so they set up a lie to make it easier to get them to convert

they knew that they wanted the festivals and celebrations (so they gave them a new reason for the partying)

it is a bit fraudulent

and you are right it does not change what it is

it is what it is

No Feral, you misunderstood. You always assume I am saying something caustic or hateful against Christianity and in this case I was not. Yule was the ORIGINAL holiday and it was the traditional Pagan observance of the Winter Solstice. Pagans observe the solstices and the Equinoxes as part of their religion and spirituality.To this day, they still do.

Christmas or Christ-mass came at a much later point in history. It was a way for the church to absorb and adapt the original Pagan tradition of Yule and infuse it with the idea that it was to now represent the birth of Christ. Saint Nicolas was a real living man and imprisoned by the Roman legions and the legend of Santa is indirectly based on him

So Santa and Jesus added onto the holiday of Yule and mix it around and wallah! You get Christmas.

you know what the scariest part of this is

if you are in a relationship

and some one set up a lie to manipulate what you believe
(would you remain in that relationship)
(could you be able to trust the other things they told you)

a lie is a lie

even if it is for the right reason

a lie will lead to another and another

i wonder how many lies the community of organized religion has cultivated into the growth of their beliefs

just something to think about

A side note about Santa Claus and the modern day interpretation of him as it relates directly to Christmas. He has become a mythological being of sorts. In his workshop, he employs elves that work all year long for him in some enchanted forest in the North Pole someplace that is hidden from human gaze.

Now where in the bible does it discuss elves and fairies? Point out that passage if you will be so kind. Even the popular myth of Santa was intermingled with the Pagan lore of old taken from Yule.

Some people refuse to forsake a lie and would rather live one.

Well which is a lie then? The bible or santa?

M E R R Y C H R I S T M A S


&


H A P P Y N E W Y E A R

why Santa of Course

Tell me it's not so.

Santa Claus started with a real person, Saint Nicholas, a minor saint from the fourth century.

According to tradition, he was born in the ancient Lycian seaport city of Patara, and, when young, he traveled to Palestine and Egypt.

He became bishop of Myra soon after returning to Lycia. He was imprisoned during the Roman emperor Diocletian's persecution of Christians but was released under the rule of Emperor Constantine the Great and attended the first Council (325) of Nicaea.

After his death he was buried in his church at Myra, and by the sixth century his shrine there had become well known.

In 1087, Italian sailors or merchants stole his alleged remains from Myra and took them to Bari, Italy; this removal greatly increased the saint's popularity in Europe, and Bari became one of the most crowded of all pilgrimage centres.

Nicholas' relics remain enshrined in the 11th-century basilica of San Nicola, Bari.

Nicholas' reputation for generosity and kindness gave rise to legends of miracles he performed for the poor and unhappy.

He was reputed to have given marriage dowries of gold to three girls whom poverty would otherwise have forced into lives of prostitution, and he restored to life three children who had been chopped up by a butcher and put in a brine tub.

In the Middle Ages, devotion to Nicholas extended to all parts of Europe. He became the patron saint of Russia and Greece; of charitable fraternities and guilds; of children, sailors, unmarried girls, merchants, and pawnbrokers; and of such cities as Fribourg, Switz., and Moscow.

Thousands of European churches were dedicated to him, one as early as the sixth century, built by the Roman emperor Justinian I, at Constantinople (now Istanbul).

Nicholas' miracles were a favourite subject for medieval artists and liturgical plays, and his traditional feast day was the occasion for the ceremonies of the Boy Bishop, a widespread European custom in which a boy was elected bishop and reigned until Holy Innocents' Day (December 28).

After the Reformation, Nicholas' cult disappeared in all the Protestant countries of Europe except Holland, where his legend persisted as Sinterklaas (a Dutch variant of the name Saint Nicholas).

Dutch colonists took this tradition with them to New Amsterdam (now New York City) in the American colonies in the 17th century.


Sinterklaas was adopted by the country's English-speaking majority under the name Santa Claus, and his legend of a kindly old man was united with old Nordic folktales of a magician who punished naughty children and rewarded good children with presents.

Source: "Nicholas, SAINT", Britannica CD. Version 97. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1997.

Thomas Nast was the first artist to draw Santa Claus as a fat, jolly, white-whiskered old man. He was born September 27, 1840 in Landau, Baden, Germany and died December 7, 1902 in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

celebratelove.com/santa.htm

MS I was never arguing any of the historical significance of Santa Claus and that he was in fact a real man based on Saint Nicolas. Im not sure if you felt the need to post that as rebuttal directed towards me. I hope not.

What I was talking about was the "mythological Santa" and the one we associate with the holiday today. Ya know the chuckling, jolly Santa with the long white beard? I was simply inquiring into the actual origin of the story revolving around Santa and his elves that he employs in his workshop to make toys.

I was asking where in the bible does it discuss elves and fairies? Yet elves and fairies are found throughout Pagan religion and custom. So in essence a Catholic saint was combined with a Pagan myth.

The same thing that occurred during the course of the entire adaption of Christmas.