Why I'm Glad Christmas Season is Over

Another Christmas season is over. The gifts have been unwrapped, the cookies have been (mostly) eaten, the visits have been made, the carols have been sung, and the Advent series has been preached.

I'm very glad it's over.

I enjoy Christmas season. I like the snow, the cold, the vacation, the gifts, the cookies, seeing family and friends, the celebration of Christ's birth. Frankly, though, I'm not so keen on many of the carols, and definitely not keen on the "standard" Advent series.

The carols and the "standard" Advent series focus on the events leading up to the birth of Christ. In a nutshell, God sent an angel to tell Mary she was going to have a baby. She submitted to God and said "I'm a virgin, but okay." Joseph was righteous and was going to send Mary away quietly to avoid disgrace, but God told Joseph to marry Mary. They went to Bethlehem because of the census, Mary gave birth to Jesus in a stable, and the shepherds and the wise men gathered 'round and praised God.

All of that is important. It's the fulfillment of prophecy and the forcible entry of God into our world for our sake. Without God becoming human, we would still be alienated from God by the wrong things we do because of our addiction to ourselves.

But the baby, Jesus, "whose birth the angels sing", did not save anyone (*). Both Joseph and Mary submitted to God, and we would do well to follow their examples. But there are many other individuals throughout the Bible that submitted to God. Why these two young people? Why this baby, divine though he was?

Why does Christmas get a month of lead-up, celebration, preaching, caroling, and TV specials? Why do Christian artists put out Christmas CDs, but not Easter CDs?

My untestable hypothesis is that Christians like Christmas more than Easter for two reasons. First, because celebrating birth is easier for us than celebrating death. Second, because we are uncomfortable with the supernatural. Babies being born is normal and commonplace (**). Jesus, for all of his divine nature, was still a baby, presumably cute, sleepy, and drooly. That's easy to smile at and celebrate. Much easier than, say, God's only son being nailed to a cross (***), physically dying, then coming back to life and claiming his resurrection meant we should listen to him (****).

The second reason, that the supernatural is uncomfortable and that we are even more uncomfortable with God taking a personal interest in us, is the more important of the two.

The birth of the Son of God to Mary should be celebrated. But when celebrating that birth, we need to remember why. We need to sing the sixth verse of The First Noel. When all ye faithful come, all ye should adore not just the newborn King, but the risen King.

To put it another way, the events recorded in chapters 1 and 2 of Matthew and Luke are far too important for a twelfth of the year to be spent studying them. Jesus came to change us. He came not simply to be an object of adoration, but to be a teacher, a Savior, and Lord of the Universe.

That's why I'm glad the Christmas season is over. I'm ready to be done simply celebrating a birth, and ready to continue celebrating Christ.




* A brief sketch of the argument for this: If God is good, and would spare his son any suffering that is not required to redeem humanity, God would allow Jesus to redeem us as early as possible. Jesus underwent trials (e.g. temptation in the desert) during his life on earth. God did not spare Jesus that suffering, so by the initial postulate, that suffering was necessary. Therefore, God's redemptive work was not finished with Jesus's birth, nor would it have been successfully finished had Jesus died for humanity as a baby.

** Yes, the creation of a new life is still amazing and miraculous. But I don't think you can argue that something that's happened more than six billion times is uncomfortably rare.

*** Ironically enough, for upsetting the established order of God's people and making them uncomfortable.

**** If nothing else, we know how to celebrate a baby's birth. Emily Post doesn't have anything that describes proper behavior at a crucifixion/death/resurrection party.