[IronJack]

It may be a grammatical mote, but it is critical: we do NOT celebrate Christmas Day. We celebrate the Birth of Christ. Christ was born; of that we are certain. We don't know when. His birth was of so little moment that it was not recorded. He was not of a famous family, or the heir to great wealth. So His actual birth date is lost in obscurity. The fact that we choose to celebrate it December 25 is meaningless. It could just as well be June 42 or the Eleventeenth of Never.

It is not the DATE that is important; it is the EVENT.

Frankly, I'd like to see a True Christian Christmas celebrated ... oh, say, ... Jan. 31, just to set it aside from the bloated, secularized holiday that "Xmas" has become. There would be no fanfare, no slavering merchants hawking their Chinese junk in the Temple. No vacation days, no phony carols being Muzak'd through the malls. Just a quiet celebration with friends and loved ones of the greatest gift ever given Mankind. And a humble request to be worthy of it.

[El Gato]

"Xmas"

Xmas is derived from the Greek letter "Chi"

The word Christmas is a contraction of Christ's Mass, derived from the Old English Cristes mæsse and refering to the religious ceremony of mass. It is often abbreviated Xmas, probably because X or Xt have often been used as a contraction for Christ. The English letter X resembles the Greek letter Χ (chi), the first letter of Christ in Greek (Χριστός transliterated as [Christos]). Crimbo is an informal synonym used in British English. Xmas is pronounced the same as Christmas, but most people just say X-Mas.

[Charles Henrickson]

The fact that we choose to celebrate it December 25 is meaningless. . . . It is not the DATE that is important; it is the EVENT.

Well, yes and no. BECAUSE the EVENT is so important and meaningful, we have chosen to set aside a DATE to remember and rejoice in it every year. Therefore, by association, the date becomes important and meaningful to Christians, for whom that annual remembrance is meaningful.

Frankly, I'd like to see a True Christian Christmas celebrated ... oh, say, ... Jan. 31, just to set it aside from the bloated, secularized holiday that "Xmas" has become.

I too like to see a true Christian Christmas celebrated, and I see it celebrated precisely that way IN CHURCH on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and through the twelve days of Christmas, when the good news of Christ's birth is preached, when it is sung in beautiful and joyful hymns, and when Christ himself is received in the Sacrament.

The bloated, secularized stuff may have only some loose, vestigial connection to the real deal, but that doesn't stop me from having a true Christian Christmas. Abusus non tollit usum.

[binkdeville]

and in a year the media would have some sort of gift giving event going and we'd be in the same boat again.Jan is a slow retail time.They would LOVE your suggestion.

[nopardons]

You and Cromwell...kindred souls.

[Proud_texan]

It is not the DATE that is important; it is the EVENT.

I don't disagree with you but I'd like to add a few thoughts.

While I think it's possible to narrow down His birth more specifically isn't it wonderful that so many celebrate His birth. Perhaps that will lead to a deeper relationship for those that aren't yet working at having one.

Nowhere in the Bible is there a record of a celebration of his birth. I see communion as the celebration He instructed us to remember.

And finally, if we are to have a special celebration that humans create, Easter, in my mind, is the time for it. It is the perfect time, as you so well put it, for "...a quiet celebration with friends and loved ones of the greatest gift ever given Mankind. And a humble request to be worthy of it."

So very well put. Thanks you my FRiend.