- Pilgrims and Puritans were 16th-century Protestants who wanted to purify and reform the Church of England. They enacted anti-Christmas laws in the 1620s to reform outlandish Christmas celebrations.
- Increase Mather, a Puritan preacher, had two reasons for not celebrating Christmas in the typical way. He explained that early Christians never celebrated Christmas, since there was no proof that Jesus was born on Dec. 25, and that the date was chosen to compete with the old pagan Roman celebration of Saturnalia that worshipped false gods. His main objection stated, The manner of Christmas-keeping, as generally observed, is highly dishonorable to the name of Christ.
- Christmas was supposed to celebrate and honor the good tidings of the Savior's birth, but for many it became just an excuse to party. For most of its history Christmas was celebrated like an out-of-control Halloween - with dancing, singing, and playacting in the streets. Merrymakers dressed in animal costumes, and men dressed as women. People went to houses expecting a tip or refreshments. Sometimes they made trouble if they didn't like the handouts. The celebrations lasted throughout the 12 days of Christmas and it was a time of overeating, drinking, and gambling.
- This was the sort of Christmas that the pilgrims and Puritans remembered from England. When they came to the New World to set up a Christian community, they wanted no part of such practices. They had made a promise to each other to be a "City on a Hill." Just as the lights of a mountaintop city show the way to travelers at night, so the Puritans wanted to be a light to the world, showing God's love and power to change sinners into children of God.
Important questions to ask yourself:
- Have your customs of overshopping, overeating, and overspending overshadowed the birth of Christ?
- Do you need to "lay down the law" about some of your family's activities?
- What do you need to do to get your celebration back to Christ?
- Does your Christmas celebration honor God?
- During this busy season, do your neighbors, co-workers, friends, and relatives see you as a light on a hill, a beacon of God's love?
From The Handel's Messiah Family Advent Reader by Donna W. Payne and Fran Lenzo, copyright (c) 1999. Used by permission of Moody Press, Chicago, Ill., 1-800-678-6928.
Donna W. Payne, a biomedical researcher formerly on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, is a full-time writer. She is the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, a graduate of Wheaton College and the University of North Carolina, and lives in Columbia, Md., with her husband and two children.Fran Lenzo works in a Christian bookstore and co-owns Real Life Designs. A former leader in Community Bible studies and other ministry groups, she attended Lake Forest College in Illinois, and L'Universita per Straniera, Perugia, Italy. She lives in Columbia, Md., with her husband and three children.
