Christmas Traditions

By Dr. Patti Amsden

Traditions, traditions! There is more to these words than just a line from a song in Fiddler on the Roof. According to Webster’s Dictionary, the word ‘tradition’ has in its roots the idea of a legal act of delivering or transferring something into the hands of another. Our modern day usage of the word refers to unwritten laws, beliefs, rites, and customs that are delivered or transferred from generation to generation by oral communication.

For the most part, traditions are good. They insure continuity from one age group to another, bridging the generation gap and producing a unity of values between old and young. Among all the special days that Americans observe, Christmas is more encased in customs than any other holiday. Presents, decorations, parties, cookies, cards, and gifts fill the Christmas season; because our heritage has passed down a pattern of behavior. In other words, grandma and grandpa and then mom and dad put up the Christmas tree; therefore, so do we.

A tradition will begin because some event needs to be memorialized. For example, a child is born and every year the parents hold a birthday party to celebrate and memorialize his or her birth. Anniversaries, Fourth of July, Memorial Day and other special seasons are set aside on our calendars for the commemoration of grand or heroic happenings. These occurrences that make up our holidays are actual events.

Although the fictional character Superman has fought a lot of battles and saved a lot of lives we celebrate Veteran’s Day not Superman’s Day. Our nation loves many of the imaginary Disney characters, from Mickey Mouse to Beauty and the Beast; but we do not pay tribute to their existence with a holiday as we do with the Presidents of the United States. The holiday traditions that we pass to our children evolve from real life, true happenings, historic figures, and worth-remembering affairs.

Likewise, our Christmas customs commemorate the event of the birth of the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of God. Prophets had foretold of His coming and the nation of Israel had long expected the occasion. But, when the promise became reality, when the unseen impacted history, and when the Word was made flesh to dwell among men, then an event transpired which was so marvelous that every succeeding generation must be reminded. Christmas traditions began.

Christmas is about the birth of the actual Son of God. Christmas is His story in history. Christmas is heaven touching the Earth with such dynamics that the Earth would never be the same. Christmas is not tradition based upon a fictional character or an unreal event. Christmas is not a day of a make believe hero but of the ever-living Christ. The manger, the angels, the star of Bethlehem, and the wise men: these are the facts that form the basis of a day worth commemorating and of a Savior’s birth worth remembering in our traditions. Merry Christmas!

Dr. Patti Amsden is the wife of pastor Dennis Amsden the former senior pastor of Son Life Church in Collinsville, IL.