Even Doc Brown got it wrong.  “Witness the birth of Christ?”  December 25, 0000?  Most scholars point to the Roman pagan practice of honoring the god of agriculture, Saturn, which just so happened to have a festival ending on December 25th.  Conversion from paganism to Christianity wasn’t so easy for some people.  They enjoyed their holidays and rituals.  Honoring Jesus on December 25th seemed convenient.

Today we occasionally see a church sign saying “Happy Birthday Jesus” or a like mannered Facebook post.  To say Jesus was definitely born on December 25 would likely be a falsehood…or at the least an unsubstantiated claim.  To say “We celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25,” is more appropriate.

Growing up attending a church of Christ I did not attend a Christmas Eve service centered around Christ’s birth.  Christmas hymns weren’t sung during December for fear of legitimatizing the belief of Christ’s birth on December 25th.

So for fear of celebrating a non Biblical holiday of Christmas I feel sometimes we did not study Christ’s birth as much as some other church groups.  We studied it, but much of the time it was in a different part of the year.

During a conversation with my girlfriend (Hi Sharon!) she speculated that we as members of the church of Christ lost out on some religious activities that our other church friends experienced.  I would tend to agree.  Sometimes I wonder if a Christmas Eve candlelit service or an Easter Sunrise service would provide a greater impact in my Christian walk compared to treating Christmas as a secular holiday.

At the church I attend we do have special thematic services such as “The Second Greatest Commandment Day” or the “Sanctity of Life Day,” which we focus on Bibical or social issues.  I think churches of Christ tend to stay away from designating a specific Sunday to remember Christ’s birth for fear of appearing denominational.