00:02:45.160um okay let's talk about christmas um you want to start off yeah so talking about christmas
00:02:53.480and traditions and things that people do for the holidays i think it's important for us to
00:02:58.320remember that tradition is a teacher so what we do as a family for traditions is actually teaching
00:03:04.340your children or is it teaching your child about god or do they compete with god do they compliment
00:03:11.880or do they compete with it yeah and this happens for a lot of families is that are your traditions
00:03:16.220especially around christmas conflicting or competing against god's narrative about
00:03:21.640i guess why we're doing christmas or are they complementing it yeah and that's an important
00:03:27.280part um and uh yeah so that's just something that we need to to look at yeah and ask yourself that
00:03:35.080especially obviously we're talking about christmas regarding towards the holidays
00:03:38.380regarded towards christmas yeah and this is obviously christmas is an extra biblical activity
00:03:43.560okay so we we're not saying that there's a we're not going to give you a biblical uh mandate
00:03:49.340doctrine on why you should celebrate or should not celebrate christmas um so i want to just kind of
00:03:54.860give you guys some context about christmas i think it's important for christians to understand this
00:03:59.100because it is confusing territory so i'm going to give you just a little bit of history before we
00:04:03.020dive into some stuff. So how do we get Christmas? Well, it comes from the word Christ Mass. That
00:04:10.220like Mass is like, you know, Eucharist Mass, like Catholic Mass, Christ Mass. And I looked up some
00:04:17.160research. So if you're seeing me, if you're watching the video, I'm looking at some notes
00:04:20.140as I'm doing this. In the year 221, this guy named Julius Africanus, okay, he identified
00:04:27.920died um december 25th as the birth of jesus and was actually universally accepted as the birth of
00:04:35.840jesus again if you look at it now and you do some research it's probably not the right date
00:04:39.500but at the end of the day there is no way that we're going to ever know jesus's exact birth
00:04:44.120but that's when the church kind of just universally agreed that hey december 25th
00:04:48.560uh it happened in as far back as 221 that's the day that people are going to celebrate it yes
00:04:54.780Exactly. And in Rome, this is some cool history because this is backed up in like Roman historians, Greek historians, Jewish historians and Christian historians.
00:05:08.900So this is like I would say I feel pretty confident that this is a true story here.
00:05:12.640In Rome, there was a popular holiday held on December 25th or around that season titled The Day of the Birth of the Unconquered Sun, S-U-N, Sun.
00:05:25.840And it was this day of celebrating the sun, the sun god, and it had a lot of pagan roots to it.0.69
00:05:32.080And Christians, really in an attempt to, I guess, show a better way to, you know, I say superiority of the one true God, started actually having Christmas gatherings at that same season.
00:05:46.500And there's that kind of pun of the unconquered sun, S-O-N.
00:05:50.620And so those things were happening at that time.
00:05:52.860It was really an alternative, especially in the form of an advent, because I believe that Roman holiday was a multi-day kind of winter solstice type thing.0.63
00:06:01.400And so Christmas really came as the church's or Christian's attempt to create their own Christ-centered tradition while the Romans were doing something else.
00:06:18.160And I think it was an evangelistic outreach opportunity on that conversation.0.64
00:06:21.700We're putting Christ back in Christmas.
00:07:48.220and so it's celebrating um jesus's birth um you know this thing that we shouldn't do i go again
00:07:56.960there's well you do easter is that a biblical no is good friday biblical uh no lent no again
00:08:03.800but these are interesting moments that we have created to help us remember the things that
00:08:09.780christ did for us can tradition become so powerful that you actually bow down to tradition
00:08:14.780before you bow down to doctrine yeah because like has it become an idol in your life yeah and for
00:08:20.060many denominations that has uh i don't think christmas is doing that especially in the
00:08:25.600protestant church um i don't think that celebrating christmas is sinful especially done if it's done
00:08:31.340in a correct heart um i think it's a great opportunity uh the entire country the entire
00:08:38.020world people who aren't human christians celebrate it are talking about christmas it's a great time
00:08:43.380to talk about jesus and so if you want to kind of remove yourself from that conversation by saying
00:08:49.280we're not going to celebrate you can do that um but i'm just saying is that there's an opportunity
00:08:53.500here christmas carols uh singing these songs that are talking about jesus that even the secular
00:08:59.380world sings um talking about the need for a savior there's so much there that i just would
00:09:05.040hate for christians to kind of pull away from because they're trying to be extra holy extra
00:09:09.920of separate. Again, you know, where scripture is clear, God demands our behavior. But where
00:09:15.940scripture is obscure, God looks at our hearts. And so on Christmas, that's one of those things.
00:09:20.840So Veronica's going to share what we do as a family. And then I'm going to talk about Santa
00:09:25.500Christmas trees and gifts. All right. So we celebrate the Advent. And we try and get the
00:09:31.400kids excited about the coming of Jesus. What's Christmas about? Jesus's birth. But also about
00:09:38.400like what dale shared the the second coming of jesus um about his return and so we talk a lot
00:09:43.940about that in our home um and so we celebrate the advent which includes a few things um we want to
00:09:50.480teach our children how beautiful christ's birth truly was for the world and not just for the
00:09:54.120world but for themselves um it's a great time to just again preach the gospel to your own kids
00:09:59.060yeah and practice preaching the gospel to other people by preaching it to your kids yes um and
00:10:05.040then kids need reminders that um about the what's so beautiful about the representation of the
00:10:12.780advent yes and so we'll use things like the advent calendar I know a lot of people have
00:10:17.740advent calendars and some people put like candy in each day some people put activities um I've
00:10:23.300seen all different types of things some people just put like little hanging ornaments on there
00:10:28.020in this advent calendar we have one on our wall it's like 24 days and then in each day there's a
00:10:33.400little like activity or something to do so um some of the things are fun just just fun little
00:10:39.580things activities for the kids to do like go make a snowman or um go make daddy breakfast go make
00:10:46.140dad breakfast and then other things a lot of i would that was my next category babe are things
00:10:51.220to serve or be generous and so yeah to serve one another so go make dad breakfast or um i think
00:10:57.460last year we did um wash each other's feet yep um and so then we'll read the story along out of
00:11:03.840the bible that goes along with those types of activities yeah um there's also one that like
00:11:08.640get a few gift like five dollar gift cards and go give them to some tired moms or offer to babysit
00:11:14.120like so it's also a time for us to serve other people as well um and help the children understand
00:11:22.100that that it's not just all about us yeah and these little calendars are cool they have like
00:11:26.740pockets that you could like put these little slips in there and like you know tell you what to do for
00:11:30.340the day and um it is the repetition is important for little kids so they can go oh okay like oh i
00:11:37.620get it i get it like i don't want them to be confused at all about what about jesus's birth
00:11:42.340the gospel and it's a great time to just be hammered into their head yeah and we read like
00:11:47.060a couple of advent books to them every day um you know a lot of times people families will just have
00:11:52.120like just this one um I've got like two or three of them that I like to read and I'll read a couple
00:11:56.860and especially because my kids aren't the type of kids that like you'll sit there read them a story
00:12:01.340and then they're done like they want you to read book after book after book after book and so one
00:12:05.660of the things that I was going to do this year was have a Christmas uh type advent book for them to
00:12:11.880read every day and they were going to be able to open a new book every day and we'd read that one
00:12:14.960book but again they like to read book after book after book and one book is just not I mean they
00:12:20.500they would just like more and so i was like you know i'm just gonna put all the books in a christmas
00:12:24.540basket so we have our christmas advent basket with all of our christmas books in it um and so
00:12:29.900we'll sit there and read through the different books and so especially the advent ones i'll read
00:12:35.280like since i have multiple i'll read the you know day four advent um out of the two different books
00:12:41.220that morning and then i'll read um the other ones in the evening and they just get really
00:12:45.980a good perspective multiple angles of the christmas story um different conversation
00:12:51.180starters we ask them questions after we're done reading what does this mean you know you know and
00:12:55.900just you know what is um you know why did jesus come here you know like just giving them some
00:13:00.460promptings and um it's fun it's it's again and those obviously change we have little kids so
00:13:04.840yeah they love it i mean more complex with the older kids they love reading in general but so
00:13:09.560these are like special books that only come out you know this time of year and so they're really
00:13:14.300excited about it um but the big question we get all the time is do you tell your children about
00:13:19.660santa claus do your children believe in santa claus yeah short answer is no yeah no i'm gonna
00:13:25.420give you guys the how i think christians should at least consider this um here you know here's
00:13:30.980how we view it so god commands us as humans uh but if we're talking to christians here as christians
00:13:38.440to not lie. The Ten Commandments specifically say to not bear false witness. Ephesians 4.25
00:13:45.300says, therefore, laying aside all falsehood, speak truth, each one of you with his neighbor,
00:13:52.360for we are members of one another. And I mean, that's just one of many scriptures that are
00:13:57.060talking about speaking the truth. Don't deceive people. Don't mislead people. And, you know,
00:14:04.280we look at teaching our children that santa exists and you should believe in him as lying0.55
00:14:11.260like that's really just what it is it is deceptive it is training your children to believe a lie
00:14:17.180well it's even in like christmas songs like he sees you when you're sleeping he knows when you're
00:14:22.160awake he knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness sake and i'm always like
00:14:25.260jesus sees you when you're sleeping so this is god knows when you're awake like it's it's
00:14:31.700it's in you know intertwined in everything yeah this is actually the culture's uh replacement
00:14:37.620figure for christ that that's what it is it's the counterfeit option i mean saint nicholas was a
00:14:44.140historical sure character but we know today that like nobody knows that saint nicholas history and
00:14:49.760it was again i think a good ploy on the enemy of just kind of getting him in there um but it is
00:14:55.720it's a distraction um it's the culture's alternative to the true reason for the season
00:15:03.520and um and there you know that's what that's what's happened so um you know santa replaces
00:15:10.840the gift of salvation with the entitlement of materialism and so if you see little kids that
00:15:16.480are excited i remember as a little kid you know we did santa claus and all this kind of stuff and i
00:15:20.640was really bummed if I didn't get what I wanted. I remember calling my friends and being jealous
00:15:25.700of what they got and I didn't get. It built up a really negative heart in me. And remembering
00:15:34.840that when I found out that Santa wasn't real, I remember I used to write letters to him.
00:15:42.300I did all these things that were a part of that. And lots of people do this. You leave cookies out,
00:15:47.480right you leave milk out all these different things that would happen and this is with tooth
00:15:51.960fairy easter bunny again all these kind of deceptions and um you know what you need to
00:15:59.320realize what's happening is you're telling your children hey there's these characters that you
00:16:04.440can't see but you should believe in and then you find out that your parents are lying to you and
00:16:11.900then they come to you and they say well there's this guy jesus who you can't see but you should
00:16:15.200believe in and you go well why should i believe you about jesus but you lied to me about the tooth
00:16:22.200fairy the easter bunny and santa claus and so you create yourself a conundrum that you're actually
00:16:29.120dismantling the trust between you and your child and it's it's just unwise just it's just not
00:16:36.540something to do um and we should be very careful uh not to allow our children's eyes to get
00:16:42.700diverted uh diverted toward anything but christ in this season again everybody's worrying for
00:16:49.740these little ones hearts you know and the candy and the food and the and the toys and the things
00:16:54.960that they get in the celebration it could easily become something that is pagan um that is
00:17:01.880dangerous especially because it could be a distortion of what this tradition was originally
00:17:08.500created for so christians need to protect it by saying hey you see this like keep christ in
00:17:13.320christmas and the real reason for the season you see you hear these things in the church and it's
00:17:17.420it's important that we really do protect that as the church um if we want to continue to celebrate
00:17:22.500that um and so that's that's something that our perspective that we need to take on why not telling
00:17:32.480your kids that santa is real just take that into consideration yeah like i mean just like you said
00:17:37.780presenting Santa's real is just a reality of possibly breaking the trust between you and your
00:17:42.520child. Yeah. And that's just something that you want to be careful for. And just remember that
00:17:46.420it's a commandment, like thou shall not lie. Um, and so it's just something to, to think about.
00:17:53.660So, um, let's next, let's next, let's talk about Christmas trees and gifts. Um, so we do both in
00:18:04.260our family. Um, but we have a core teaching that helps our children to place these elements in the
00:18:10.220correct place in their hearts. Yeah. We're working hard to, you know, make sure that it's not about
00:18:15.620the Christmas tree. It's not about the gifts. It's, um, and you have to work hard because, um,
00:18:21.020the culture is not going to help you. You know, they're, they're going to, they're going to have
00:18:23.860these songs that have nothing to do with Jesus. They're going to have these expectations of
00:18:28.540gifting that has nothing to do with Jesus there, uh, or even generosity. It turns into materialism.
00:18:33.920There's going to be all these things that are competing for keeping this opportunity that we have to really spend a 24-day period focusing on Jesus, especially for our families, even for ourselves, to turn it into something that's actually not that valuable at all.
00:26:20.460Let's use this as an opportunity when the whole church and the whole culture is actually admitting that, you know, Christmas exists and that there's a possibility that Jesus did come and they're open to those conversations.
00:26:32.140And so they're singing these songs already.
00:26:34.460And so it's just and it also, you know, family and these things are, you know, are still morally common in terms of just we're getting together as a family.
00:26:47.420The gift thing I wanted to mention is that it's also a great opportunity to teach generosity to your children.
00:28:37.280Thank you for joining us on this episode of Ultimate Marriage.
00:28:39.920If you're homesick for a stronger marriage, visit our website at ultimatemarriage.com and consider enrolling in our one-year online marriage mentor program.
00:28:47.920Also, if you're interested in learning more about building a better marriage, follow Veronica and I on social media where each week we share tips, tricks, and lessons on building a biblical marriage.