Christmas

[berrybug]

The CoC of my childhood taught that celebrating religious holidays was sinful. No Easter in the Christian sense, or Christmas either. Easter dresses, bunnies, and eggs were fine. Christmas trees and gifts were fine. NO nativities though. My mother told me once that a frosted glass figurine of Mary that sits on my bookshelf is an idol. Unless I leave it out year round, of course. What was taught about religious holidays in your congregations?

[KLP]

Sounds like you were at a liberal cofc or liberal upbringing.

The honest and sincere Bible student knows that you cannot have a tree or give gifts at Christmas...the world would think you are celebrating this Papist pagan holiday just like everyone else. We were allowed one concession which was that we could say "Happy Holidays" in response to anyone who wished us a "Merry Christmas". In this case, we were allowed to ignore the significance of the root meaning of "holy days". But we were encouraged to just say "Happy New Year" since it was safer even if it was a non-sequitur.

Now of course we could have black-faced figurines of "coloreds" and we wouldn't have to worry if folks thought we owned slaves. But you cannot have a Christmas tree or a snowman without causing people to think we were agreeing with and supporting Christmas and Catholicism. Or so the thinking went.

[illuminator]

Our family celebrated both Christmas and Easter as Christian holidays. It was our choice. It was a small country church. When I moved to the big city, I was told all that was sinful. I felt raped. Some of the most treasured memories of my childhood were ripped from me. They went as far as saying my parents didn't repent for those sins before their deaths so we know where they ended up, or so I was told.

[berrybug]

Sounds like you were at a liberal cofc or liberal upbringing.

The honest and sincere Bible student knows that you cannot have a tree or give gifts at Christmas...the world would think you are celebrating this Papist pagan holiday just like everyone else. We were allowed one concession which was that we could say "Happy Holidays" in response to anyone who wished us a "Merry Christmas". In this case, we were allowed to ignore the significance of the root meaning of "holy days". But we were encouraged to just say "Happy New Year" since it was safer even if it was a non-sequitur.

Now of course we could have black-faced figurines of "coloreds" and we wouldn't have to worry if folks thought we owned slaves. But you cannot have a Christmas tree or a snowman without causing people to think we were agreeing with and supporting Christmas and Catholicism. Or so the thinking went.

WOW. And here I thought my church was conservative! That sounds much more like a Jehovah's Witness viewpoint.

[cathym]

We celebrated them as non-religious holidays. The sermon on Easter usually wasn't about the crucifixion / resurrection at all, except maybe a disclaimer about why it wasn't -- that we celebrate every week through communion, and were not instructed to celebrate otherwise (or to celebrate Christ's birth at all).

At least around here, the trend the last few years has been to call Easter "Resurrection Sunday" and make a big outreach effort around it, try to capture some of those Christmas-and-Easter Christians, I guess. Seems to have started around the same time we started doing "trunk or treat" Halloweens.

[agricola]

We had candy and rabbits at Easter at home, and everybody wore new clothes to church and the ladies wore hats - and often, there were Easter lilies up on the podium. The service itself, however, was absolutely normal and the same as any other Sunday, except - as cathym mentioned - some years there was a mention of how WE celebrate 'the Lord's' death EVERY Sunday, and this day was no different, yada yada yada. For quite a long time, I had no idea that anybody celebrated Easter any other way, or that it was at all any sort of special religious holy day.

I was in my 20's before I heard of 'Lent' or 'Ash Wednesday' as anything other than something interesting people used to do in the Middle Ages in novels. I didn't know what they WERE, or even that they had anything to do with 'Easter' - which in my mind, was a single day in the Spring.


Christmas barely got a mention at church - occasionally we were told that We celebrated J's DEATH (sometimes 'life') but not his birth. Also that nobody knew exactly when he was born, so we couldn't just pick a day, and also that his birth wasn't important, it was his death (and resurrection) that was important....those sorts of statements would show up throughout December.

When I was very young, that is all that happened at church. When I was a little older, there might be poinsettia on the podium during December, though. But the rhetoric didn't change, really. Sometimes a song leader would try to sneak in a Christmas carol, but that was always controversial, and it really had to be a specifically religious carol - something arguably 'hymn-like'.

At home we had decorated trees, lots of presents, greenery - no nativity scenes - absolutely not. And no angel on the tree, either. Tiny angels did creep into the decorations as I got older, but Mother was clearly a little uneasy about them and they were never central to anything. She didn't want a wreath on the front door, because, she said, it would be crushed by the storm door. Maybe that was the reason. We had a few outdoor lights but nothing elaborate.

But Daddy used to drive us to the Parthenon to see the huge life size Nativity scene there, all lit up, with live donkeys and sheep. I think - looking back - that they disagreed about Christmas, and that Daddy would have welcomed a little more 'religion' in it at home, if not at church. He was raised in the Christian Church/Disciples of Christ tradition, not coc. Mother was raised semi fundie Baptist/semi nothing and converted to coc as a teenager, and brought Daddy into that.

[faithfyl]

I guess Halloween & Christmas are the most sinful times of year for me, since I really, really enjoy those holidays.

[berrybug]

That was my experience too. No mention of Christmas or Easter as holidays, but mention of why they WEREN'T. My congregation was partial to bashing on the Catholics, so I recall that being mentioned time to time. No angels on our tree either. I never realized there was a church year until I left the CoC as a young adult. Lent, Ash Wednesday, Advent.. those were all foreign to me.

[Ivy]

But you cannot have a ...snowman without causing people to think we were agreeing with and supporting Christmas and Catholicism. Or so the thinking went.

I always thought the snowman cards were cofc approved. WTF????

[B.H.]

I guess Halloween & Christmas are the most sinful times of year for me, since I really, really enjoy those holidays.

We always did Halloween and Christmas, Santa and all. We did Easter too with no qualms of concience.