Christmas tree bad or good?

So I am going to be honest and open here , and make it public , but youversion feels a little safer than facebook, mostly because nobody can comment. It is a long post but read on if you will.

I started out reading about Jeremiah 10 : 2-4 . It clearly states here that people of Israel shouldn't follow the practice of the other nations. It is because they followed the practice of other nations that God eventually put them into captivity. He specifically points out the practice of bring trees into houses and decorating. It sounds a lot like Christmas trees. It uses the word vain. It is vain to cut a tree and put in your house. Vain meaning pointless or lead astray. Does celebrating Christmas lead us as Christians astray?
I have struggled with Christmas. I didn't celebrate for almost 10 years because of this verse, and because I honestly knew the historical background of Christmas was rooted pagan traditions. Jesus was more likely born in the spring or summer, but not in the middle of winter. Christians adopted the practice of celebrating Christmas to bring in heathens because heathens celebrated the rebirth of sun, so they changed it to celebrating Christ birth. I learned this from a secular professor in a state college. He thought it was a good thing because the church could "adapt" . This made me very sad because how different was making a holiday Christian from allowing homosexuality and other sexual sin in the church? How different believing all religions have a little bit of truth in them.
Years I didn't celebrate this Christian holiday. I actually was glad to. I was just getting married and we didn't have money and it seemed like a lot of fuss to decorate.
But slowly things began to change. People gave me Christmas gifts at work, and I wanted to give gifts back because I loved my coworkers and I wanted to let them know and this was the time of year to do it.
Then I had a child, and I wanted to praticipate in holiday traditions of tree decorating, cookies, present and yes talking about Jesus coming to earth. A wise mom once told me it was a great time to talk about how God is all human and all divine. And more then the " traditional " story in Luke 2 . I think it is great to talk about how the word become flesh. That is amazing part story.
And then I began to ponder Romans 14:5 that one man can esteem a day above another and we shouldn't judge. Paul talks about it isn't a big deal that somebody eats food sacrificed to idols , but if you think it is wrong don't do it.
It offended Christians that I didn't celebrate Christmas because to them it was a connection to God. It was a time to openly celebrate Jesus. I was becoming a stumbling block over something like this. I could go on and on with the debate, but I have decided to celebrate Christmas as a time to teach my daughter about Jesus coming to earth to save us because if He didn't come how could He die?

Created 4 months ago