Isaiah 9:6-7 English Standard Version
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
One of Strong’s Definitions of zeal indicates a change in His face due to strong emotions. What stronger emotion can exist above the perfect love of God?
“The conversion of Emperor Constantine to Christianity in AD 312 signalled the beginning of the end of pagan celebrations in the Empire, but early religious leaders couldn’t simply ban the popular Saturnalia, as there would be a backlash. There is a theory that they used many of the traits of the festival when establishing Christmas, a rival feast that would take Saturnalia’s place, but commemorate a Christian occasion: the birth of Jesus. The exchange of gifts was probably one of the traditions carried over from the old to the new.” Source giftsinternational.net
Consider this in our deliberations about the issue of gift giving.
God gave His Son to us long before man tried to make sense of how to mix paganism with Christianity.
Christ is the gift given.
Today we deal with the traditions of men. We carry the memory of how our families celebrated Christmas. We were young and we did not know much of anything in those days except what we were told.
We came of age and we received the gift of Christ by faith.
Now it is time to celebrate according to faith in the gift given.
How we celebrate says the only truth our children will hear about Christmas.