{"id":25755,"date":"2017-09-24T00:46:44","date_gmt":"2017-09-24T06:46:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=25755"},"modified":"2017-09-24T00:26:29","modified_gmt":"2017-09-24T06:26:29","slug":"lies-internet-tells-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/lies-internet-tells-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"Lies the Internet Tells You About Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If it is <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> truth you\u2019re looking for there is no deeper resource than the Internet. But be careful &#8212; the Internet lies about <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s right \u2013 linked in the list below are credible websites that get <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> completely wrong. That should be sign enough for you that maybe it\u2019s time to rethink <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> overall.<\/p>\n<p>There are many mistruths about <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> spread online. But these are the real whoppers \u2013 just flat out lies that bear correcting:<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> is the celebration of the birth of Christ.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Wrong.<\/em> Nearly every big website out there gets this wrong, including <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Christmas\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Wikipedia<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> is the celebration of eternal life. The birth of Christ is just one element of a broader celebratory season.  Because Christ came death has lost its sting, the grave it\u2019s victory. We will live again because He came \u2013 that is the essence of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> trees are pagan.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Not really.<\/em> Pagans are broadly defined by both time and distance. What is pagan in one part of the world is none existent in another. So it is easy for historians or scientists to claim <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/25779-christmas-traditions-history-paganism.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Christmas is pagan<\/strong><\/a> by selectively choosing where they think they see a connection.<\/p>\n<p>But there is simply no proof whatsoever that ANY pagan society used trees as any form of either worship or celebration. None.<\/p>\n<p>The closest pagans came to use of trees in celebration of anything was the Yule log. Those were not trees, they were not indoors and they were not decorated. Yes, many pagan societies did use evergreens in symbolic ways \u2013 but nothing like we see in a <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> tree.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> trees date back about 400 years and are clearly Christian in origin. But even to Christians, the symbolism of the tree is not clear. This video explains:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/SZNxHUV6-iA\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> was a dead holiday before the 1800s.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Dead wrong \u2013 really wrong!<\/em> Just because <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> was not celebrated as it is today doesn\u2019t mean it didn\u2019t exist or <a href=\"https:\/\/muse.jhu.edu\/article\/248231\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>wasn\u2019t celebrated<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Dickens wrote <em>A <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> Carol<\/em> partly because he was nostalgic for the Christmases of his youth. How could <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> then not exist before <em>A <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> Carol<\/em>?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> was widely celebrated in both North America and Europe in the 1800s, the 1700s, the 1600s, and beyond and history tells the story over and over again.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/washingtons-christmas-at-war\/\"><strong>George Washington<\/strong><\/a> held famous <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> parties. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.monticello.org\/site\/research-and-collections\/christmas\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Thomas Jefferson<\/strong><\/a> exchanged gifts in the 1700s. <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/christmas-with-lewis-clark\/\"><strong>Lewis and Clark celebrated Christmas<\/strong><\/a> on the Corps of Discovery. What was the first thing Columbus and his men did after landing in Cuba in 1492? Well, <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/the-first-christmas-in-the-americas\/\"><strong>they celebrated Christmas<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Just because a holiday was not \u201cdeclared\u201d or that \u201cCongress met on <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> day\u201d or \u201cstores were not closed\u201d or \u201cit was just a regular work day\u201d does not mean <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> was not observed.<\/p>\n<p>Again, the world was a different place at different times. <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> has always been a part of it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Puritans didn\u2019t celebrate <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Wrong<\/em>. The <a href=\"http:\/\/www.historytoday.com\/chris-durston\/puritan-war-christmas\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Puritans outlawed the riotous celebration of Christmas<\/strong><\/a> they condemned \u2013 the drunkenness, the wife swapping, the role reversal, the outrageous parties and feasting that had been part of Church-driven culture in England for centuries. But they did not abandon the sacred observance of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a>. In fact, they celebrated the sacred <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a>. You just don\u2019t hear about it much because it was, well, sacred.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Christians stole <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> from pagans<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Wrong again.<\/em> First of all, there are many kinds of pagans and most of them were very spiritual. And yes, you can see elements in common between <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> celebration as we know it and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.simpletoremember.com\/vitals\/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>pagan celebrations<\/strong><\/a> in various seasons.<\/p>\n<p>But most <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> elements people associated with paganism were not adopted for centuries after the advent of Christ. Historians tend to speak of pagans as people during or before the life of Christ.<\/p>\n<p>Most lies told online about <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> stems from anti-religious attitudes and agendas. The problem with most historians is that they do not look deep enough into Christian doctrine AND Christian history before Christ in their studies of the elements of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a>. If you are really to understand fully the celebration of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/celebrating-20-years-of-the-merry-forums\/\">Christmas<\/a> you need to begin with a study of <a href=\"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/the-real-first-christmas\/\"><strong>Christmas before Christ<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If it is Christmas truth you\u2019re looking for there is no deeper resource than the Internet. But be careful &#8212; the Internet lies about Christmas. That\u2019s right \u2013 linked in the list below are credible websites that get Christmas completely wrong. That should be sign enough for you that maybe it\u2019s time to rethink Christmas [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":25756,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":17,"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}