Is Saying Merry Christmas OK?

Q

While reading your article, A SHEPHERD’S STORY, I was thinking that, finally, someone who understood the scriptures made the observation that Yeshua could not have been born in the cold month of December – the shepherd’s would not have been out in the fields. My joy faded into despair, however, when you ended the article with ‘Merry Christmas’. I guess you just don’t see the irony here. Study on and you will find that the birth of our Savior has absolutely nothing to do with the Saturnalia celebration.

A

Study on? You think I don’t know this? It’s simply a traditional greeting of the season. After all the fighting Christians have done to force retailers to acknowledge the reason for the season by permitting their employees to say Merry Christmas, would you now have us abandon it? Without Christ there would be no Christmas. You’re right. It has nothing to do with Saturnalia.

I’ve been on record for 20 years as saying that Jesus wasn’t born on Dec. 25, but until something like the solution I put forth last year is implemented, I’ll go on saying Merry Christmas in December so at least there’s some memory of His birth, even if the date is wrong. Here’s a link to my proposed solution.

http://www.gracethrufaith.com/selah/holidays-and-holy-days/tis-the-season-2005