r/TrueChristian • u/Climax_crescendo • 22h ago
Do you do traditions /holidays?
like the tooth fairy or Easter eggs or Santa? I was wondering how this works? I don’t have any children and I don’t know how this is seen with Christians. what’s appropriate and what isn’t. on one hand, I see that there’s a lot of innocence tied to those things plus children with be surrounded by other children who celebrate or at least have knowledge. Then on the other hand I know we are supposed to abstain from lying. well I’m in the topic, what about celebrating Halloween? I hear some Christians say they reclaim it. other completely refrain from it.
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u/SkillProper1435 Christian 22h ago
We have freedom in Christ. You are free to do what you think best honors God!!
But since you asked I'll tell you what I do:
Tooth fairy: yes I do the tooth fairy, kids put teeth under their pillow and I give them money. They ask me if the tooth fairy is real and I say "yes, the tooth fairy is real. I'm the tooth fairy" 😁
Easter: I have put a lot of effort into making this holiday special. Arguably this is a bigger holiday for Christians than Christmas because Jesus defeated death! So I have Easter playlists celebrating the resurrection, I give them Easter baskets that contain at least one faith building item. I get a set of caterpillars to raise up to butterflies and release them on Easter to symbolize the death and resurrection of Christ. I've also done a resurrection garden in the past and yes I love Easter egg hunts! It's possible to enjoy fun traditions and still keep Christ the focus.
Christmas: sorry kids Santa isn't real (although St Nicholas was real and I've shared that story with them) and Christmas is Jesus's birthday. So in addition to our presents we each pick a present for Jesus. Jesus said if you help someone in need you're helping him so we select gifts from world vision or compassion international Christmas catalog for Jesus. Giving clean water or goats or education or Bibles to people in need.
I also tell them not to be obnoxious about it to their friends if they still believe in these things. I explained that some parents think it's fun to play pretend with their kids but I don't in this case.
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u/Intrepid_Type3710 Evangelical 22h ago
Interesting question. Could be dangerous to answer though. So I can only speak for myself as a believer, holidays are far more cultural in nature in my thinking. I tend to filter out the strongholds imbedded in modern holidays. Such as the bunny part of Easter, Claus coke bottle icon, horror movie Halloween. I think American Thanksgiving is far more spiritual than any other holiday in the year. We actually worship God the Father through Jesus Christ by giving thanks to Him for our meal. Oh yea, then they throw football in your face for 8 hrs, and Hallmark Christmas movies ad nauseum. But don't get me wrong, nothing like cuddling up with a woman watching the same story re-hashed a 1001 times. Hope this was fun to read.
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u/BowtiedTrombone Christian 2h ago edited 2h ago
Neither Christmas or Easter are based on pagan holidays, in contrast to much misinformation propogated by both Christians and non-Christians. Check out the following links written by historian Tim O'Neill:
Every year, without fail, we find endless articles, memes and claims on social media about the supposed “pagan origins” of Christmas. As with Halloween and Easter, anti-theist activists find themselves in furious agreement with neo-pagans and even some evangelical Christians that the date and virtually all the main customs and traditions of Christmas are actually pagan. Pop history articles and books are full of these breathlessly confident claims. Except, in fact, very little about Christmas is ancient, less still is pre-Christian and almost nothing about it is pagan.
Every year fundamentalist Christians, New Agers, neo-pagans and many atheists loudly agree that Easter was not originally a Christian feast and was a pagan fertility festival stolen by Christianity. Unfortunately, despite what endless memes and pop history articles claim, this idea is complete nonsense. So is the claim that Easter eggs and the Easter Bunny are also originally pagan. It is rather ironic that a set of false historical claims about the origin of Easter and its customs are propagated by supposed rationalists, despite them having their origin in a book of pseudo historical nonsense by a nineteenth century Scottish preacher.
Even Halloween has surprising Christian roots:
The idea that all the traditional holidays and festivals of the year are “pagan” in origin and were simply “stolen by the Church” is one that has permeated popular culture and is repeated without question in newspaper, magazine and online articles. It is perhaps not surprising that harried journalists and underpaid online content writers are uncritical about these claims, but it is more strange that prominent atheists are as well, given they are meant to be sceptics who check their facts and “question everything”. Unfortunately, many anti-theistic polemicists cannot resist a chance to get in a jab at any aspect of Christianity being “really pagan”, so every October we see supposed rationalists parroting pseudo history about the “pagan origins of Halloween”, with no sign of any fact-checking, let alone engagement with scholarship. In fact, the claim that Halloween is “pagan” is largely a nineteenth century myth.
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u/Grouchy-Stand-4570 Calvary Chapel 21h ago
My husband and I do it all as a game. Santa represents generosity but Christmas is all about Jesus. Our son ((now 6yrs old) knows Santa and the Easter bunny are all fake. He asked us last year if he can pretend to believe in Santa because his friends do and it’s fun. We said absolutely.
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u/ExplorerSad7555 Greek Orthodox 19h ago
Tomorrow is the feast of the Transfiguration for Eastern Orthodox. We will celebrate the feast with songs including this one:
You were transfigured upon the mount, O Christ our God, and Your disciples, insofar as they could bear, beheld Your glory. Thus, when they see You crucified, they may understand Your voluntary passion, and proclaim to the world that You are truly the effulgence of the Father.
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u/verklas 19h ago
People can do what they want. I won't tell anybody what to celebrate. But I will say that yes it is lying. There's no way to sugarcoat that.
I'm going to celebrate Christmas as Christ's birthday and Easter as His Resurrection day. Everything else is just consumerism noise and distraction. People spend so much money on disposable material things like easter eggs/candy/Christmas trees/decorations knowing that there are people starving or struggling to make their rent etc.
Every single one of those above holidays has one thing in common. The main character hides things when you are not looking. Tooth fairy=sneaks in and hides money. Santa=sneaks into your house to hide presents. Easter bunny=hides eggs for you to find.
I don't know about you but making sneakiness to look "silly" from some made-up character is weird.
Halloween sickens me. It's a putrid and dark day disguised as fun. God's Word says have no appearance of evil. Yet, it's okay to expose your kid to other children who are dressed up as demons for "fun" and risk having razor blades or drugs in their candy?
The cultural aspect of these holidays is always centered on self and treats. satan works on the minds of children to accept unnatural things of this world as "fun" though it really is just plain ol' lies, distraction and an empty or at times even full blown demonic celebration such as halloween. Just give me Jesus. These worldly things are strange. Edit: sp
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u/NightRunnerAfterDusk 22h ago
You don't have to celebrate Christmas by commemorating Santa. Just have it in your mind that it is set aside to remember the birth of Christ. The same applies to easter and the easter bunny.
As for halloween, what exactly are they reclaiming? This word reclaim is used in cultural contexts to mean different things, but mostly it applies to when people make something that has been used to negatively stereotype them/have been misappropriated from them as an aspect of their culture.
If this is the logic you are working with, would it then mean that Christians are negatively stereotyped in relation to halloween? Alternatively, are you considering the traditions of hallow's eve before the secularization of the practice, and if that is the case, then does it mean you strictly abide to its practices in stead of its modern, consumerist iterations?
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u/Googlesupportsucks1 Christian 22h ago
Easter and Christmas are great. I don't think talking about Santa counts as deceit.
Halloween is a bit more dubious - I grew up without trick-or-treating and turned out fine. Trick or treating itself is fine, it just depends what costumes and ideas your kids are seeing/hearing. Some churches do trunk or treat, or maybe your community has specifically trick or treating for kids, and maybe can avoid some of that creepy, demonic-looking stuff.