Tag: christmas

Christmas trees catch on fire. Holiday lights ignite the drapes. Hanukkah candles burn the carpet. At this otherwise joyous time of year, illumination can cause disaster.

While the Bible does not actually reveal the month or even year that Jesus Christ was born, researchers have been able to put together a couple of narratives of the upcoming holiday and speculate just how Dec. 25 became Christmas for Catholics.

Starting tomorrow, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Moscow, Idaho, will display 400 nativities from around the globe.

The consumerism and commercialization of Christmas tends to blind us from the importance of why Christians celebrate Christmas. Yet, those who want to spiritualize Christmas and set it apart from material and daily living also miss the most important part Christmas.

Christmas was never a happy time for me. Most were spent away from my siblings, many in a hospital room, and all of them from age 4 to 17 were spent away from both of my parents and any extended family.

According to the same old sermons we hear at this time of year, Jesus is always coming into our hearts in a new way. But if we really believe that then we should be preparing ourselves for something bold, exciting, unusual and risky.

The old saying “It’s better to give than receive” has the ring of sounding pious, and is one that we hear almost as often as "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" during this time of year.