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Let me get this straight. An obese old man flies around the world leaving gifts for good little boys and girls. But he’s not very efficient so parents everywhere submerge themselves in debt to help him get the toys. Then, while they’re busy maxing out their plastic they exclaim, “Why doesn’t xmas last all year long?”

Their song changes a month later when the bills start coming in. “We spent how much!” What really lasts all year long are the arguments over money. And near the end of the year the scenario starts all over again.

What’s wrong with this picture? Is it the fact that fat men can’t fly, even behind a team of reindeer? Is it the problem of never-ending debt for things people don’t need, and maybe don’t even want?

What’s really wrong with this picture is all this rush, rush, rush, spend, spend, spend, is supposed to honour the birth of Jesus Christ who said, “Don’t gather yourself treasures on earth. They only rot away, or thieves steal them. Lay up your treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is your heart will be there too (Matthew 6:19-21).”

“But xmas is for the kids,” you say, “and Jesus loved the kids. See for yourself in Luke 18:15-17. You don’t think he’d want to take all this fun away from them, do you?”

But is xmas really for the kids? Don’t adults buy gifts for adults too? Some, fearing they might not get what they really want, buy it for themselves and put it under the tree with a tag that says, “From santa.”

When does childhood end? Most kids consider themselves teens by the time they’re eleven, so let’s say childhood ends at ten. Now what would xmas be like if no one past the age of ten received any gifts? Try it this year and see whether xmas is really for the kids.

If it’s really for the kids then stay home while the rest of the office has their party. (That’s not such a bad idea anyway, since xmas office parties often turn out to be drunken orgies.)

Now if xmas honours the birth of Jesus Christ, why’s that sprig of mistletoe hanging above your door? Let’s be truthful. Doesn’t it give you an excuse to kiss your neighbour’s wife? Too often the excitement of that kiss is the first step toward her bed. Does all that honour the same Jesus who said if we even look at a woman to wrongfully desire her is to commit adultery with her in our mind (Matthew 5:27-29)?

It’s time to separate flying old men, and decorated trees, and overindulging our kids and ourselves, and office parties and mistletoe kisses from the birth of the world’s saviour. If you want to live a hedonistic life, claiming it’s for the kids, that’s up to you. But stop saying it’s Jesus’ birthday bash.

Most clerics are quick to admit Christ was not born on December 25. The few who have truly studied their bible know he was born in the warm days of autumn, likely during the last two weeks of September.

Xmas is nothing more than a continuation of the ancient Roman saturnalia, a mid-winter orgy devoted to the god Saturn, and to the rebirth of the sun at the time of the winter solstice. How easy it was for the Roman church – not the biblical church at Rome – to retain her converts by calling the saturnalia Christian, and converting the rebirth of the sun to the birth of the son of God.

Those Christians who have abandoned the ways of the ancient catholic church in favour of observing God’s holy days (Leviticus 23), know how empty the mid-winter tradition really is, and how fulfilling it is to observe the true birthday of Jesus Christ.

Come, celebrate the wonders of God’s holy days with me.