The British and American Puritans successfully waged a 17th century war against Christmas. They influenced evangelicals right up until the 1840’s to consider Christmas a minor holiday, if not a spurious holiday altogether.  

Under Thomas Cromwell in England, the parliament made official proclamations for decades stating that shopkeepers must keep their markets open on December 25th under threat of arrest.  The logic went something like this: the Bible says that you have six days to work and one day to rest and worship God.  NOT two days.  

Those who continue to oppose any official observation of Jesus’ birth on December 25 (or any other time for that matter) have more points in their argument, many of which are spurious factually and others which are just inconsistent.  We don’t have time or space to get into all of it now, but I do notice that those who claim that they don’t celebrate Christmas don’t mind taking the day off of work and spending it with family. Many also buy their kids presents even though they don’t decorate.  I wonder how many would appreciate being thrown in jail today for not working on a Saturday?  

In Cromwell’s England, they would have been arrested and spent at least a few hours in jail or the stocks.  As they would have in Plymouth—muted observance or not.  

In the 1840’s, enter the storyteller, Charles Dickens.  He took the tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas night and made a beautiful application of the opportunity Christmas is to bless the poor.  The Lawyers that wanted to make Christmas illegal had no chance against the power of a storyteller.  The first printing of A Christmas Carol sold out in just a matter of days and likely rescued his career after a series of literary failures.  The story is artfully depicted in the film The Man Who Invented Christmas (2017), starring Dan Stevens as Charles Dickens.  It’s on Amazon Prime.  

Obviously the film title is great marketing overstatement.  Dickens didn’t invent Christmas.  But he did invent the sort of Christmas that we observe in the United States and perhaps still in the United Kingdom.  (He did have a little help from a pastor named Clement C. Moore who wrote the poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas, in the 1820’s.)  

Long live Charles Dickens.  Let the whole story remind us that, in our desire to be theologically accurate, it is possible to miss the command to love our neighbors.  We ought to be able to do both, but somehow it’s lost on most Christians. We do either one or the other. It’s as if we cannot chew gum and walk at the same time without either choking on our gum or tripping on the sidewalk.  

Shame on us. Do something for a neighbor this Christmas. Wrap up some presents and hand them out to people you don’t even know in a big box parking lot.  Buy some gift cards, put them in an envelope with a Christmas card and hand them out to strangers.  Be a little less like Scrooge at the beginning of the book and follow his example in the last chapter.

At Loor, we like to remind you it is not the job of film producers to evangelize. Movies aren’t sermons, and they don’t need to be. In fact, when they try too be, they generally fail at what they are good at. Their job is to tell stories. But look how powerful stories are in shaping your neighbor’s imagination for (or against) the good news you and your church are commissioned to spread.

That’s every Christian’s job. So drop a simple gospel tract in the card or present you hand out. Remind them that Jesus is King.  You might be surprised who you bless in the holiday rush and in eternity.