Christmas - Bah! Humbug!

Letters from Mr Charrington #14

Dear Winston,

It has certainly been some time since I put "pen to paper" for you, well actually finger to keyboard (or touchscreen) but the saying still carries the intended meaning I believe. Which is where my thoughts are roaming at this time of year, that is, to be clear, around the meaning of Christmas.

For many years I was in the Christmas - Bah! Humbug! camp. Those famous words written by Charles Dickens and uttered by Ebenezer Scrooge really resonated with me. With today being the 179th Anniversary of its first publication and that phrase being read by the public, perhaps I should first clarify exactly what Dickens was having his character express. When Scrooge says "Bah" he's verbalizing his annoyance and even contempt for what he understands as being "Christmas". What does he mean by "Humbug"? Well the origin of the word appears to be unknown but the sense from early sources is that a humbug was a “trick” or a “hoax”. By the time Dickens wrote his story, the sense of the word humbug was of “deceit” which saw it being associated with “nonsense” and being a “bother”.

Without doubt the deceit around Christmas occurs at many levels . When I was a lad I shared a room with my younger brother and I can still see this in my mind; while my brother was asleep one Christmas Eve I merely pretended to be likewise as I waited for my father to quietly slip into our room and verify to himself that we were away in the land of Nod. He would then take the empty pillowcases we had laid out at the bottom of our beds away and then with equal quiet, replace the same pillowcases now filled with gifts "from Santa" for this was the tradition I grew up with. Once my father had gone and I heard my parents bedroom door close, I promptly checked the contents of both bags. Determining that the main gift my brother received was more desirable that the gift allocated to me, I simply swapped them. The morning's light brought an interesting time. As we gathered together to display our gifts to each other I of course saw the puzzled look on the faces of my parents. My mother broke the awkward silence as she said something like "now Robert I'm sure Santa meant for your brother to have that present, so swap it over with him". I replied with the undeniable fact "But it was in my pillowcase when I woke up". Childishly thinking that I hadn't lied so surely this awkwardness would come out in my favor. A knowing glance shared between them resulted in my father firmly declaring "Just swap it with your brother" in the type of tone fathers use when any dispute is finalised.

But such childish shenanigans are insignificant when compared to claiming that the Jewish Christ was born on December 25. Actually, I doubt there are very many who believe that date is genuinely his birthday. What I do hear a lot is that while we know it's not really the date he was born, (we don't know definitely when it was) we just choose to celebrate it then. I find this bizarre. While many might celebrate an occasion by moving the day to a weekend or even another week once in a while for convenience, how can people who claim to promote and uphold 'truth' endorse a permanent change by several months. I understand very little about women but I do know that if I suggested to Mrs. Charrington that we celebrate our Wedding Anniversary not on October 4th each year (the actual date), but on July 4th she would be less than impressed. No matter what justification I may put forward, such as it being so much more convenient, or I'm only doing it for the children, I would hear claims about how little I really care for her.

The most recent thinking seems to allocate the 'real' date to, strangely enough, September 11 in 3BC due to the alignment of the stars over Jerusalem matching biblical prophecies. I believe you are a little familiar with this which dates back to work done by E.W. Bullinger.

However, there are many reasons why September of 3 BC was a fitting time for the Messiah of the Jews, and all humanity, to be born, and yet not a single one supporting December unless you count the many Pagan reasons, which again seems rather the wrong reason for people with a high view of the value to be assigned to truth.

I am sure there are those who will suggest that this is merely "my truth" and that truth for them is something different. To me such thinking is akin to the falsehood I believe was originally penned by Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke "there are lies, damned lies and statistics". To think that the actual state of a matter depends entirely on what you think is a similar deception. In a similar vein, the mass media at this time of year insist on recycling stories that demonstrate the 'true' meaning of Christmas. You know the sort of thing I am sure. Stories of good-hearted people helping the less fortunate, or the smiles on children's faces as they see Christmas light displays, a family gathered together watching "It's a Wonderful Life". These and a myriad others, all apparently demonstrate the 'real' meaning of Christmas. To paraphrase a well known response "No Virginia, as nice as they may be, these aren't the real meaning of Christmas".

By now my dear chap, I expect you are wondering something like "well if Christmas really has nothing to do with Jesus' birthday and is a man made/pagan tradition, and you insist on living truthfully, then why are you partaking in anything to do with Christmas?". Well Winston, the way I see it we have a choice to make. Many reject this sham which insists on celebrating the birth of the Christ on a day which cannot be the anniversary of the event while others receive this time of year as a time to deck the halls, to put up lights, to give gifts that will all too often be recycled and given (or thrown) away in this frenzied expression of commercialism.

Yet, perhaps there is a third option my dear fellow. I'd ask you to consider redeeming this season of celebration, to do good for others, to enjoy the company of those we love and spread at least a little joy where we can. My suggestion, Winston, is that we do what we can to redeem the situation. I think it's analogous to accepting the spike injected people while rejecting the injection. You recall how those who refused what has been termed the "death vaxx" were ostracised as being a danger to others, an action based on a lie. Recently Dr. Peter McCullogh has clarified that the reverse is the case with the injected being a danger to the non-injected. Should our response be to duplicate the nastiness that many displayed in the early days of the 'Scamdemic"? No! If we are to redeem this season and the situation we should follow the example of our great redeemer who said he came to seek out and to save that which was lost. Many, many souls have already been lost to these unholy jabs. Many have and continue to awaken to that truth and surely our role is to shine a light before people still in darkness, as that is actually what Christ told us to do.

So let's not simply reject people for being injected nor for accepting the Christmas traditions but be like a beacon on a hill to attract them to the truths we have to share with them.

Merry Christmas to you Winston.