Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:10-11).”
The word Christmas is not found in the Bible. Of course, Christ is found often in the NT, 571 times. The Hebrew version of Christ is Messiah, which occurs twice in the OT (Dan 9:25, 26) and twice in the NT (John 1:41; 4:25).
But Christmas is nowhere to be found.
It looks as if Christmas merges two words: Christ and mass. The Catholic church calls its services masses. So, Christmas looks like it could be a Catholic expression referring to celebrating Christ at a mass.
Church history shows that this is a correct assessment. Newsweek wrote (see here):
Initially, Jesus’ birth celebration was called the Feast of the Nativity and was celebrated in England by the end of the sixth century, according to History.com. The first known use of Christmas, according to Merriam-Webster, was before the 12th century and originates from Middle English’s Christemass meaning “Christ’s mass.” Mass in Old English, according to Dictionary.com, references a church service.
Of course, today, Christmas is just another name for the day on which Jesus was born.
I use the word Christmas because it’s convenient. But I don’t like it.
Maybe instead of saying Merry Christmas, we should say I hope you have a merry time celebrating the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wait. That is a lot longer, and if Merry Christmas offends some people, imagine how much more they’d be offended by directly referring to the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But couldn’t we do that at least among ourselves? Couldn’t we refer to the birth of our Lord and Savior when talking with fellow believers? While Merry Christmas is much better than Happy Holidays, it is far from ideal.
Can you come up with a new title for the time when we remember Jesus’ birth? Here are a few ideas: Merry Manger Memories, Merry Messiah’s Nativity, Joy to the World, Merry Memories of Messiah’s Birth, and Joyful Celebration of Jesus’ Birth.
But what about one-word titles? Well, if we can make up a word, as was done by combining Christ and mass, then I would suggest these: Christday,i Christbirth, Christebration, Bethlehemory, Mangeriffic, Messiahmirth, Christnée, Christopia, and Messiahappy.ii
Whatever we come up with, let’s remember Jesus’ birth with joy.
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i The days of our week are named after pagan gods: the sun god (Sunday), the moon god (Monday), Tiw (Tuesday), Woden (Wednesday), Thor (Thursday), Frigg (Friday—Frigg is Odin’s wife), and Saturn (Saturday). Maybe we should have at least one day a year called Christday.
ii I had help from the GES staff on these.
