No where in the Word of God do we see a suggestion to celebrate any other ceremonial observance than the Lord's supper.
All our human traditions, holidays that have been integrated with paganism, are not of God. He never directed us to celebrate His birth, nor did He tell us to set aside a special day for the celebration of His resurrection.
If we love "resurrection day", as a day to celebrate the resurrection of Christ, then don't call it by a pagan name, "Easter." However why would we desire a separate holiday from what God gave us. He gave us the Lord's supper that already celebrates His resurrection and His first century church never celebrated His birth.
No one is condemned because they have stayed with their human traditions, that elevate Christ, however when a human tradition is practiced over a God ordained celebration such as the Lord's supper, that tradition of men always without fail, degenerates. Because it is not based on Christ, rather the name of Christ was attached to the original pagan practices, it is not blessed by God.
Notice that the humanistic celebrations of Easter and Christmas are nearly out of control in terms of celebration and spending on material goods, while the Lord's supper is being neglected and ignored.
When you attend a family gathering on these man made holidays, take notice of whether or not the crowd is focused on Christ. Ask yourself the question, "is Christ elevated here, in more than just the prayer over the meal?" Another question might be "does anyone speak of the Lord, seek prayer and Bible reading at this gathering?"
My personal encounters, suggests to me, that most people experience what I have, the gatherings are not only, not focused on Christ, they even violate His principles in many ways.
The original reason for my disdain for the man made holidays was all the activities that I was raised with. I saw revelry, gift giving, one-up-manship in the giving, money spent on personal pleasure while ministries were neglected and much more that dishonored Christ, and all of this was done by "Christians." Christ was not elevated while sin was tolerated. The music that played throughout the celebration were secular people singing Christmas songs, not necessarily Christian, people like Elvis, Sinatra and other wicked secular performers were the means of edification to the people at the group. Those who were avoided were the Christians who were not comfortable with all of this.
One of the most aggravating things for me is to watch activities at these holidays, "Easter" and "Christmas", being enjoyed by Christians including all the trappings of the pagan holidays such as "Easter Eggs" and "Santa Clause." Can anyone tell me where in the Word of God does He ever tell us to celebrate these holidays, or tell us to be sure to enjoy the easter eggs, bunnies, Santas and Elves? And, yet many believers are doing these things, elevating fantasy above Christ, while in the process teaching the children that Christ, Santa, bunnies and elves are all fairy stories to enjoy.
It is bad enough that we have added man made holidays to our Christianity, but even worse when we dilute the message of the cross, the gospel, by adding fairy tales making all of it equal.
We might ask why the next generation does not take Christ seriously? The answer is that they have been raised and indoctrinated for many years with their yearly holidays of all these pagan entities. The youth take Christ as seriously as they take all these other cartoon characters, with little regard.
So many think these things are innocuous, but we can see where it has led, our youth are only interested in entertainment and personal gratification. Worship has become a dirty word, boring and uninteresting because it does not entertain us, but is designed by God to elevate and bless Him.
Let us consider asking the Lord to remove from our hearts anything that does not bless Him. We never do anything in isolation, all our activities suggest things to others about us and about our God. Nothing is without consequences, we either elevate Christ in our life or we do not. No one will be perfect in this matter of elevating Christ, but may I suggest that the holidays have had a monstrous impact on the children, effecting their view of Christ making it harder to reach them with the gospel.
Something to think about! If you feel you must continue with the holidays, perhaps it can be a time of reflection on Christ alone, dropping all the pagan practices and trappings that have diverted attention away from Christ.
