Q: A: Christmas is a time filled with anticipation and preparation. Cards are sent and received, and the thrill of wrapping and unwrapping gifts makes for a joyful time shared with loved ones. Even today, people who don’t necessarily believe personally in Jesus as the Savior of the world send cards with pictures of what artists think Jesus may have looked like. There are images of the Babe in the manger, shepherds, and animals. The world is fascinated with the grandeur of the greatest story ever told. But it isn’t just a story. It is truth. No matter how Jesus is imagined, He has no stronger portrait than the one in the Bible. It is a picture of the man who is God. He is the foundation of Christianity. Since the quickest way to destroy any edifice is to tear out or weaken its base, people have always tried to disprove, ignore, or scoff at the claims of Christ. The hope of the world, however, is found only in the redemption from sin. This is dependent upon the deity of Christ. While there are attacks on the celebration of Christmas in the 21st century, Christmas has been commercialized and is big business. The reality is that Jesus is truth and proclaims all people are sinners. This is why He came to seek and save those who are lost (Luke 19:10). This is the story of Christmas and this is the portrait of the Son of God. On this Christmas Eve, believe in Him and receive Him. He is the Light of the world. (This column is based on the words and writings of the late Rev. Billy Graham.) Report: Attacks on Christian Churches Nearly Triple in Four Years: Attacks on Christian churches have nearly tripled in the last four years, according to an 84-page report released by Family Research Council (FRC) in December. Between January 2018 and September 2022, FRC found 420 documented acts of hostility against 397 separate churches in the United States. Many cases included incidences of vandalism, bomb threats, arson, and gun-related violence. “The report documents one homicide, numerous arsons, bomb threats (real and fake), and a pervasive desecration of holy items. Vandals regularly smashed crosses, statues, and headstones in cemeteries; vandalized carvings of the Ten Commandments; set fire to a Nativity scene. . . according to the Washington Stand, FRC’s news outlet. “They tore up a Bible and desecrated an American flag in a Primitive Methodist church in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Denver’s Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Catholic Church suffered two drive-by shootings this August. Smashed windows and spray-painted doors became ubiquitous. Pro-abortion extremists executed at least 57 attacks in the first nine months of 2022 against Christian churches, a “1,140 percent increase over the past four years,” the outlet reported. Besides abortion and the Black Lives Matter movement, FRC found that “radical pro-LGBTQ activism, support for COVID-19 church closures, secularism, Satanism, Islamic fundamentalism, and anti-Americanism also wrought havoc in parishes nationwide.” The Salt And Light Must Not Check Out, Tune Out, Or Recoil Into Silence When The World Needs Us Most: Recently, I’ve heard more statements of distrust. It concerns me. Have you heard it too? “I don’t know who to believe or trust. I just tune it all out. I’ve stopped listening to the Left or Right. I don’t read any news because I don’t know who’s telling the truth. I turned off the media altogether.” Why is that a problem? Because we are supposed to be discerning salt-pourers and light-bearers. God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and we must be as well. We are not given a choice to check out, tune out, or recoil into silence. Tony Perkins at Family Research Council said it extremely well in his article about truth: Political and cultural engagement are part of fulfilling Jesus’s command to love our neighbors. By supporting policies like the rule of law, limited government, human dignity, parental rights, and religious freedom, we can establish the kind of conditions that allow all people to flourish. However, the Left opposes such policies and instead wants our tax dollars to pay for abortion-on-demand and public schools to teach gender identity ideology to children as young as kindergarten behind parents’ backs.” Salt preserves what is most susceptible to rot and decay. When we check out, tune out, or stay silent, we stop being the active ingredient that preserves freedom, hope, sanity, and peace. We allow the rot to begin or the decay to spread. When we pull back from the battle and stop speaking, participating, or standing against the tide of evil, we cease to dispel the darkness. The world hates the Light. Jesus promised us nothing less, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.” (John 15:18-19; 17:14; 1 John 3:13). Church, this is our moment! Be His voice in the silence. Be His light in the darkness. Be His salt in the time of decay and tastelessness. Believers, this is our moment. We’re surrounded by darkness. Lies, deceit, and moral depravity are everywhere. Some Christians bemoan the darkness and lament the decay, but that is the wrong response. It’s not time for depression, anxiety, and timidity. It’s time for offense! What is Christmas Without Christ?: The ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBCPBSNPR Cartel tells us constantly that we now live in a post-Christian America. They exalt in proclaiming the end of Christ’s dominant influence on Western Civilization. As a result, we’ve descended from a city on a hill to a modern Sodom and Gomorrah. Our elites call evil good and good evil. Ever since the nine black-robed masters of America decreed back in 1962 that God was expelled from school we’ve witnessed the steady degradation of our society. The coarseness and vulgarity we’re deluged with on a daily basis was unknown in earlier days. Back in the dream time we used to go to Christmas programs at our children’s schools and listen to the little darlings sing The First Noel, Oh Little Town of Bethlehem, and O Come O Come Emmanuel. Now we listen to them sing songs in foreign languages. . . intermixed with a few songs about winter, snow, or maybe animals. It may all be Woke but it sure doesn’t have anything to do with the reason for the season. Just in case all the tinsel and the twinkling lights have blinded us to what that reason is, let me elaborate. Christmas is all about Jesus the Christ born as a human so that he could bear the sins of the world, die a substitutionary death in our place, rise triumphantly from the grave and ascend into heaven so that we who believe can live in and through Him. That’s what it’s all about. Not to be Grinch, let me wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Let’s enjoy our family and friends. Let’s celebrate our traditions as we remember Jesus is the reason for the season. Let’s wake up and smell the frankincense and myrrh for without Christ in Christmas all we have is “mas.” https://canadafreepress.com/article/what-is-christmas-without-christ-3 
I don't believe in Jesus as a real person, but I do love the Christmas season with the Babe in the manger, the lights that represent hope, and the carols that speak of peace. Is it okay to celebrate a myth?
From the writings of the Rev. Billy Graham
“When there’s hostility towards faith, it seems easier to just give up on the public square. ‘I’ll just focus on my family, my job, and go about my day,’ some think. Yet when you take that seemingly safer path, it means you’re neglecting the Lord’s instructions to be salt and light.