Christmas in June?

Christmas is over now.  During the Christmas season, though, I got to thinking about something.  How would our Christmas celebrations be different if we celebrated Christmas in the summer, rather than in the winter?

We wouldn’t have to celebrate Christmas on December 25, after all.  We don’t really think that was the day when Jesus was actually born.  It was a date that was chosen, somewhat arbitrarily.  What if a different date had been chosen?  What if, instead of celebrating Christmas right after the winter solstice, we celebrated it right after the summer solstice, say on June 25?

Well, we probably wouldn’t be dreaming of a white Christmas, would we?  Maybe we’d dream of a green Christmas.  Santa probably wouldn’t be dressed all in fur and driving a sleigh.  Maybe he’d wear Bermuda shorts and drive a dune buggy.  We probably wouldn’t use all that tinsel, either.  Maybe we wouldn’t even do lights on our houses, since it’d be about ten o’clock at night before they’d even show up.  It’d make it harder to do candlelight services, too.

On the other hand, there’d be a good side to it.  It’d be a lot easier to travel to see relatives at Christmas if it was in late June.  We wouldn’t have to worry about snowstorms or having to cancel Christmas Eve services.  We could have Christmas picnics.  Baseball teams could play Christmas doubleheaders.  There’d be all sorts of things we could do that we can’t do now if Christmas was in late June, rather than late December.

Our Christmas traditions would be a lot different if we celebrated it in June instead of December.  But there’s one thing that would not change, and that’s the essential message of Christmas.  We would still celebrate Immanuel, God with us.  We would still celebrate the fact that God took human form.  We would still celebrate the fact that Jesus lived among us, experienced the things we experience, felt the things we feel, taught us, healed us, and ultimately died so that our sins could be forgiven.  And then, the best thing of all, we would still celebrate the fact that Jesus conquered death itself, that he rose from the grave and prepared the way for all of us, so that by God’s grace and through our faith, we can all defeat death and go to be with the Lord in heaven.

And the best thing is that we don’t have to just celebrate that at Christmas.  We can celebrate it in December, in June, in October, or in April.  We can celebrate it in every month of the year, in every week of every month, and on every day of every week.  We can and should celebrate Christmas every day of our lives.

Maybe Christmas in June sounds strange, but it really doesn’t matter when or how we celebrate Christmas.  What matters is that, every day, we celebrate the salvation that was made available to us through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.