Originally published at https://rootedbygraceteam.substack.com
Until This Year
I grew up in a Christian home, but we never really celebrated Christmas. In my family, the New Year was always a much bigger deal. December 25th was just another date on the calendar, sometimes it even passed without a single “Merry Christmas.” We never had a special church service, and if the 25th happened to fall on a Sunday, it was treated like any other service day.
The church I grew up in believed that celebrating Christmas was wrong. They taught us that Christmas was rooted in paganism, that it had become a holiday for consumerism and excess. They reminded us that we don’t actually know when Jesus was born, so choosing a day to celebrate it, especially one tied to old traditions, was “unbiblical.”
So that’s what I believed.
I watched Christmas movies and saw people talking about joy, hope, and the birth of Jesus, and I quietly judged them. I thought, “They’re getting it wrong.” But deep down, there was a part of me that wished I could understand what they felt.
The Magic I Missed
Even though I grew up in South America, where Christmas comes with summer heat instead of snow, I was always fascinated by the magic of Christmas.
I loved the lights, the trees, the music, the idea of hope and togetherness. I just didn’t know how to connect it with my faith. The way I was taught made me believe that celebrating Christmas somehow dishonored God.
So I learned to keep my love for the season hidden.
A Christmas in a Place Without Christmas
Years later, I moved to Turkey, a country where most people identify as Muslim. There, Christmas doesn’t really exist as a religious celebration.
And yet, everywhere I looked in December, the streets were filled with decorations, trees, lights, ornaments, even Santa Claus figures (maybe because Since St. Nicholas was from Turkey😂) . But all of it was for the New Year.
It was funny to me: the closest I ever came to experiencing the Christmas atmosphere I’d always wanted was in a country that didn’t even celebrate the birth of Jesus. It made me think, maybe my understanding of Christmas had been missing something all along.
This Year Feels Different
Now, in this new season of my life, walking closer with God, He has been gently rebuilding my understanding of so many things, and Christmas is one of them.
Since I started writing here on Rooted by Grace, my Substack feed has been full of reflections about Christmas. Posts about Advent, about waiting for the Savior, about the hope and light that His coming brings.
At first, I didn’t want to read them.
Something inside me resisted. I told myself, “I don’t need another Christmas post.”
But one day, I stopped and asked myself: why is this bothering me so much?
And that’s when I realized: it wasn’t the posts that bothered me. It was that I didn’t understand what they were celebrating.
A New Kind of Celebration
As I began reading those beautiful reflections, something in my heart began to soften. I started to see that celebrating Christmas isn’t about worshiping a date, it’s about rejoicing in a moment that changed everything.
It doesn’t matter if Jesus was born on December 25th or in March or any other month. What matters is He came. He stepped into our world. He brought heaven near.
Because He came, I can have peace.
Because He came, I can be forgiven.
Because He came, I can have a relationship with my Father again.
Christmas is not about consumerism or perfection, it’s about incarnation. It’s about the God who loved us so much that He wrapped Himself in humanity to save us.
My First Real Christmas
So this year feels different. For the first time in my life, I will celebrate Christmas, not for the decorations, not for the movies, not even for the nostalgia I once felt, but for what it truly is:
A celebration of hope arriving.
This year, when I think of Christmas, I will think of Jesus, my Savior, my Shepherd, the One who came so that I might live.
And I want to say thank you, to everyone who writes, sings, and shares about the meaning of Christmas with so much joy and faith. Your words helped me see what I had been missing for so long.
This is the first year I will not just watch others celebrate Christmas, I will join them. Not because of a date, but because of a miracle.
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” — Isaiah 9:6
With grace,
Brenda
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