OK, here’s what irks me most of all about the Christmas season: 24-hour-a-day “Christmas music radio.” We have a couple of stations in this area that devote themselves to “Christmas” music exclusively from about the first of December to the end of the year. Non-stop. All-you-can-eat, so to speak. Ad nauseum.

Now don’t get me wrong; I love Christmas hymns. But listen closely to the 24-hour Christmas music your local station puts out and you’ll notice three things.

First, most of the music is “holiday” music, not Christmas music. That is, most of the songs which are actually sung – by all the old standbys, of course – merely celebrate this “most wonderful time of the year” apart from any of its spiritual – that is, true – significance. I refuse to participate in the continued secularization of Christmas, even though my local stations are working hard to propagandize that view as central to the “reason for the season.”

Second, whenever a true Christmas hymn is featured, it is almost always without the words! You might hear a musical version of a familiar carol, which most people will recognize – if only from childhood memories – and with which they attach certain positive affections. But the words aren’t there, and most people either don’t remember the words or have never stopped to ponder their meaning and claims anyway. So what they get is the benefit of the Christmas affections without the message of the Christ-event.

The last thing you’ll notice is that, on those rare occasions when someone actually does sing the words to a familiar Christmas hymn, they’re usually in a pop format, jazzed up with drums and hip beats, just to remind us that we can fit even the Christmas message into our pop culture lifestyles.

To all of which I say, “Bah! Humbug!”

But concerning the season all of us at BreakPoint, and all the resources and activities that follow, want to shout exuberantly and often, “Joy to the world! The Lord is come!”

We hope you’ll join us this year in making the Christmas message known as clearly and constantly as you possibly can.

Resources for this topic

Charles Colson with Anne Mores, “The Invasion of God”
Sean P. Dailey, “Jesus Christ the Apple Tree”
Gregory Koukl, “Jesus is Jehovah”
T. M. Moore, “More and More about Jesus”
David Naugle, “Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God”
Michael Reeves, “Smothering Baby Jesus”
Robert Royal, “On December Fool’s Day”
Fred Sanders, “A Christ Worth Christmas”

Be sure to order your copy of our new DVD series, Doing the Right Thing. Here’s a great resource for investigating the power of natural law for ethical behavior.

Next steps

Why not make a plan to read all the resources – eight articles – listed above, and then make a strategy for focusing this Christmas season on Christ more than you ever have before. Share the articles with two or three friends, and get them to join you in this effort. What might you do individually and together to emphasize the joy of Christ’s coming to the world?

Contact your local radio station –phone, email, or even a visit – and tell them you appreciate their service and the fact that they are playing Christmas music at this time of the year. Ask them to play familiar hymns, and especially versions which include the words to the hymns. Send a thank-you not follow-up to whomever you are able to talk with at the station.

Email today’s Talking Points column to several Christian friends. Challenge them to read some of the resources, watch the Two-Minute Warning, and take on one of the activities.

A conversation starter
You should be able to use this conversation starter just about anywhere: “I find all the hype and glitz over the commercializing of Christmas to be a serious distraction from its real message. What about you?”