Christmas

A Christian group in South Korea has cancelled plans to light Christmas trees near their border with North Korea as a goodwill gesture toward the country following the death of Kim Jong-il.

North Korea had threatened “unexpected consequences” if the group lit the display, which could be seen easily from North Korean cities along the DMZ border.

Tak Sejin, a spokesman for the Yoido Full Gospel Church and one of the organizers of the effort, said the decision to remove the displays was a gesture of compassion. more >>

The Rev. Franklin Graham, president and CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and Samaritan’s Purse, and son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, spoke about the meaning of Christmas as well as the American economy and what politics can do to boost it, from a Christian perspective, in an interview with Newsmax Sunday.

Asked what should we really celebrate outside of the consumerism of Christmas, the minister said that the core value to cherish on Dec. 25 is God’s love. People should celebrate the fact that "God gave His son."

"Jesus Christ is real," Graham said. "He’s God in flesh coming to this Earth to take the sins of mankind. The Bible says we’ve all sinned. We’ve all come short of God’s glory, his standards, but yet God gave his son to take our sins. The Bible’s very clear, very specific that he took our sins to the cross and he died and shed his blood on the cross. That he was buried for our sins and that God raised him to life. And if we’re willing to accept Jesus Christ by faith - simply by faith - to believe in him and trust him, God will forgive our sins. He’ll heal our hearts, and we can have that hope of eternal life. So as we come to Christmas, it’s about God giving. It’s about God giving the greatest gift of all and that is his son, Jesus Christ, for our sins.” more >>

President Barack Obama and his family attended Christmas services Sunday with U.S. military members at the chapel of a marine base in Hawaii and later returned to the base to thank them for their service to the nation.

The Obamas made a short trip from their rented house in Kailua Beach near Honolulu to the chapel at Marine Corps Base Hawaii on the island of Oahu for church service, according to The Associated Press.

In Hawaii on vacation since Friday, Obama was dressed in dark khaki pants and a short-sleeve blue shirt Sunday. His wife Michelle Obama and daughters Malia and Sasha were wearing sundresses. more >>

Christmas is a time for families, friends and loved ones to come together. It also affords a rare opportunity to freeze such social gatherings in time by building long-lasting traditions. The traditions people value are what anchors them as they go from past to present, present to future, say family experts.

"Traditions provide an opportunity to build a touchstone for why we have a holiday in the first place," said Dr. Juli Slattery, an author, family psychologist and broadcast co-host for Focus on the Family. "They provide a sense of cohesion."

Slattery said holidays like Christmas find most people drawn together by families. A key reason for this, she said, is the innate human need for belonging. Without having a place to call home, she contends, any celebration can feel extremely lonely. more >>

About one-third of the United States had snow cover early Saturday and forecasters say some more places may also get to see a white Christmas. But overall, less number of Americans will get to see snow on Sunday than usual.

Parts of the Northeast and Southwest are almost certain to have more than 1 inch of snowfall on Sunday, but chances are not too bright elsewhere in the U.S., except southern New Mexico and southwest Texas.

A Christmas is called white when there is a snow depth of at least an inch on Christmas morning. And this year, there’s likely to be more snow than 1 inch in northern New England and the Great Lakes region, western Kansas, the Oklahoma and northern Texas panhandles, northern and southern Rocky Mountains region, and the Cascades and Sierra Nevada ranges. more >>

Christmas is a major event in modern America, involving weeks of shopping, lights, caroling and church services. It also is a federal holiday, where millions get off work and are with family every Dec. 25.

So it may come as a surprise to learn that for the early church, Christmas was actually a fairly unimportant holy day eclipsed by other spiritual observances.

“As far as I know the evidence of a celebration of Christmas is late and controversial,” said Professor Timothy E. Gregory of Ohio State University in an interview with The Christian Post. more >>