Before we look to Scripture for some answers, what does the culture around us say is the real meaning of Christmas? A search of a news website revealed these answers - see if you can spot the common thread:

I think we've truly forgotten the meaning of Christmas. Spending time with my family who I don't live near means more than any presents ever will.

We've lost the plot. This is not what Christmas is all about. Stop being greedy capitalist pigs and enjoy Christmas with your family and friends. Life isn't about money and greed.

The household budget will only be stretched because people are buying things they cannot afford. Then in the lead up to Christmas they buy expensive things for people who don't need or want the item. Christmas has lost its meaning. It has turned into a competition to see who can spend the most money on the biggest and best presents - with more than a little prompting from advertising - rather than just spending time with family.

But asides all this don't forget the meaning of Christmas - it is a time to give presents to those who are in need.

Just have a swell time to the real meaning of xmas of good will to thy fellow worker.

Time with family, giving gifts, good will to co-workers - apparently that's the "real meaning" of this season. As entrenched as that view is within our culture, I think the quote that most disturbed me was from a Christian journalist whose child sung the wrong words to a famous him at their church service:

Then I heard - really heard - my son's voice as he sang along with his own lyrics, "Oh come, let us adore me. Oh come, let us adore me. Oh come, let us adore me-ee."
...
I sat basking in that gorgeous little moment, realizing the truest meaning of Christmas had revealed itself. It's a message I hope to hold onto year after year. Oh come, let us adore them: our children, our families, our neighbors ... our city ... our individual and collective faiths.

So even sitting in church, someone can conclude that the truest meaning of Christmas is to... adore our children! That our great comfort comes from our friends and families. That we can exchange materialistic hope for relational hope.

I hope that I'm not the only one who finds this disturbing - I hope that the shift of worship from Jesus to our own children brings great alarm! But I think it also shows how easily even churchgoers can make assumptions about what Christmas means - so next we'll look at some Scripture and probe some of the meaning from a Biblical perspective.