Pastor’s Christmas Message

While reading “God Rest Ye Merry, Soldiers: A True Civil War Christmas Story”, several important points caught my attention. First, Christmas as a national holiday solidified during the Civil War. Prior to the Civil War, the celebration of Christmas varied from almost no recognition in Puritan areas to wild parties on plantations.

Christmas was also ethnically divided by region and national background. Only the horrors of the Civil War and the pain of separation felt by Soldiers and families alike morphed the different views and practices into a more national practice.

For the first time all regions and groups started setting the day aside as a holiday and the practices of Christmas trees, sending Christmas cards and other traditions spread everywhere as people dealt with the difficult experiences and emotions. Numerous Christmas “truces” at the local level allowed Soldiers to exchange everything from newspapers to food to stories for a brief day before resuming the war.

The sacred nature, family experiences and other aspects not only became more unified across regional and ethnic boundaries, but became more important as a way to deal with the difficulties and reconnect with others and what it means to be human and Christian. The shock of still being at war in 1862, and again in 1863 and 1864 continued these trends until after the war Christmas became a national holiday.

Our current times are both better and worse than the Civil War years. We have the opportunity to remember who we are and what that means as we deal with the reality of not only the current COVID pandemic but future viruses as well. The Civil War and every pandemic in human history are tragedies, but the faith, hope and love in Christmas are triumphs. Living in Christmas year round helps us to not only cope but thrive in the frustrating changes and human conflicts in these times. Remembering that there is one greater than viruses, human vanity and greed and even other trials gives us hope because we know they do not win in the end. God’s infinite love reaches even the darkest places in our lives and in our world. May God give us rest and renewed energy in sharing God’s love in the new year no matter what lies ahead!