The real history of christmas

Mark Jefferson | www.SummerTreeDesigns.com | December 8, 2014

The Real History of Christmas YULE LOVE IT!

Unravelling Christmas

It’s Christmas! Ahhhh, the smell of evergreen trees, apple cider and explosions of cinnamon up

your nostrils with every visit to an arts and crafts store. The time of year when we honor the

ancient tradition of burning our house down by attempting to deep fry a half frozen turkey we

bought at the 24 hour Wal‐Mart, and paying for the opportunity to force our children to sit on a fat

strangers lap, which I guess is better than the other way around. But speaking of traditions, did you

know that the quaint custom of Christmas caroling actually began with drunk and rowdy revelers

threatening people door to door looking for food and liquor? Did you know that some of the

earliest stories of our loving, warm and fuzzy Santa described him as a horrible devil name

Krampus who beat and kidnapped naughty children? I don’t know about you, but I know a few kids

who need a visit from Santa’s more sinister brother! So let’s take a look at the history of Christmas

and find out why we do what we do, you just might be surprised.

Most all of us know the Christian biblical account of Jesus and his virgin mother’s painful, pregnant

trip to Bethlehem on a donkey. Ouch. But what happened during the Christmas season before Jesus

came along?

Christmas Before Jesus

Centuries before Jesus, early Europeans were celebrating life and birth in the darkest days of winter.

In the Norse country, which I guess we can call Viking territory, this celebration was known as

Yule. Every December on the shortest day of the year when the northern hemisphere of earth is

tilted furthest from the sun, comes the winter solstice. It marks the darkest day of the year. Around

this time, ancient Norse fathers and sons would bundle up in their warmest North Face yak furs

and L.L.Bean horned duck hunting caps and drag home the biggest log they could find, bring it into

the main hall, and promptly set it on fire. Well, promptly is probably not the best word to use. I

mean can you imagine how much lighter fluid and newspaper they had to use to light a whole tree

size log? The yule log provided warmth, but it also represented the future. Each spark was said to

represent a pig or calf that would be born to their herds in the spring.

Also brought inside were holly and evergreen trees, (hmmm,

where have I heard that before?) this was the one plant that

could survive through a harsh Norse winter. So logically,

they cut it down and killed it. The evergreen provided them

with proof and hope that life persisted in this dark time.

Being impervious to the cold, frozen surroundings, unlike

humans who could starve and freeze, or run out of beer, the

evergreen trees brought into the Viking homes were a

symbol of life and a reminder not to lose heart because

spring is coming.

For as long as the yule log burned, about twelve days,

feasting and partying was the main attraction. In fact, this

was one of the few times that meat was abundant because

cattle had just been slaughtered for the long winter. There

was a necessity to kill most of the livestock simply

because there would not be enough feed or grass to

keep them alive through the winter. They would keep

a few of them alive for breeding, but slaughtering

most of them not only kept everyone from starving

through the winter but this provided the opportunity

for a huge feast and party. Woohoo! Beef jerky for

everyone! The party would go on inside, non‐stop for

weeks, when sunlight was at its minimum, to defy the

harshness of winter.

There was also a spiritual component to the Norse

yuletide festivals. The believed they would be safe

inside by the fire, but outside were demons and spirits

to be feared. In the Germanic regions, this holiday

was named after the pagan god Oden and the people

were terrified of Oden because it was said that he flew

throughout the country at night and would decide

who would die and who would prosper the following

year.

A white guy with a long beard flying around at night

in December…. Sound familiar? In any event, everybody stayed indoors and made the best of it.

With an abundance of food and beer and things to set on fire, it actually sounds pretty good to me.

I mean aside from the whole hygiene and chamber pots, but that’s a bit T.M.I.

When In Rome

About a thousand miles away and several degrees warmer in Rome winter was less hazardous but

the festivities were no less elaborate or intoxicated. One week before the winter solstice, Romans

would begin celebrating Saturnalia which was a month long party of food and drinking. It was

named after the Roman god Saturn, a god of plenty, wealth, periodic renewal and liberation.

Saturnalia was so crazy that it was not just a drunken feast during the month of the winter solstice,

it was also a time when the social order was voluntarily reversed. Masters acted as slaves, slaves as

masters, costumes and masks were worn to role play and change identity. Think of it like

Halloween and the party mentality of New Year’s Eve in Times Square all rolled into one that lasted

an entire month. I don’t think I could last more than a single night personally, I know my limits.

During Saturnalia they had dedicated feasts, one of which was Juvenilia, the feast to celebrate and

indulge children, much like we indulge children on Christmas. It celebrated not just children but

also fertility and birth. Children were spoiled and given gifts and told it was ok to play in traffic.

But the upper classes in Rome celebrated considerably more sober, and left the rabble rousing to

the less well‐to‐do, like you and me. The rich celebrated by worshiping Mithra, the god of the

unconquerable sun. To many of the people who worshiped this sun god on his birthday, this was

considered the holiest day of the year and they worshiped accordingly. Thus, December during the

winter solstice, specifically December 25th, was the birthday of the god of the sun Mithra, but not

yet the birth of the son of God as we know it. Mithra was said to have been born out of a rock in a

pasture, and shepherds came to worship him as an infant god in that pasture when he was born.

Wait, this is starting to sound a little familiar, isn’t it? I mean how many people get shepherds to

show up on their first birthday? My grandma had a lot of cats but I think calling her a shepherd

would be a stretch.

The First Christian Christmas

So while Romans were still worshiping the sun

god, Christianity was beginning to spread

throughout the Roman Empire. But at first,

Christian’s really didn’t celebrate Jesus’s birth

at that time, His resurrection was the focus of

Christianity in those days. But by the fourth

century, it became clear that Christians

needed to address the questions concerning

His birth, because some were falling in to the

belief that Jesus was an entirely spiritual being.

While most still believed that Jesus was

actually born as a human in the flesh, the

church decided to make that point clear and

thus made the decision to celebrate his birth

as proof of his humanity.

So the fact of His birth was settled, however no

one really knew, or even knows today His

actual birthday. Although certain scriptures

point to a warm weather birth day, such as the

shepherds in the fields watching their flocks

by night. They probably wouldn’t be out there at night in the cold of late December. But the date

really was not of too much concern to the early church. Since Rome ruled the known world at the

time and since Pagan Romans were already celebrating the birth of Mithra on Dec 25th, it seemed

natural to honor the birth of the Christ child at the same time. By the end of the 4th century, the

church made it official, and they declared Dec 25th, the “Feast Day of The Nativity”. And so that’s

where we first started to diverge worship from the feast day of the SUN to the feast day of the risen

SON.

But even the early church knew there would be limits to what they could change about secular and

pagan celebrations, so instead of trying to outlaw them, they instead decided to adopt the customs.

The evergreen trees brought inside were soon decorated with bright red apples to symbolize the

Garden of Eden, and they of course eventually become Christmas tree ornaments. Holly was also

repurposed to represent Jesus’s crown of thorns. As these changes were brought about, aside from

Christians, the people who were already celebrating really didn’t care if it was in the name of

Mithra or Jesus, they were just happy to carry on their traditions they’ve been observing for

thousands of years. The church really had a “live and let live” mentality back then and as long as

people gave lip service to God, they let them do whatever else they wished with the holiday, which

in my opinion was a very smart move by their marketing department. “Yeah, let them think its

normal, everything is different, but nothing changes”. BUT, don’t be fooled. This attitude would

come back to bite them in their holy buttocks.

Whip Me, Beat Me, After All Its Christmas

By the time the Middle Ages came around, Christianity and Christians were no longer the NKOTB,

(that’s for all you children of the 80’s.) Or for our younger readers that would be “New Kids On The

Block”. Christianity had mostly replaced the pagan religions of Europe and everyone was going to

church instead of dancing naked in front of statues of a pagan god. The great cathedrals like Notre

dame and Salisbury cathedral would hold a special mass on December 25th that would eventually be

called Christ Mass. If you don’t know

that largely catholic term, mass as

defined by the dictionary means “a

collection of incoherent particles”, and

while that may apply to most of us

Christians, the other more accurate

definition is “a celebration of the

Eucharist and the taking of

communion”.

But true to modern day form the

majority of the population, often

referred to as the lower classes, did not

celebrate in a church, quite the

opposite. The general population still

celebrated very much like the pagans of ancient Rome in a huge drunken party in every house, pub

and on every street and corner. Basically think of it as Marti Gras on crack. There were costumes,

lots of alcohol, lots of public “adult” behavior, and every year a beggar or student was ceremonially

put in charge of this celebration in every town and was crowned “The Lord of Mis‐Rule” or “The

Lord of Anarchy”.

But unlike the Romans where masters and servants voluntarily exchanged roles for this celebration,

the peasants of Europe would simply go to the doors of the richest houses they could reach and

bang on it until they were let in. Kind of like Halloween trick‐or‐treaters from hell. And when they

were eventually let in, they would basically take over and act as the lord of the house and would

require all of the finest food and drink they had to offer. The owner was obligated to give it to

them, or there were consequences.

This was a once a year chance to grab power from the rich, and they took full advantage of it. But if

the lord or home owner didn’t comply, the peasants would either threaten or actually perform a

“trick” just like in trick or treat. This could include things like beating up the butler and breaking

things they could get their hands on or something similar. And they would deliver this message of

“trick or treat” in the form of a song, the first Christmas carols. Traveling door to door singing

beautiful songs warning of drunken violence, ahhhhhh I love the holidays.

Party Poopers!

And then just to make things even more tense, after a couple of hundred years of this a religious

group, the Puritans, over threw the king and outlawed everything about Christmas except the going

to church part in 1645. PARTY POOPERS! There’s one in every hovel! So the party was forced to go

underground because the laws went over about as good a prohibition. Let’s face it, people have a

basic human need for celebration at least once a year, and that sometimes includes getting drunk at

the office Christmas

party and making copies

of your butt, so we have

no room to talk.

But that didn’t last for

long. By 1660 the people

had enough and took it

upon themselves to

restore the monarchy

and Christmas along

with it. They could live

without a king, but not

without their yearly dose

of Christmas traditions

of debauchery and

carousing.

But believe it or not there was another group of Puritans even more uptight, oh sorry, I mean more

pious about things such as the evils of the Christmas celebration, and in 1620 they landed in

Plymouth Massachusetts to make a fresh start. In 1659 Christians in Boston followed the Puritans

example and outlawed Christmas. Anyone who was caught exhibiting the “Christmas spirit” was

fined a whopping five shillings. I don’t know what shillings are but it doesn’t sound like something

I want to catch. “Stay away from Mark, he’s got shillings.” Regardless of shillings though, Christmas

could not be contained. People still used it as an excuse to get drunk and party, breaking the law

and have fun. There was also a huge spike in babies being conceived every year at Christmas time,

so you can’t tell me there was no way to prove celebrating was going on.

But not every colony started off that way. Captain John Smith reported that the first Christmas in

Jamestown was kept to a low roar with plenty of oysters, wild fowl, and good bread. Jamestown was

also the first to create eggnog as a holiday drink, and made it the right way, with rum.

Christmas, To be or not to be. That is how you reinvent it!

After America became independent though, many British customs, including Christmas were

intentionally not observed, and as a matter of fact the new American congress remained in session

on Christmas day for the next 67 years. But the American people began to get restless and wanted

some holidays of their own. So in the early 1800’s Christmas became one of the common

celebrations once again, only this time it was much much different. America reinvented the holiday

so that it really didn’t not resemble the old traditional chaotic celebration at all and New York City

played a big role. By 1820 the city had become so populated due to its commerce and the

beginnings of the industrial revolution that there was an ever increasing amount of fresh

immigrants who still knew Christmas by the old English traditions and celebrated as such.

Unfortunately the class separation of the rich and working class fueled an increasing amount of

unrest and violence, and gang riots were common every Christmas season. By 1828 New York

instituted a special police force because the Christmas riots the prior year were so savage.

God Bless Us, Everyone, Especially Charles Dickens

The upper class was getting worried and set

out to pacify the problem. Some of the most

famous writers of the time wrote stories that

encompassed the Christmas spirit as we know

it today. Included was Charles Dickens, A

Christmas Carol, became so popular that it

was a best seller in London and America.

Americans and British both took these stories

and the lessons they represented to heart and

so began the seeds of a charity and family

centric holiday of the Christmas we know

today. The conversion of Scrooge struck a

particular cord in Victorian English culture, as

did the family man’s example Bob Cratchit

within the working classes. On both

continents, this allowed for and fueled the

fires of change within the family unit. Up until

the 1830’s families existed as what we might

think of as an engine of discipline and raised

children to train them to be productive and

obedient. That quickly began to change during this time and the Christmas holiday had a big part

in it. People could now enjoy their children and tend to their emotional upbringing without being

seen as spoiling them.

So Christmas was really the first time that families could openly take joy in being with each other

and making children happy.

Oh German Tree, Oh German Tree

Remember that evergreen thing from the Vikings and Germanic cultures? Well Prince Albert of

Germany, the cousin of Queen Victoria, married her. Yeah you read that right, he married his

cousin, and brought the evergreen Christmas tree and other traditions to Windsor Palace with him.

The people of England quickly adopted the tradition, go figure, and two years later an American

magazine printed a picture of the king and queen with children standing around the Christmas

tree. And believe it or not they, for lack of a better term, ‘photoshopped’ it to look more American,

and we fell for it, hook, line, and ornament. We took ancient traditions and made them new, and

the fact that it was old, made us feel better about doing it as opposed to just coming up with

something unheard of like Festivus. It’s been a standard throughout western civilization ever since.

Twas The Night Santa Was Described

Another piece of literature that had a huge impact on our modern day Christmas was “A visit from

Saint Nick” better known as “Twas the night before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore, a scholar

and pastor living in New York City. The fact that his poem for the first time described Santa in a

family friendly way was a huge boost to Christmas, and that’s where we first envisioned Santa’s

reindeer and his sleigh and all that good stuff. Prior to this publication, the typical European story

of Santa Clause was a bit more, shall we say harsh. Saint Nicholas would give toys to good children

while bad children got nothing, and he made no bones about it. “Better luck next year kid.”

However the Dutch version was much more child friendly and is what inspired Clement to write his

poem in 1822.

So Santa as we know him today is completely

an American invention, as is Christmas itself.

He almost didn’t claim the poem as his own

because the fact that he was a minister and

professor of divinity and his poem contain

nothing religious what so ever and the church

still did NOT celebrate Christmas at this

point. It made him think twice about how it

would reflect on him and his church, until it

became wildly popular and famous. Now

THAT’S the American way! So thank you

Clement for telling us what Santa looks like

how he gets around!

Then in 1863, Thomas Nast, a cartoonist solidified the

final version of Santa, red fur coat, very round, stout

and resembled very much the typical depiction of a

robber baron (business men that made great profits

usually from very questionable means) that were

common to the mid 1800’s with their beards, well fed

bellies and suits. Although Santa was the

representation of a robber baron in reverse. This new

Santa Clause figure also provided a way for parents to

openly show their adoration towards their children in

the form of gifts, and a way for retail merchants to pretend that Christmas gifts were about caring,

and loving families. By the mid to late 1800’s business owners figured out that if an advertisement

with images of Santa would sell more merchandise, then a real live in‐person dressed as Santa in

their stores would sell even more. And they were right! Thus completes the American Christmas

experience that continues to grow out of control today. But what about Christ you ask? Well

truthfully, Christians in America really didn’t incorporate it in to their worship and only gradually

started adopting it in the mid 1800’s. In 1885 Christmas was formally declared a United States

Federal Holiday, only 100 years after declaring independence from England.

While Santa’s reindeer were already a

Christmas standard, in 1939 Robert May

created a promotional children’s story for

Montgomery Ward department store called

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in which a

young reindeer with a sort of handicap turns

out to save Christmas and help Santa. This

story sparked children’s imagination all over

America and gave them someone they could

relate to even more than the parental figure of

Santa. So it was 1939 and the years that

followed that the story of Rudolph

unknowingly (or maybe not) encouraged

children and they really took ownership of Christmas and embraced it as being all about them.

Most churches by now were celebrating

Christmas for the observance of the birth of

Christ once again, and critics began

complaining about the commercialism of

Christmas obscuring the “true” meaning and

reason for Christmas. It didn’t take them

long at all. By the 1940’s the sour puss’s of

the Christian community were loud and

clear about the lost message of Christ. That’s

when Santa and Jesus got together and held

press conference in which moderator

Rodney King spoke his famous words, “Can’t

we all just get along and have some egg nog

together?” Personally I don’t see the conflict,

I mean didn’t God give us a gift on

Christmas? We’re just carrying on His

tradition right? So what if his was from

heaven and ours is from Wal‐Mart. And I bet His wasn’t on sale.

So there you have it… the next time you hear carolers coming down your street, just hope that they

don’t break in and drink all your beer and boxed wine you were saving for Grandma. The next time

you’re hanging ornaments on the tree, replace one with an apple to remind you that Eve caused the

downfall of all human kind. When you build a yule log fire in your fireplace, don’t forget to party

like a Viking for weeks while it burns, or minutes if your log is small in stature… don’t be ashamed

or your small log. But going back to the first celebration of Christ as the winter solstice party

crasher that it was, if you’re a Christian, it really doesn’t matter when Jesus was born. You can

celebrate His coming any day of the year and every day of the year, and there’s no reason why the

reason for the season can’t be just because you love your fellow man, as He commanded us.

That being said, I think Jesus would have LOVED Christmas time, regardless of the dollars we

spend, regardless of the flat screens and bling we have on our lists. He would have loved how much

we love to love each other and the fact that we take the time at least to show it in this season.

Because believe it or not, its quite possible that this is exactly what He wanted us to be doing at

Christmas. He was nothing if not covertly punctual. What do I mean by that? Well I’m glad you

asked… read on.

The Miracle of Timing

Nobody knows exactly when Jesus was really born, as I said up yonder earlier in this document, it

probably was NOT Christmas unless it was a very warm December in Israel due to global warming

from camel emissions. However the birth of Jesus was right on time. And I simply cannot

emphasize that fact enough. I mean God Himself could not have planned it to work out better

timing. Wait, scratch that. God Himself DID plan it, and it worked out incredibly well, as we can all

see. What do I mean about timing you ask? Well Jesus didn’t just show up at some random time in

history. He showed up at the perfect opportune, well‐chosen, particularly favorable and

appropriate moment in cultural, political and spiritual history. Galatians 4:4 “But when the set

time had fully come, God sent his Son…” Translation, Jesus wasn’t born too early, too late, too slow

or too fast. For thousands of years, the Jews were waiting for a Messiah, for thousands of years they

waited for a savior. But the timing of the birth of Jesus was absolutely perfect. Here, let me explain.

Jesus’ timing was CULTURALLY perfect

Jesus was born in to the time of the Roman Empire, who built their empire on the shoulders of the

Greek Empire who gave rise to Alexander the Great, the greatest military leader who ever lived.

Alexander the Great set out to conquer the ENTIRE known world, and indeed did complete that

task in record time. You’re probably thinking, “Yeah, but how big was the known world back then,

wasn’t it like the size of Disney Land or something?” No I tell you, I’m not talking about a few

blocks, or even a few countries. He conquered all of Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and in

to Asia. Why is that important you ask? Because that means that the entire known world now

spoke ONE language, Greek. You could go anywhere in the entire known world and there were no

language barriers. I mean can you imagine pulling up to the drive through speaker in China and…

wait, that’s a bad example. I can’t even understand the lady at the drive through window here much

less one in Asia.

So this being the case, the ancient scriptures were translated in to Greek, this collection of books

was called the Septuagint. This would be the bible that Jesus and his disciples would teach from.

Then later Mathew, Mark, Luke and John would later write their gospels in the same common

Greek. When Paul went on his missions to foreign lands, one thing he never needed was a….. wait

for it…. Yes a translator! Anywhere he or any other follower of Christ went, in all four directions, in

any country on any continent, they always spoke the same language and everyone could always

understand without any language barriers.

So not only not only was the arrival of Jesus timed perfectly with a united world government but

also timed perfectly with the saturation of the Greek language throughout that empire which

encompassed the world as well as the translation of God’s word in to Greek. Timing is everything.

Jesus’ timing was POLITICALLY perfect

Normally when one country or empire conquers another, and then another, and then another….

The more they conquer, the harder it is to maintain stability and control. It’s kind of like being a

kindergarten teacher. You can handle 1, 2, 3, up to 8 maybe. But once you get more and more rug

rats in there it can quickly become unmanageable and you need break out the Barney videos, or

these days, pass out shock proofed i‐Pads and cell phones.

Empires, by in large, fall from within, because of failure to self‐govern effectively. Like a teacher

having a meltdown, most empires just collapse due to their inability to cope. The reason the Roman

Empire became so strong for so long is because they were able to accomplish something that no

one else, including the Greek empire, was able to do. They were able to foster a political and

economic stability that was unprecedented. From about 27 BC, that’s before Jesus was born, to

about 180 AD, that’s almost 150 years after His death, there was the “Pax romana”. What’s that you

ask? I have no idea but it makes me sound like my Mama did me some good learnin’, don’t it? It

means literally Roman Peace. For about 200 years was for the first time there was peace throughout

the known world, the whole of the Roman Empire. As proof of this, the Romans used to worship a

god named Janus, a god of war. Whenever the doors to the temple of Janus were open, it meant

that there was a war going on somewhere in the empire or that Rome was at war somewhere in the

world and soldiers were in battle. When the temple doors were closed, it meant there was total

peace.

For only the second time in history, when Jesus was born, those temple doors were closed and there

was perfect peace throughout the Roman Empire. So for almost 180 years after Jesus was born,

anyone, Christians included, could go ANYWHERE in the known world and preach and teach the

good news of Jesus Christ and His resurrection and not have to worry about crossing battle torn

areas, or traveling through unstable territories, and not even have to worry about being killed or

robbed or beaten because they were at perfect peace.

Now because Rome was at peace, they could redirect their resources and manpower to things other

than the great expenses of war, so they began building infrastructure. They built roads, highways

and cities. High quality, well patrolled, well‐traveled roads now crisscrossed the entire known

world from Europe, Africa, to Asia, so much so that this is where we get the saying “All roads lead

to Rome”. Because back then, they did! The roads were patrolled by soldiers, so your safety was

insured. Rome had a well‐organized postal system believe it or not, that also traveled these roads.

So the world’s best postal system, one the USPS could learn from, could deliver letters to anyone in

the world traveling on those roads that were safe and secure, in a language that everyone could

understand. That is extremely significant, especially considering how many letters actually made it

in to the Bible we know today. Isn’t that another awesome example of His great timing?

Jesus’ timing was SPIRITUALLY perfect

If the timing was culturally and politically perfect, but the people were not spiritually ready, then

those things would not matter one little bit and I guarantee we would not be talking about Jesus at

all today. But it was indeed spiritually perfect timing. The Jewish nation that Jesus was born in to

was an apple that had fallen far from the tree of the Jewish nation of the Old Testament. After the

greatest king in history, King David, died he passed everything to King Solomon. Then when

Solomon died, the nation broke out in civil war and was divided in to two separate nations, the

north and south, Israel and Judah. They both began to disobey God and they began to rebel against

God’s word and God’s law and even began to get in to paganism. By around 722 BC, Israel was taken

in to captivity and around 586 BC Judah was also taken. The Jewish nation was dispersed

throughout the entire Roman Empire, they were no longer one cohesive force, politically,

culturally, or spiritually. That is what is known as the diaspora, literally translating to “scattering

seed away”, is the dispersion of the Jewish people.

So God allowed the spirit and the hearts of the Jewish people to be broken by being scattered by

foreign forces, and they have never been the same since. But in a good way. Because after the

diaspora, and after they were allowed to repopulate Israel, they never again fell in to paganism, they

never again entertained the ideas of multiple gods, they went back to devout worship of God and

back to teaching and preaching the Old testament throughout the entire nation of Israel. But

unfortunately because Rome ruled them, they were no longer allowed to build temples except for

the one that Herod built that we know of. So instead of building temples for worship, they built

synagogues, which began as spontaneous gathering places of Jews for Sabbaths and festivals, for

communal worship and for mutual support, but not explicitly for God worship.

So what, get to the point you say? Well keep your yamaka on. This is important because where did

the disciples go when they traveled to foreign lands to spread the gospel? Synagogues were the

logical place, and that is where they would teach from the old testament of how Jesus fulfilled all of

the prophecies set forth thousands of years earlier. Synagogues are where they began to teach that

Jesus was the messiah they’ve been waiting for all these generations. So if these synagogues where

not in place, a place where Jews went to unofficially worship, learn and seek answers, there would

not have been a place to share the gospel of Jesus in every corner of the known world. That could

not have happened any earlier, or much later because there simply would not have been the

infrastructure.

It was a time when there was one world language, with one book of scriptures everyone could

understand, it was a time when there was one world government, it was a time when there was no

war and peace reigned, it was a time when infrastructure for travel and communication was at its

greatest in history, it was a time when the Jewish people were ready to receive their God, it was a

time when the place to hear the message about the messiah was in place in every city and town

from Europe to Asia. So like I said, timing is everything. Can I get a “tru‐dat”?

The End

Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Wishing everyone has a Merry RamaHanaKwanzaMas

and a very Happy New Year from all of us here at Summer Tree Designs.com. Peace.

The real history of christmas

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