One of our favourite family Christmas traditions is travelling to a local tree farm and picking out our Christmas tree. The kids bundle up from head to toe, excited that the Christmas season is here. There’s always been something about the fresh smell of pine filling up our home but maybe not all the pine needles littering the floor.
Meticulously, my husband and I stand the tree as straight as possible. Although the kids beg to bring out the decorations to begin adorning our tree, we usually wait till the next day. After a full day of traveling and activity, we’re too worn out from our day of exertion.
My husband and I always knew we wanted to raise our kids knowing the true meaning of Christmas. Of God sending His one and only Son Jesus, in the form of a baby, to one day save us from our sins. And because of that Santa was never part of how we celebrated Christmas. But then I began to wonder about our Christmas tree and how it fit into our Christ-centred holidays. Were we being hypocritical by taking part in the Christmas tree, while shunning the other secular traditions?
A few years ago, at Christmas time, my kids watched Buck Denver Asks: Why Do We Call it Christmas? Created by Phil Vischer, this children’s show goes through a variety of Christmas traditions and explains the origin of how we came to celebrate them. It was here that I first heard about Saint Boniface.
Saint Boniface was a missionary born in 680 A.D. He had been commissioned by the pope to evangelize Thuringia, Bavaria, Franconia and Hesse (modern day Germany). Boniface had learned about a community of pagans who, every winter, would make a human sacrifice at the base of a sacred oak tree to Thor the thunder-god.
When Boniface arrived on Christmas Eve, did he not walk into the sacrifice about to commence. Lo and behold, a small child was laid out before the sacred oak. The executioner ready to strike.
The presence of Boniface and his fellow missionaries interrupted the executioner from carrying out his evil deed. These are the words Boniface said to the crowd.
“Hearken, sons of the forest! No blood shall flow this night save that which pity has drawn from a mother’s breast. For this is the birth-night of the Christ, the son of the Almighty, the Saviour of mankind. Fairer is He than Baldur the Beautiful, greater than Odin the Wise, kinder than Freya the Good. Since He has come sacrifice is ended. The dark, Thor, on whom you have vainly called, is dead. Deep in the shades of Niffelheim he is lost forever. And now on this Christ-night you shall begin to live. This blood-tree shall darken your land no more. In the name of the Lord, I will destroy it.”
Taking a nearby axe, Boniface felled the great oak with a single swing. The pagan people learned Thor was not the mighty god they thought he was, for Boniface stood completely unharmed. Then pointing to a small fir tree nearby, Boniface said to an astounded crowd:
“This little tree, a young child of the forest, shall be your holy tree tonight. It is the wood of peace…It is the sign of an endless life, for its leaves are ever green. See how it points upward to heaven. Let this be called the tree of the Christ-child; gather about it, not in the wild wood, but in your own homes; there it will shelter no deeds of blood, but loving gifts and rites of kindness.”
From Ancient Egypt to Queen Victoria, origin stories about the tradition of the Christmas tree are many. But what a powerful story about a man showing the true God and freeing a people from needing to sacrifice their children.
Now every time I look at our Christmas tree, I am reminded of this story and marvel at the greatness of our God. And the amazing thing is, so many of our Christmas traditions that now seem secular came from Christian beginnings. Such as Santa Claus, or Saint Nicholas, an early Christian Bishop who had a heart for the poor and needy.
The world has taken the season of Christmas and turned it into something that no longer glorifies Christ. We can still glorify Him, even if it’s through “secular” traditions. Because really, they actually aren’t that secular!
Be encouraged this Christmas. The reason we celebrate this holiday is because God sent His only Son, to be born of a virgin and, as a man, to die on a cross for our sins. The people Saint Boniface evangelized to thought they had to give a blood sacrifice in order to appease Thor. Boniface showed them the one true God had already done that on their behalf.
And that is something the world can never take away from us.
Thank you, Emily, for sharing Christmas from your road of life with us today!
Let’s journey together…
Amen sister, let’s redeem the Holiday which is Holy.
Enlightening story! It gave me new respect for the Christmas tree tradition! Thanks for sharing it!
I have never heard the story of Boniface. I’d love to know the source of the quote. Thanks so much for writing about him.
I’ll send it to you.