Every December I get questions from parents asking for my opinion on Santa: “Did you tell your kids about Santa?” Some Christians are very adamant: “Santa Claus is a replacement of Jesus in this secularized society and just another way of spreading materialism.” Others see the fable as a harmless, delightful fantasy: “I believed in Santa when I was a kid and it didn’t hurt me! It’s just a fun way to give the kids a little magical spark.”

The only reason Christians celebrated Jesus’ birth on December 25 was because the Romans had a pagan celebration on that day and Christians took it over. Right?

Wrong. There’s no evidence for it.

You should’ve skipped Thanksgiving this year if you’re grumbling and complaining today. After all, you were just being a hypocrite. Why would you celebrate a day that you don't believe in? If your modus operandi is to look for what you think is wrong and then voice it, why did you even celebrate Thanksgiving? Everyone was looking at you like, “What’s he doing here?”

“It is to one’s honor to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel” (Proverbs 20:3 NIV).

Too many of us do not think this way. Instead, we are so quick to argue, and to even insert ourselves into other people’s arguments.

Scripture teaches a different way.

Years ago, the city of Pittsburgh constructed a large, new post office that cost millions of dollars. On the day of its opening, the governor made a speech, the bands played, and the people cheered. It was quite a celebration. But when the first man entered to mail a letter, to the embarrassment of the engineers, it was discovered that they had omitted the letter drop in their rush to meet the deadline. Here was a costly new post office, with no place to mail a letter! This slight omission negated the very reason for its existence.

Wednesday was All Saints Day, or officially, All Hallows' Day. We actually get “Halloween” from this holiday as the night before was called “Hallowed Evening,” and then shortened to Halloween. No, Halloween is not Satan’s birthday…Satan wouldn’t have a birthday, but that’s a whole ‘nother blog.