I just received in my inbox an enewsletter from Christian History & Biography Magazine, one of the many magazines under the umbrella of the Christianity Today Magazine empire. This week’s message provided links to several articles on the history of our Christmas traditions.
This is a topic that always interests me. Having learned over the years how many conservative Christians, especially those of my new-found and beloved Reformed heritage, have objected, and continue to object to the celebration of Christ’s birth due to perceived pagan influences, it’s now possible in this age of the internet that the truth behind these traditions become even more widespread than before! (Expose yourself to some excellent insight into the Reformed debate over Christmas at Covenant Corner–The Regulative Principle and Christmas, parts 1, 2, and 3)
For those of you who do not know, these magazines are among the staple sources of information from an evangelical perspective which favors no evangelical tradition over the other. They do what they humanly can to remain objective within that broad spectrum of viewpoints. Christianity Today does a very good job of providing an informative introduction to whatever is going on in today’s evangelical community, and her daughter title, Christian History & Biography, does equally well introducing its readers to the history of the church, and the lives of some of its most notable figures throughout its history. I highly recommend both magazines to those who desire to be informed on things related to their own evangelical tradition as well as well as those of others. It’s one way we can prevent the uninformed, prejudiced tendency to rely on overstatement and reductionism in reference to other evangelicals who don’t share our perspectives on our various distinctive beliefs and practices; a tendency about which my friend, Bob Hayton, at Fundamentally Reformed, recently blogged. Check out his posts and be sure to enrich your knowledge of the traditions of the Christmas season at the Christian History and Biography Special Section on Christmas Origins.
The Misadventures of Captain Headknowledge 
Thanks for the link John. May God bless you and yours this Christmas season.