Christmas Misconceptions

First, Dan Kimball, over at Vintage faith has a great list of three common Christmas misconceptions:

• Jesus was likely born in the Spring or Fall not December
• There is no indication the star was there on Christmas Eve
• The Wise Men weren’t at the manger scene and Jesus was likely up to 2 years old when they visited Him

Dan speaks out against letting misconceptions slide… (and I agree with him):

“If we are having a play or art piece about Jesus being tempted in the wilderness and in the artwork or actors in the play we have Peter, James and Thomas standing there with Jesus – we would be thinking “What are they doing there? They weren’t in that scene and there when Jesus was in the wilderness?’. Or if we had an art piece or play portraying the Last Supper and in the art piece or play we also put in Pontious Pilate being at the Last Supper with them. We would be like “What is Pontious Pilate doing there? He doesn’t come into the story until a little later after Jesus was arrested?”.  It feels like as we put the Wise Men and the star in our Christmas portrayals is basically the same.”

I’d encourage you to read the whole thing

Secondly, the the team over at I-Monk debunk the myth of the Candy Cane:

“Besides, the “true story of the candy cane” is not true. Not one bit. (Snopes is your friend in these kinds of things.) Here it is, as passed on in emails by well-meaning Christians this time of year.

A candymaker in Indiana wanted to make a candy that would remind people of the true meaning of Christmas; so he made the candy cane to incorporate several symbols for the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus Christ. He began with a stick of pure white, hard candy. White to symbolize the Virgin Birth and the sinless nature of Jesus, and hard to symbolize the Solid Rock, the foundation of the Church, and the firmness of the promises of God.

The candymaker then shaped his cane into the form of a “J” to represent the precious name of Jesus, who came to the earth as Savior. It could also represent the staff of the “Good Shepherd” with which He reaches down to to reclaim the fallen lambs who, like sheep, have gone astray.

Thinking that the candy was somewhat plain, the candymaker stained it with red stripes. He used three small stripes to show the stripes of the scourging Jesus received. The large red stripe was for the blood shed by Christ on the cross so that we could have the promise of eternal life.

Ok, first of all, think about this for a minute…” Keep on reading here

Lastly, I uncovered a short, informative video from Focus on the Family a while back:

1. Jesus was born in the shadow of one of Herod’s greatest fortresses, though today we only remember Herod for one thing: the evil king who tried to kill the baby Jesus, massacring many innocent children in the process.
2. A stable and a manger are not what we thought they were (see the video)