YEA Lesson Library
Better Than Christmas
About This Lesson
This lesson teaches that Christmas is not a holiday that God’s people should celebrate if they want to please God.
Scriptures
Isaiah 40:18-21
Jeremiah 10:1-6
Matthew 2:1-11
Mark 7:7
Luke 2:1-11
John 1:1-14
1 Timothy 1:6
2 Timothy 4:4
James 1:16-17
Words to Know
SHEPHERD - a person who takes care of sheep
VAIN - useless; nothing comes out of the action
The Lesson
Winter is here and everyone is getting ready for Christmas. Houses are decorated with lots of colored lights. People are busy shopping for Christmas presents. Your school class has probably drawn names. Your teacher may put up a Christmas tree and your classmates may help her decorate it. Everyone will put their present under the tree. Your friends will tell you they are celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25th. Then should you do these things with your friends? If not, why shouldn’t you?
A long, long time ago, people went out into the forest and cut down a tree and decorated it. This was many hundreds of years before Jesus was ever born. The Bible says, “People cut a tree out of the forest. A skilled worker shapes the wood with a sharp tool. Others decorate it with silver and gold. They use a hammer to nail it to the floor. They want to keep it from falling down” (Jeremiah 10:3-4 NIrV Kids Devotional Bible). Does this sound like what your teacher and classmates did?
Before Jesus was ever born, the sun god had a festival on December 25th. People thought it was his birthday. Then after Jesus was born, people became confused. They thought that the sun god feast was a lot of fun. They saw all of the bright lights and thought they were pretty. So they decided to celebrate the birth of Christ on that day.
God didn’t want them to do this. Why do you think God didn’t want them to do this? It is because God is the only true and living God. The sun god was named Sol Invictus. He couldn’t do what God can do. God has all power. He can do anything. He wants us to worship Him and no one else.
God wants us to worship Him the way that He tells us to. God says, “Do not follow the practices of other nations” (Jeremiah 10:2). “Don’t ask questions about their gods. Don’t say, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? We’ll do it in the same way.’ You must not worship the LORD your God the way they worship their gods. Be sure you do everything I’m commanding you to do. Don’t add anything to my commands. And don’t take anything away from them” (Deuteronomy 12:30-32 NIrV Kid’s Devotional Bible).
We should not say bad things about people who keep Christmas. They believe they are doing the right thing.
God knows that people need to celebrate and have fun. He gave us the Feast of Tabernacles to celebrate. It’s much better than Christmas. We have lots of fun for seven days, not just one day. We can go to the beach or to the mountains. We can eat pizza and go to McDonald’s. We get to eat a lot of very special meals and do fun things. Our parents may give us a special gift every day of the Feast. We have lots and lots of friends to play with. We have great Sabbath Schools at the Feast. God said we should celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. And there is nothing wrong with this Feast. It’s what God wants us to do. We please Him when we celebrate this Feast. It is a wonderful time with God and His people!
We show God that we love Him by doing what He says. We don’t want to worship Him in a way that displeases Him. When we worship God in the way He said to, He will bless us and we will be happy. We will be the apple of His eye.
Student Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you for the many gifts that you give us. We know that you love us. We know that you have many things yet to give us. Help us to love you and follow you. Help us not to worship you in vain, but always do what you say. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Daily Devotions
Sunday - Jeremiah 10:1-6
Monday - Isaiah 40:18-21
Tuesday - John 1:1-14
Wednesday - 1 Timothy 1:6
Thursday - 2 Timothy 4:4
Friday - Luke 2:9-11
Saturday - Matthew 2:1-11
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
1. State why we don’t celebrate Christmas.
2. Tell that it was too cold for the shepherd to be in the fields at night taking care of their sheep.
3. Explain that the Feast of Tabernacles is far better than Christmas.
4. State that Christmas is not Christ’s birthday.
Topics & Themes
Christmas
God’s gifts
God’s love
God’s omnipotence
Holidays, Christmas
Jesus, Birth of
Loving God
Obedience
Pagan Traditions
Worship God
Materials Needed
Bible, YEA students and teacher’s books, a permanent and a temporary object, a paper plate for each student, crayons, light green construction paper, paint, sponge, old shirts for students to wear during the activity, strips of magnetic tape, attendance and memory verse charts, stars, songbook, CD/cassette tape and music player
Preparation
It may be difficult for a child to explain to his friends what he believes and why he does the things he does. We need to help our children understand thoroughly why we don’t celebrate holidays of pagan origin. The pagan feast of Baal was celebrated in Egypt and Syria. “The celebrants retired into certain inner shrines, from which at midnight they issued with a loud cry, ‘The Virgin has brought forth! The light is waxing!’The Egyptians even represented the newborn sun by the image of an infant which on his birthday, the winter solstice, they brought forth and exhibited to his worshippers. The Virgin who thus conceived and bore a son on the twenty-fifth of December was the great Oriental goddess, whom the Semites called the Heavenly Virgin or simply the Heavenly Goddess” (The Golden Bough, p. 358, abridged edition). Eastern religions celebrated December 25th hundreds of years before the birth of Christ, but it was not until 273 A.D. that this festival was widely celebrated in Rome and the West. “The Christmas festival is the Christian revision of the Roman day of the winter solstice. The fathers of the 2nd and 3rd centuries such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, and Piphanius, contended that Christmas was a copy of a pagan celebration. . .” Encyclopaedia Britannica). The Bible tell us not to use pagan traditions in our worship of Him (Deuteronomy 12:4, 30-32).
Lead your students to understand how they are getting the better side of the deal in celebrating God’s Holy Days. Once they feel good about what days we celebrate, children can confidently explain their beliefs to everyone who asks. Children should be taught not to argue their religion or put anyone down for the way they believe or the days they keep.
How to Teach This Lesson
Bring to class a very durable object and a very temporary object. Before you begin the lesson in the students’ book, talk about how long each object will last. (For example, you may wish to bring an all-day sucker for each child vs an M & M.) This concretely shows the children that although they may prefer the M & M right now, it doesn’t last very long. It’s gone. Likewise, earthly treasures don’t last very long, especially when compared to the gifts that God is preparing for those who love Him.
Christmas season - Keep in mind that the children in your class can look longingly at Christmas. It has a lot of physical beauty and attraction. Help your class to understand that Christmas is a very big disappointment to many people. All that glitters is not gold and this is especially true with Christmas celebration for many people. In far too many cases drunkenness, disappointment, loneliness, greed and fighting go along with it. Too often it is not the ideal holiday that it is portrayed to be. There is a lot of money in it for the merchants, and it’s in their best interest for it to be celebrated big.
Origins of Christmas - Explain to the class that people celebrated December 25th before Christ was even born in much the same way as they do today, but it was a feast to Sol Invictus, the sun god. December 25th “was regarded as the nativity of the sun, because the sun begins to lengthen and the power of the sun to increase from the turning point of the year” (Golden Bough, Frazer, p. 358, abridged edition).
The Christmas tree - Discuss how the people cut down a tree and decorated it many years before Christ was born (Jeremiah 10:3-4). This is not pleasing in God’s sight. We are to do what He commands and not add to it or take from it.
Permanence of God’s gifts - As you go through the lesson keep coming back to the permanence of God’s gifts. Help the class to understand that we really can’t imagine how wonderful God’s gifts are.
Giving is good - Assure your class that God is the giver of every good and perfect gift and that giving is good. Explain that we should put Jesus first and give Him a gift on the Holy Days and other times throughout the year. It is also good to give others a gift.
Review Questions
1. Why do most people celebrate Christmas?
2. Does God want us to celebrate Christmas? How do we know?
3. What kinds of things seem really good about Christmas to us? Are they as good as the gifts God gives us?
4. What days does God tell us we should celebrate?
5. Which is better, to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days or to celebrate Christmas for only one day?
Teacher-Directed Activity
Give each student a paper pate to decorate as an apple. Explain that eating a big beautiful red apple is something we all enjoy. The taste is very pleasing. When you obey God, this is pleasing to Him.
Follow the diagram. Enlarge and make the leaf and stem out of construction paper. Write on the leaf “I Can Obey God.” Glue it to the top of the plate. Then let the students decorate their plate by drawing and coloring their picture in the center of the plate and sponge paint around the border. If you have photographs of the children, these could be used in the center rather than drawing their own picture. They can finish their apple by gluing a strip of magnetic tape to the back. Tell them that they are the apple of God’s eye when they obey Him. And they can be the apple of their parents’ eyes by giving them this present.
REACH Activity
1. Do a sword drill with the Daily Devotional Scriptures. Read the Scripture reference to the child. Then start the timer. When the child has found the verse, stop the timer. Read the verse and talk about how it relates to the lesson. Challenge the child to see how quickly he/she can find each of the verses in the Bible.
2. Sing:
A. From Kids Classics Collection: “Thy Word Have I Hid in My Heart” on pg. 75, “I Am A C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N” on pg. 52, and “The B-I-B-L-E” on pg. 18.
B. From The Group Songbook: “”Thy Word” on pg. 30, “Create in Me a Clean Heart” on pg. 36, “Open Our Eyes” on pg. 50.
C. From the CEM Hymnal: “Give Of Your Best to the Master” on pg. 147, “I Love to Tell the Story” on pg. 80, “Let Others See Jesus in You” on pg. 178, “Yield Not to Temptation” on pg. 149.
3. Choose one of the songs from the list. Write a paragraph in your Bible notebook about why it would be a good song to sing to refute the celebration of Christmas.
4. Choose one of the verses from your daily devotions. Write the scripture in your Bible notebook. Then explain how the verse you chose relates to not celebrating Christmas.
5. Sometimes when we take a stand against celebrating Christmas, people think that we don’t love God and that we don’t believe Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Then, because we celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, they think we’re Jewish. You can’t force your beliefs on anyone else, but you should be able to defend why you do the things you do. Read 1 Peter 3:15. Then write a paragraph in your Bible notebook defending why you don’t celebrate Christmas and why you do celebrate God’s holy days.
6. Do you ever feel left out because you don’t celebrate Christmas and all of your friends get to go look at the lights and go to parties and get lots of presents? It’s normal to want to be part of fun activities. That’s why it’s called a temptation. If you weren’t tempted to do something that isn’t pleasing God, there would be no struggle. Talk about this with your parents. Let them know how you are feeling. You might be surprised to find out that they feel some of this too! Left out, isolated, rejected. These are not fun feelings to experience. You should also take your feelings to God and tell Him what’s going on. Then read John 15:18. Who else was rejected by this world? Jesus understands. Write about this in your Bible notebook.
7. In your Bible notebook, make a side by side sketch. On one half, draw children celebrating Christmas (Christmas tree, presents, games). On the other half, draw children celebrating the Feast of Tabernacles. Then write a paragraph about how much fun you had at the Feast of Tabernacles this last fall. Finish this project by writing down the memory verse for this lesson.
8. The “reason for the season” is a phrase you hear at Christmastime. But is it true? Is Jesus the reason for the season? Why or why not? Write about this in your Bible notebook. Share with your siblings or parents.
9. You can’t escape the Christmas songs this time of year. They are on the radio, in all the stores, played during tv commercials. But some of these songs are not about Christmas at all; they are just about the birth of Christ. The ones about Christmas are obvious - like “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.” Others that are about Jesus’ birth can actually be true. Some of them about Jesus’ birth are not accurate. Some songs are sung at Christmas time but are really about Jesus’ second coming, not His first coming as a baby, i.e “Joy to the World.” Some of the songs played this time of year are just winter songs and don’t have anything to do with Christmas - like “Winter Wonderland” and “Frosty the Snowman.” The bad thing about music is that these songs get stuck in your head. When you hear a song, do some research. Find out what the lyrics say. Compare them to the Bible. Then make a list with four columns (Some examples provided):
A. Obvious Christmas Songs: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer
B. Jesus’ Birth - Wrong: God Bless Ye Merry Gentlemen, The First Noel
C. Jesus’ Birth - Accurate: Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, Angels, from the Realms of Glory, Hark! the Herald Angels Sing
D. Winter: Winter Wonderland, Frosty the Snowman, Sleigh Ride
10. Take your list of songs which talk about the birth of Jesus and are accurate to the Bible. Write them on a piece of paper and tape them to the calendar to remind you to sing them in the month leading up to the Feast of Tabernacles next year. Why would you do this? We truly do believe the Biblical account of Jesus’ birth. We need to rejoice that God sent His Son to this earth as a baby for our benefit.
Song
“Every Promise in the Book is Mine” is on page 15 of the Kids Classics Collection
Closing Prayer
Lead the children in praising God for giving all of us so many good gifts – especially His Holy Days.
Printable Pages
