Meanings of Christmas

By Beth Wenger|2025-12-26T10:23:21-07:00December 24th, 2025|Tags: Celebrations, Christmas, Holidays, Winter Solstice|

We watched as a parade of light trailed down the darkened street as we took an after-dinner stroll on the longest night of the year, the Winter Solstice. Leading the procession was a white pickup truck adorned with Christmas lights of red, green, and gold, pulling a glowing flatbed trailer upon which were seated individuals of varied shapes and sizes. Trailing behind were moving streams of cyclists, scooters, or strollers, variously lit with headlights or blinking strings of light. Some neighbors sat in their yards watching and playing music as the procession of couples and families rolled by. I wondered about the darkest night, the Winter Solstice, and I remembered the Light of the World, Jesus, God incarnate in man. It was a warm experience.

During this winter Christmas season, we are reminded of several symbols and traditions that have their beginnings in ages past, and we continue to experience them in various ways through the changing cycles of time. Sometimes we become enamored with the colorful light shows and musical productions; we join in with the festive singing and merrymaking; we decorate our homes with Christmas trees and evergreen wreathes; we light up our homes with candles and ornaments; families exchange gifts and celebrate with a special feast; some focus more on the true meaning of Christmas–the Incarnation of God in man.

From where do some of these traditions originate? How did early Christians uplift these ideas? More important, what higher meanings ought we, as Urantia Book students, frame this Christmas season that has been so secularized in the past several decades? To what higher virtues, even divine values, do these meanings point?

Origins–Many of the symbols and traditions we celebrate today have ties to much older forms from Roman Paganism, Mithraism, Norse […]