Hello again, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to another episode of Freedom's Creed. In a few days, it'll be Christmas. So I thought I would dedicate this episode to that holiday and talk about a couple of other holidays as well that take place around the time of Christmas. But as a Christian, I do celebrate Christmas, which is the birth of Jesus Christ. And I'm happy to celebrate this holiday, and I love the time of Christmas. So that's what I'll be talking about today. It'll be a very abbreviated podcast today, but anyway, here goes. Why do we celebrate Christmas? It's mostly a Christian holiday, and as I said, it is a time to recognize the birth of Jesus Christ. Now, I say it's mostly a Christian holiday because I do know people who are not Christian, but who still celebrate the holiday. So I think in a lot of cases it's a holiday for many people to celebrate because it's a time of giving and it's a time where it seems to me that people are a lot nicer around Christmas. And so that's a good thing in our society. We definitely need things like that in our society. So if you're not Christian, but you celebrate Christmas anyway, then I say welcome aboard. Now Hanukkah is the Jewish holiday that takes place in the month of December, and it's a different set of days each year. So for instance, Hanukkah this year is celebrated from the evening of the 18th of December all the way through the 26th of December. So Hanukkah is, as I said, an eight-day Jewish celebration. It's a festival. And each night of Hanukkah, one candle is lit on the menorah. And this celebration goes back a couple thousand years. It has to do with the Maccabees. Check it out if you would like to on the internet, but it's a pretty cool holiday for the Jewish people to celebrate. Another holiday that is celebrated around Christmas time, it's not near as old as the Hanukkah celebration, but it's the Kwanzaa celebration. And this was established in the mid-1960s, and it took place, actually, it was established after the riots of Watts in LA. The purpose of this particular holiday, I believe it was established by a professor at a college out in California, and I can't remember now exactly where, but as I said, the internet's there. Check it out. The purpose of it is to bring African Americans together, and there are seven principles that are closely tied to this celebration of Kwanzaa. Those principles are unity, self-determination, collective work, and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. I'm not sure how many people celebrate Kwanzaa. I know that there are lots of people who probably celebrate Kwanzaa, but also celebrate Christmas as well. And again, I even know someone who's of the Jewish faith and their family always celebrated Christmas. So Christmas is a time of celebration, and it doesn't necessarily mean you have to be a Christian to celebrate it. But as a Christian, I certainly do celebrate Christmas and look forward to it every year. Now, there are a smattering of lesser known holidays that are typically celebrated at or around Christmas. I invite you to consider looking into it if you'd like. Now, when I say lesser known, I obviously don't mean of less importance. It's just that there's not a lot of people who know about these other holidays, and a lot of them, and we live in a, can I say this, a society that seems to love to create holidays like National Pie Day, you know, national this day or that day or whatever. So there's a lot of those holidays that seem to have been created uh around Christmas time. So anyway, have at it. Take a look at the internet if you want to. If you don't, then don't. In any case, ladies and gentlemen, Christmas was definitely my favorite holiday growing up. It seemed like people, my family, my extended family were a little nicer around Christmas time. At least that's my observation. I certainly enjoyed it when my children were growing up because it was always fun to see the look on their faces when they get a particular gift, or just being together at Christmas time and having a good time. And that was always enjoyable to me. I love Christmas to this day. I love the spirit of giving. This idea of giving something to someone without any expectation of anything in return. Now I get it. Christmas has been a very commercialized holiday. There have been and probably will continue to be instances of gift giving that are compared. In other words, I give a gift to someone, they give a gift to me, and they believe because their gift was more expensive, that somehow it means less when I give a gift that is not as expensive. And that part I do not like at all about Christmas. I would love it if people could just give a gift to someone because they love them or they care about them, and that the receiver of that gift appreciates the gift and doesn't try to compare what they may have given the other person to what they were given. That's just not the spirit of giving to me. You may have a different opinion, and that's perfectly acceptable. Here is in part what I believe when it comes to the spirit of giving. I believe God gave to us Jesus, and that that is the greatest gift that any of us will ever receive. And I believe that what Jesus did for us is something that we can never ever repay, but we should just accept it willingly and gladly, and as we do that we will find greater joy and greater happiness not only at Christmas time, but throughout the year. I want to close by saying that if you have not listened to Handel's Messiah in a long time, I invite you to do so, and I invite you to listen to the words and the music of such a great composition. To me, much of it is stirring to the soul, and it makes me look heavenward and be grateful. One of the scriptures that this great composition by Handel is taken from is found in Isaiah, and it's what I'd like to close with today. It says, Quote, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas, and that peace and love can be found in your hearts and families as you experience this wonderful holiday. Merry Christmas.