This morning I was thinking about the scripture, You shall have no other gods before Me. Many think it means having anything of more importance or attention than God. True, but it also means putting other gods in front of God’s holy face, like what is done in churches with their christo-paganism and pagan/papist traditions of men. Not unlike what is shown in this post as one example.
You shall not make a post idol of any trees near unto the altar of the LORD your God, which you shall make you. Neither shall you set up any image; which the LORD your God hates. Deuteronomy 16:21-22 KJV 2000
Matthew Henry’s Commentary:
Care is taken to prevent following the idolatrous customs of the heathen. Nothing belies God more, or tends more to corrupt the minds of men, than representing and worshipping, by an image, that God, who is an almighty and eternal Spirit, present every where. Alas! even in gospel days, and under a better dispensation, established upon better promises, there is a tendency to set up idols, under one form or another, in the human heart.

Ezekiel 6:9 …how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts, which have turned away from Me, and by their eyes, which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their detestable practices.
Christ’s birth was and is crucial. It’s the incarnation, the one-time only and only unique birth event, which the angels were celebrating. Salvation has come to the world! \o/ Did you know that the Jews of Jesus’ day did not celebrate birthdays? Not even bar/bat mitzvahs (those are new innovations)! That is why we do not see any apostle celebrating the birthday of Christ Jesus. But the Jewish-pagans of His day did celebrate birthdays – Herod was of Judaism, but he was also enamored with the Roman culture as evidenced in the celebrating of his birthday. He was a Jew in name only. He was also an Idumean, aka, an Edomite, with that wicked Haman in his ancestry.
Has the Christ Mass celebration been changed from pagan to Christian lawfully? No. We do not see anywhere in Scripture where God has said to steer clear of paganism until a certain amount of time has passed. This pre-Christ yule-tide season where the decorated tree-in-house tradition comes from is, in our day, a celebration of pagan Wiccans who adopted the holiday from the sun worshiping Druids. We are to keep from even the appearance of evil, yet we look just like the Wiccans when we practice their decorated tree-in-house tradition. Putting Christ’s name on that which God hates is an evil we need to beware of if we love Christ Jesus. God warned the Israelites not to worship Him in the same manner as the heathen do their gods and we do not see a lifting of that command in the New Testament but instead see what the pagans did with their books in Acts 19:19. Its what we must do with our christo-pagan traditions and things. Hard to do? Yes! And yet easy when you love the Lord Jesus Christ and want to please Him in all of your ways.
It’s a huge error to say that the Incarnation is the Christ Mass story. It is not and never has been except it being forced upon Christ by men. I’m glad I can daily sing praises to God for sending us His Son and need no special day to reflect on it and celebrate it. And, what a burden removed by not having to observe the day as the heathen do with decorated trees and home. Set free from having to buy gifts, too. I’m also grateful that God opened my eyes to the lies of this season so that I can now worship Him in spirit and in truth.
May God open the eyes of His children and call them out of this iniquitous tradition of men/pagan/papist practice into a pure worship of Him in spirit and in truth, amen!