Christmas Trees in Churches

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Fri, 20/12/2024 - 00:00

I had a discussion with a former elder of another church recently about the virtues or otherwise of Christmas Trees in churches. Although there are some who shun them on the grounds of popery or paganism, they were ironically identified with Lutheranism in sixteenth-century Germany, and therefore despised by Roman Catholics as symbols of the ‘new’, evangelical religion. My friend offered no sensible arguments, and my points against their being placed in sanctuaries were little better, invoking the old Asherah poles and arguments against distraction.

I was in Knaresborough last weekend, and found myself in the old parish church which was apparently hosting a Christmas Tree convention. There must have been five or six dozen, all sparking, all bedecked with twinkling lights and gorgeous baubles. I thought the combined effect rather marvellous to the senses, though one could hardly worship in that environment, with every nook and cranny clamouring for one’s attention.

My logic is this: if a tree is pretty and sparking, it is a distraction from prayer and preaching; if it is plain and dull, it is hardly worth the bother of erecting. We have one in our upper room, which appeared a week ago, though the chapel itself will make do with plainer decoration.

Heaven, I think, will shimmer, sparkle and glisten with the angelic and divine splendour with which it is accustomed. Arriving there, however, we shall be stripped of our sinful natures, and well able to worship Christ properly without recourse to distraction or idolatry. Until then, let our chapels be like the female church members of 1 Peter chapter 3: modest and plain. Know well our propensity to seek novelty and entertainment, rather than proper adoration and humble gratitude. I think this is the test: if someone enters a church building and, seeing the decoration, says "Wow" -get rid of it.