Spurgeon helps us navigate the Christmas holiday, whether we choose to participate in the festivities or not, by encouraging us that there are various reasons to gather on this day outside of tradition or superstition.

To most modern Western Christians, it might be a surprise to discover that Spurgeon did not celebrate Christmas with the lights, bells, wreaths, and festivities that many of us enjoy today. Newspapers in the late 1800s show that the Metropolitan Tabernacle had no Christmas decorations and showed no signs of the holiday. In contrast to the lack of merriment, a popular quote from Spurgeon says that he wished there were “ten or twelve Christmases,” which dispels the “Bah humbug” spirit that one might read into the lack of seasonal participation.

Was Spurgeon inconsistent then? Absolutely not. He saw the Christmas season as a time to reflect on the incarnation of Christ, spend time with family, and thank God for the wonderful gift of his Son. He did not care if you celebrated Christmas, but he did care why and what you focused on during the season. A curious reader of Spurgeon’s views on Christmas might ask: How would Spurgeon advise someone to spend Christmas day? Does he think Christmas is good, or rather, popish? What if someone struggles with or chooses not to celebrate Christmas, how should they spend the holiday? Here are three ways Spurgeon encouraged his congregants to celebrate Christmas Day.

Christmas can be used as a day for family and rest.

First, Spurgeon assured his congregation that it is fine not to observe Christmas as a holiday because an argument can be made for its popish origin or superstition.

“I hold it to be one of the greatest absurdities under heaven to think that there is any religion in keeping Christmas-day. There are no probabilities whatever that our Savior Jesus Christ was born on that day and the observance of it is purely of Popish origin.”^[1]

While this quote is quite opinionated and can be jarring to some, in the same sermon Spurgeon affirms that it is good to spend this day off with family and enjoy rest.  He says:

“However, I wish there were ten or a dozen Christmas-days in the year; for there is work enough in the world, and a little more rest would not hurt laboring people. Christmas-day is really a boon to us, particularly as it enables us to assemble round the family hearth and meet our friends once more.”^[2]

Spurgeon would rather there be ten or twelve (in a later sermon he increases this number to twenty) Christmas days if it meant that men were allowed more time to spend with their families.

But what if you do not celebrate Christmas? Can you feel right about setting this day aside as so many others around do? Is that not still effectually observing Christmas? Spurgeon has an answer for this.

“The old Puritans made a parade of work on Christmas-day, just to show that they protested against the observance of it. But we believe they entered that protest so completely, that we are willing, as their descendants, to take the good accidentally conferred by the day, and leave its superstitions to the superstitious.”^[3]

Spurgeon urged his congregants that no matter their conviction on the holiday, they should use the time given to them as an opportunity to rest and enjoy being with family. Whether you partake in the festivities or not, God has gifted you a precious day to love and invest in your family and loved ones. This is always a gift from God, no matter what day it comes on. The following quote sums up Spurgeon’s views on Christmas Day quite well:

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