What If Christmas Returned...?

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I've been thinking about the problems of church and state issues regarding Christmas. They create a mixed array of conflicting motives: business wants the "holiday" that is the most profitable of the year. Others want to argue about where creches may or may not be placed.

Yet, should Christmas be a holiday, as in a day off work and school, or as in a holy day? The day Christians celebrate and remember with thankfulness as the first Advent is a holy day, and we await the Second Advent, when Christ returns at a time only known by God, the Father.

Christians through the centuries have celebrated Jesus' birth. First, the others also born as Jews, honoring the word of God, worshiped daily, however, in the temple and synagogues with Jesus. After His resurrection, it was they who went forth into more of the Gentile world. They all gave gifts to the poor among them year 'round, and to others of any faith...anyone in need. Daily, they sang psalms and spiritual songs together to honor the Lord.

From the Gospel according to Luke

When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord  (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: 

“a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him.  It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. 

When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required,  

Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

“Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
   you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
   and the glory of your people Israel.” 

Luke 2: 22-32*

*The New International Version of the Bible