Keeping Christ in Christmas: Helping Families Find Their Focus [Paperback]

Steve Russo (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 140 pages
• Publisher: Harvest House Publishers; First Edition edition (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0736901663
• ISBN-13: 978-0736901666
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,488,141 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Keeping Christ in Christmas, March 29, 2008

By 

Jennifer Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Keeping Christ in Christmas: Helping Families Find Their Focus (Paperback)

It shocked me to discover many of the facts and phrases in this book lifted verbatim or altered only slightly from The Everything Christmas Book, published 2 years prior to Keeping Christ in Christmas. I wrote to the author in 2000, and he/his publisher said, in essence, this was okay, because the information was in the public domain/commonly known or something to that effect. If it's so commonly known, you don't need this book. If you want a more honest book, I recommend The Everything Christmas Book.

5.0 out of 5 stars A VALUABLE HISTORICAL SURVEY, FOLLOWED BY A PROPOSAL, December 21, 2011

By 

Steven H. Propp (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Keeping Christ in Christmas: Helping Families Find Their Focus (Paperback)

Steve Russo is an evangelist, author, and speaker on the TV program "24/SEVEN."

He admits (Pg. 12) that the Bible doesn't give the exact date of Christ's birth, and that it is unlikely that it was in the dead of winter (since Luke portrays the shepherds as roaming the hills at night with their sheep).

He further admits that the December 25th date for Christmas was a calculated decision that reflected the importance of winter solstice festivals for the non-Christian cultures in Europe and Asia; the church leaders decide that rather than trying to beat the non-Christians, it would be wiser to join them... and incorporating Mithraic rites into the celebration of Christmas, so that rather than celebrating the sun, people would be celebrating the Son of God. (Pg. 13-15)

He cites the legend of the origin of the candy cane as a witness for his faith of a candymaker in Indiana, to whom the pure white candy symbolized the virgin birth and the sinless nature of Jesus; it was made in the shape of a "J" to represent Jesus' name, and the later red stripes represented the scourging Jesus received. (Pg. 23)

He correctly notes that the abbreviation of "Xmas" for Christmas is not sacreligious, since the first letter of the word "Christ" in Greek is "chi," or X, and "Xmas" was an abbreviation used freqently when printing Bibles and other literature. (Pg. 37)

He also notes that Christmas was mainly a non-event in America until the 1860s; but from there the day has grown into a major retail holiday. (Pg. 71)

In fact, it was the slow retail sales during the Great Depression which persuaded President Roosevelt and Congress to move Thanksgiving to the fourth Thursday in November, thus guaranteeing a four-week shopping season each year. (Pg. 72)