Reverts & Christmas: Do Muslims Celebrate Christmas?

For my family, Advent was always heralded in by the arrival of the plastic tree from the loft and the annual untangling of lights. As the years went by, I slowly overtook the tree in height but my role as chief artistic director remained unchallenged for over two decades. The little knitted stockings on the tree housed chocolate coins which my brother and I would hunt for every morning and, along with a chocolate Celebrations Advent calendar, these formed a staple part of my Christmas countdown. 

Then, of course, all these glittery baubles went flying up in the air last year when I became a Muslim and Ramadan became my main festival. Naturally, as I'm only in my second year, I haven't developed rich traditions for that festival yet as it's still very new. And so I find myself in a transitional phase where I still feel a bit at a loss at Christmas and, much like my annual Christmas lights, I sometimes found myself in a bit of a tangle! I'd always been very traditional when it came to Christmas and wanted to continue each family tradition, from opening one present on Christmas Eve to leaving a shoe outside the door for Santa to hide. And so a shake up like this was pretty unnerving and you begin to question everything. 

As a convert, people are also interested in your opinion about Christmas. In fact, only this morning while I was signing a contract for a new apartment, I was asked by my housing agent whether I celebrated Christmas and if I'd forgive her for asking if Jesus (pbuh) was in the Quran. I responded that Jesus is incredibly important in Islam and that it's necessary to believe in him just as much as the other prophets, with Muslims even adding the epithet 'peace be upon him' after his name.

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There's a wide spectrum of reactions to Christmas among the Muslim community. You have those you completely reject Christmas and prefer not to wish 'Merry Christmas' to anyone to those who have Christmas dinner or even a Christmas tree. 

From a (newbie) Muslim perspective, I don't see a reason to reject Christmas. I see it as a way of remembering the influence of Jesus and the significance of his life and teachings as he brought with him a new way of thinking, a refreshing and controversial ideology at the time. Sometimes I think Jesus is made out to be a 'soft touch' so to speak but he was actually really tough on people, for example, when he said to a rich man that if he wants to enter Heaven, he should give away all his possessions. That's tough love if ever I saw it.

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I suppose, my feelings towards Jesus's teachings are in part due to familiarity of course. I was brought up as a Christian and my parents are protestant ministers. For that reason, his sayings roll off the tongue so easily because I've known them since I was a child. It would be such a loss however to only focus on one prophet and forget the others when you convert. I think you are richer for drawing from many sources. Otherwise Muslims risk losing out on important messages and likewise, Christians for the most part know very little of Muhammad (pbuh) - I was certainly among that latter group for most of my life. 

Fundamental differences of whether Jesus is the son of God aside, his teachings are incredibly valuable and should be remembered whether you are Christian, Muslim or Jewish for that matter. His life, teachings and willingness to sacrifice himself for what is right are therefore equally important for all of these faiths.

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Note: As I was about to click 'Publish' I happened to see that Muslimah in Reverie had put up a post at the same moment called Christmas: The Way I See It. I love what she's written and it's lovely to read a response from someone who's been a Muslim all their life. 

A beautiful post by Yara at Muslimah Musings: Christmas as a Revert

Rachel Pieh Jones looks at Mary in the Koran & the Bible:
Merry Muslim Christmas

Giving Different Perspectives: Being the Muslim at a Christmas Party

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Thank you so much to everyone who shared their experiences with me while I was writing this post. If you've written or read any articles on a similar topics or from a different perspective, I'd love to read them, just leave a link below!