Question:

Is there anything wrong with celebrating Christmas, Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc. in Sunday school? Example: Putting on skits, short plays, saying poems, etc.

Answer:
Let’s consider Christmas and Easter first.

The wonderful event of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is fully given to us in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. But there is no Scripture that gives us Christmas. Men gave us Christmas; it began as Christ’s Mass on the 25th of December, which was a pagan feast day. This was an effort to bring idol worshipping pagans into the church. It was first done many centuries ago. And from that time to this, it has evolved into the time of celebration that we now have. And it is fairly certain that December 25th could not have been the day of Jesus’ birth because there would have been no shepherds on the hillsides of Judea in December, for it would be much too cold.
The word “Easter” is found only in Acts 12:4. It should be “Passover.” The Greek text clearly shows this. And it certainly was not what Easter is today. It was the time of the Jewish Passover according to the Law of Moses. The Easter we know today is, as Christmas, a time of celebration established by the early church based on a human religious tradition.
But isn’t this whole thing a question of honoring the Lord and of glorifying Him in what we do? We surely do want to honor our Lord Jesus. Now the only thing the Lord ever asked us to celebrate in honor to Himself was His death on Calvary. We know from Scripture that when He established the remembrance of Himself in His death, He used bread and wine as the figures of His body and blood which were given for us. He said: “This do in remembrance of Me.” And when we partake of these emblems together we “show forth the Lord’s death till He come.” Isn’t this the best way for us to give Him all the honor and glory that we are able to give?
Are we all gladly doing this in honor to Him? And isn’t there something for us to think about when we see how the world stresses the celebrations of Christmas and Easter and yet has little or no thought about Him in His death on Calvary? Is there really honor for the Lord in these celebrations, but is there REALLY honor for the Lord in them, or is it just the following of natural feelings?A word now about the other celebrations. When we think about honoring one another in observance of anniversaries and other special days, the joy we have in our relationships is before us. And these are good things. For it is a way for us to show the love we have for one another by the good times we have together and the gifts we give. The best place for this, I believe, is in our homes rather than the Sunday school. The most appropriate use of time in the Sunday school as well as in all the meetings is, I believe, taking up the things pertaining to our spiritual good. “Let all things be done unto edifying” (spiritual growth) (1 Corinthians 14:26).