B-TV: Redeeming the Season

Bernard Walton hosts a Christmas broadcast from the Odyssey Mall about redeeming the season. Eugene tries to open with a traditional carol, but an angry passerby denounces Christmas as pagan superstition and commercial hype. Rather than ignore the objection, Bernard makes it part of the program's central question: how can customs with mixed beginnings become reminders of the birth of Jesus?

Mandy reads Paul's instruction to live wisely and redeem the time because the days are evil. William Shakespeare contributes a passage from Hamlet describing Christmas as a holy and gracious season. When Nathaniel asks what Santa Claus has to do with Christ, Bernard begins an imaginative account of Nicholas, a boy born in Asia Minor around A.D. 270.

Young Nicholas is devoted to God, but he questions the wealthy and comfortable Christianity represented by his bishop father. He longs to see the world and learn the simple, humble life of a disciple. Rejecting his father's expectation that he will become the next bishop, Nicholas boards a ship bound for Palestine.

During a voyage filled with storms and mishaps, Nicholas prays boldly and witnesses wonderful rescues. He visits sacred places throughout the Holy Land and decides to remain near Golgotha, seeking God in peace. Instead, God commands him to return home for special work. Nicholas reluctantly makes the difficult sea journey again.

While Bernard pauses the tale, the broadcast explores the complicated history of Christmas observances. A sketch shows Puritan Massachusetts outlawing Christmas celebrations in 1659. Connie explains that feasting and gift-giving resemble customs from Roman and Scandinavian winter festivals, but those practices can receive a new meaning when they celebrate God's gift of Jesus. Eugene defines redemption as buying back, recovering, or setting free.

Nicholas reaches home and learns that both of his parents have died. Their wealth now belongs to him, and the church has chosen him as bishop - the very life of riches and influence he tried to escape. Discouraged that he may never give up everything for Jesus, he overhears a poor young woman lamenting that she cannot marry because her father cannot provide a dowry.

Nicholas secretly tosses a bag of gold through the family's window, making the marriage possible. When he discovers that a second daughter faces the same problem, he returns with another bag. A third daughter still needs help, and her father determines to catch the mysterious giver the next time he comes.

Other sketches show how Christians have rejected or reinterpreted seasonal customs at different times. An early church teacher objects to treating Christ's birth like a pagan carnival, while later leaders disagree about using greenery. Nathaniel reports from a humorous reenactment in which the missionary Winfreed cuts down an oak sacred to Thor. When the tree falls, he points to a young evergreen and gives it a new meaning as a symbol of Christ's birth and new life.

On Christmas Eve, Nicholas finds the poor father hiding beneath the window. To avoid discovery, he climbs onto the roof and drops the third bag of gold down the chimney, where it lands inside a stocking hung beside the fire. His red bishop's cloak gives him away, and the father confronts him.

Nicholas explains that God has shown him how to redeem the wealth and position he never wanted. Rather than escape his circumstances, he can use what he has been given to help others in Jesus' name. His secret gifts connect the familiar images of Saint Nicholas, chimneys, stockings, and generosity to an act of Christian service.

After interruptions have repeatedly spoiled Eugene's planned performance, Bernard finally gives him the opportunity to sing. Eugene sets aside the jaunty song he kept attempting and chooses a reverent carol about the birth of Jesus. The broadcast closes with its customs redirected toward Christ, showing that redeeming Christmas means giving old symbols a purpose centered on God's grace.