Popular cleric and social media fixture Emmanuel Chukwuemeka Odumeje, widely known as Pastor Odumeje, sparked fresh conversation on Thursday by declaring he does not celebrate “Christmas” in the conventional sense but a concept he calls “Christmarity.”
The stance, delivered during a service and widely shared online in a video that quickly gained attention, reframes this year’s festive season in spiritual, rather than traditional holiday, terms.
Standing before congregants in his church in Anambra State, Odumeje, dressed in festive attire, challenged the normative framing of the December 25 celebration. “I am not celebrating Christmas, but I am celebrating Christmarity,” he told the assembled worshippers. “That is ‘Christly’. That is enjoyment.”
The self-styled prophet explained that, in his view, the term “Christmas” signals merely the performance of mass or ritual, whereas “Christmarity” embodies a deeper, Christ-centred ethos of spiritual living that he believes transcends customary holiday activities. “Christmas is like just doing mass. But Christmarity is everything. It is Christlike,” he said.
Odumeje’s remarks arrive amid broader debates within some Christian circles about how — or indeed whether — to observe December 25. While the vast majority of Nigerian Christians mark the occasion with worship services, family gatherings and cultural festivities, there are groups and clergy who view traditional Christmas observance as overly ritualistic or insufficiently rooted in personal spiritual transformation.
