This Friday, President Obama delivered a statement on the fiscal cliff, urging policymakers to compromise, admitting idealistic optimism that Congress can come to an agreement within the next ten days. Then he wished "every American a Merry Christmas." The Christians, the Jews, the Muslims, the Atheists, the Buddhists, the Nudists. Every. Single. American.
As an aggressive antitheist, my knee-jerk reaction was to be outraged. "How dare he! That's basically state imposition of religion!"
But actually, it's quite the opposite.
Christmas has, without a doubt, morphed into more of a cultural holiday than a religious one. Offices around the country close their doors and families gather to imbibe eggnog, unwrap gifts, laugh, hurl insults, eat too much chocolate, and fall asleep cuddling with the dog by the crackling fire. It's magical.
I have been affirmatively opposed to organized religion since about the age of 14. Since reading Christopher Hitchens' magnum opus, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, my freshman year of college, I've become an aggressive "agnostic teetering on the brink of Atheism," to quote Martin Amis.
But alas, I love Christmas. As you can imagine, this is often a point of contention in debates, which usually go something like this:
"So, you hate religion and think it's evil, but you love and celebrate Christmas? Christmas wouldn't be here if it weren't for Christ, so how can you say 'religion poisons everything'?"
Now, I could devolve into the argument about the pagan origins of Christmas, but I'll leave that to the Hitch. Mostly, the reason I can love Christmas without entirely debasing my argument is because Christmas has become more cultural than it is religious. There's nothing remotely religious about eggnog, "chestnuts roasting on an open fire," or a sparkling evergreen. There's certainly no Christ in my Christmas. Lots of family though!
Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, you passively partake in the festivities by merely walking down the street. Municipalities from Los Angeles to New York City invest funds in eccentric Christmas displays. Townspeople gather around the lighting of the big tree in the square. Main Street is adorned with twinkling lights and Christmas carols hum from every corner of the shopping mall.
In college, I lived with three of my best friends -- all Jewish. We always had a miniature Christmas tree and, let me assure you, I deserved no credit for its proud placement on our dining room table.
One of the three friends is the granddaughter of a man and woman who were sent to Riga and Auschwitz concentration camps during World War II. Her family keeps kosher. She fed us latkes during Hanukkah. And the moment the calendar flipped to December, Christmas carols could be heard blasting from her room for the next few weeks.
Look, if you want to "keep Christ in Christmas," by all means, set up your Nativity scene and go to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. It's a free country. I, along with the increasing number of non-Christians, on the other hand, will be by the fire, glass of wine in-hand, listening to some Nat King Cole, snug as a bug in my new Christmas pajamas.
13 of the best "All I Want for Christmas" covers:
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Frankly, I'd be more shocked to read an article that talks about someone who celebrates the holiday as the birth of Christ. (And yes, I know: He was actually born in April.)
I think you defined the space between "all" and 'nothing' that gets trampled on when polarized opposites pretend to attempt to influence each other.
It's a nice space, too.. what with the cozy, and not nearly as much of the crazy. It deserves protecting.
My daughter woke up and said: “My throat hurts.”
But I survived another Christmas.
Her temperature rose to thirty-nine squirts.
But I survived another Christmas.
They’re napping right now, both daughter and wife,
We bailed out of the party that that was to be was.
But I’m so grateful getting over the strife,
Of surviving another Christmas.
Christmas is a holiday of
Capitalism to take our pay
No matter if we work easy or hard,
It all adds up on our credit card.
There is no bailout for such as we
We’ll pay through the nose percentagely
While Wall Streeters shouts so gleefully:
“Thanks, God, for another Christmas.”
Now evening falls on Boxing Day.
We’re stretching and yawning, the three of us.
My daughter is getting up to play
Electronic Monopoly
And my eyes are wet because I survived
Another Christmas... Another Christmas...
Another Christmas Day.
I do not believe there is a "war on Christmas" - frankly little has changed in this regard in my 57 years. Some continue to take the religious experience and significance seriously, while others celebrate a neo-Dickensian, Coca-cola Santa Claus christmas that is driven by a mix of syrupy sentimentalism and some of our more base desires, like greed.
Your article, unfortunately, is both shallow and immature.
Way to be shallow and immature.
"Christmas" - or as we prefer to call it in the church these days, "the Celebration of the Incarnation" - properly belongs to Christians. If you want to celebrate a cultural Christmas, go ahead, but please don't deride our attempts to stay true to our faith traditions. Why is everyone so angry about this notion?
She puts up a tree, buys gifts, sends cards and has a nice family dinner. Has no problem wishing people a Merry Christmas.
I agree that it has become a cultural holiday...and there is nothing wrong with that. Celebrating peace and goodwill, helped along with plum pudding and eggnog...seems pretty nice.
Christmas is the hostile take over and subjugation of the pagan roman holiday. There is NO christ in Christmas..ZERO... if there was it would be in august when the caravans cross the area where he was supposed to be born..plus the north star would be in the right place..by december its not aligned....sorry...but thats the facts,
Pagans were Celts in disguise who borrowed/used Christian motifs/symbols to carry forward what they could of a culture which was being dismantled and eradicated by Rome.
If you were a Pagan, you certainly didn't let on that you were or you'd be beheaded and/or burned on a stake. Spew the crap you do to a real Scotsman and they'd probably punch your lights out for being so insensitive to their holocaust (because that's exactly what it was).
Pagans were mainly women (Druidesses) who survived the initial onslaught of Rome, because the Druids (men or male keepers of Celtic culture and language) were violently wiped off the earth by a man named Patrick who was sent from Rome - to keep it simple for y'all.
Christians are fond of their little Irish tale of St. Patrick who chased the snakes out of Ireland, but the fact is........ it's nothing more than a metaphor for the bloody and fiery genocide of the Celts.
Seeing as how both the Greeks and Romans were both Polytheistic this term can also be applied to them.
I am assuming you obtained your information through Druid Rituals, some Duird funded school of associated publication? Because it is definitely not what the teach in accredited post secondary college or university.
If you were a Christian you definitely didn't say anything or you would be thrown in the Arena with a bunch of lions.
See how easily your argument can be swung the other way?
Google the video and keep a tissue nearby for the tears.
Obviously, you are not convinced by your own assesment !!!
God bless you and Happy New Year anyway ....
Happy Holidays!
but seriously.. was your post an attempt @ wit, sarcasm or something else? I can not conceive the culture where that world-view is even possible.
There may be pockets of "Politicaly Correct" reinforcement , but it's one created and defined by individuals who are too timid to expose themselves to anything outside their own little circles, and that's no great loss to the rest of us.
The bronze age in the middle-east ended centuries before the birth of Christ. Indeed, it was by then the middle iron age. Christmas was not properly adopted until nearer the 4th c A.D., which would place its inception in the late iron age, on the cusp of the middle ages. So. a proper celebration of Christmas has been around for over 16 centuries. At what point does it become "ours"?