Here's a thought experiment that might shed light (rather than heat) on our neuralgic national conversation about a certain holiday. Ready?
Imagine if the following happened to the social conventions surrounding Independence Day. First of all, imagine that any reference to what occurred on July 4, 1776 -- the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers, the Continental Congress and all that stuff -- was no longer mentioned. Rather than calling it "Independence Day," businesses, government offices and other organizations would refer, out of decorum, to "The Fourth of July." Imagine further that references to American history were seen as not just passé but off-putting to those who had moved beyond the original meaning of the day. Imagine the Fourth of July as a pleasant mid-summer holiday focused mainly on fireworks and barbecues, with no mention of Thomas Jefferson, John Adams or George Washington.
What I've described is more or less what has happened to Christmas, at least in term of polite society. Of course, Independence Day is secular; Christmas is not, so it's an imperfect analogy. But it's still apt: in public discourse the holiday has been distanced from the holy day. The original reason businesses gave employees the day off -- to go to church -- has been set aside for a more general vacation day. Even Christians are moving closer to a day that's about, well, presents. To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, not that there's anything wrong with gift-giving -- just like there's nothing wrong with fireworks and barbecues. But it's not what Christmas is "all about," to quote Linus van Pelt, one of the stars of "A Charlie Brown You-Know-What."
Marketers have few qualms about ignoring the holiday's religious past, while hijacking religious tropes to hawk their wares. The worst malefactor may be Macy's, whose risible slogan "Believe" (or "A Million Reasons to Believe") is splashed on their bright red shopping bags. The banal catch phrase both uses and rejects religion. Believe? In what? In the Incarnation of God? Nope. Macy's wants you to believe in one thing: spending
Or take J. Crew's online store, which offers a "Very Merry Gift Guide." Merry what? The guide features evergreen trees, glass ornaments and lots of red-and-green outfits to entice. What holiday might they be referring to? If you click long enough, you'll get an answer: Happy Shopping. An even cleverer ploy is taken by Loft, a division of Ann Taylor, the women's clothing store. Their motto: "Create your own holiday." Pace Don Draper, but I thought Christians already did that.
But you know this already. You've seen the endless TV commercials and web ads that wink at Christmas (red and green sweaters, evergreen trees, red and green ornaments, wreaths) without daring to mention "He Who Must Not Be Named." Christ may be the new Voldemort.
Face it: The war on Christmas is lost.
When did it end? Well, there won't be any official declaration of surrender from churches, so it's hard to pin down. There will be no C.E. Day (Christmas Ends.) But, in my mind, the war was decided this year. This year almost every major department story put up its red-and-green decorations the day after Halloween; most marketers had expunged references to the Christian feast in their generic ads; "Cyber Monday" became a definitive addition to the lexicon as one more day to consume, and several years had passed since "Black Friday" became not simply a day to shop for bargains, but a time when Americans expect stories of shoppers being trampled (sometimes to death) at 4 a.m.
This was also the year when many Christians I know, who still celebrate the Birth of Christ, began to dread the season, to the point where they asked themselves an uncomfortable question: Is the one day that is still (more or less) reserved for religion (Dec. 25) worth the two months that precede it?
Anyway, after years of battles, the war has ended. Madison Avenue has annexed the valuable territory between Halloween and New Year's Day. BBD&O, take a bow. J. Walter Thompson, step into the winner's circle. DDB, congrats.
Now, if you're not Christian, you might say "So what?" But if you are, you might notice some sad results.
For one thing, many Christians (and non-Christians) now feel completely overwhelmed with the demands of the consumerist holiday. Not news, you say? Well, the difference now is that the pressure to buy, decorate, spend, send, mail, bake, prepare, party and plan, which used to be confined to ads for a few weeks after Thanksgiving is now a two-month bacchanal in newspapers, television, radio, your mailbox, your smart phone, your email, and on the web. Anything digital (and what is not these days?) is an opportunity for an ad placement. The push to buy is everywhere and anytime. What has changed is the omnipresence of the consumerist offensive.
One of the war's hidden casualties has been the ability of religious people to resist the commercialism and keep the day holy. The one who decides not to engage in an orgy of gift-giving, who eschews two months of bargain hunting, may feel like a spoilsport. You're not buying gifts? You're not sending cards? You're skipping parties? Scrooge.
All this has started to affect even devout Christians. In Catholic circles, for example, Dec. 24 is slowly becoming the more popular time to attend Mass. Traditionally, Catholic parishes have celebrated "Midnight Mass," at 12:00 on Christmas Eve. But gradually parishes moved their "Midnight Masses" back to 10, then to 8, then to 7, and now to 4. Sometime they are as early as 3 PM. While many Catholics prefer these services for good reasons (more time with their families; a boon to the elderly and small children) the net result may turn out to be the desacralization of Dec. 25. Is Christmas Day becoming a day centered not on religious services, but on presents? Once again, not that there's anything wrong with giving gifts, like there's nothing wrong with fireworks and barbecues, but again, it's not the point. To use our Independence Day analogy, George Washington didn't slog through winter at Valley Forge so that we could scarf down hamburgers. Did God become human so that we could get new sweaters?
So what's a Christian to do?
For one thing, surrender. Stop fighting. Enough with the embarrassing and endless "War on Christmas." It's embarrassing because we've lost. It's a waste of time because corporations have more financial firepower than churches, and the consumerism will only to get worse. Get ready for Santa to show up around Labor Day. (You laugh now; you won't in a few years.) Can't fight City Hall? Much less can you fight Madison Avenue -- which has more money than City Hall. Give it up.
But, post-war, all is not lost. My advice is to go underground: engage in some nonviolent protest and some passive resistance to the new regime. Keep Christmas holy in your heart. Read the Scriptures. Sleep late next year on Black Friday. Refrain from buying stuff that no one needs. Tell everyone else not to buy you so much stuff. Spend less. Turn off QVC and turn on a CD of Christmas hymns. Don't even open those emails from J. Crew and Eddie Bauer and L.L. Bean. Send cards not to 100 people, but 10. Pray more. Buy fewer gifts for fewer people. Set a limit on visiting department stores. Remember that Macy's can't tell you what to believe in. Cut back on the holiday parties. Stop eating so many cookies. Don't get sucked into the craziness.
In short, resist, ignore or avoid the superfluous stuff that has little to do with Christmas. To use our Fourth of July analogy, it's all just fireworks and barbecues.
Remember instead, in your heart, the birthday of the person who won you lasting freedom: Jesus. So Happy Independence Day. And Merry Christmas.
James Martin, SJ is a Jesuit priest, culture editor of America and author of
The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything and My Life with the Saints.
Stuart Whatley: 'War on Christmas' Comes to the Fore
Christmas controversy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
'War On Christmas' Spreads To Lincoln Tunnel : NPR
The War on Christmas 2010 Starts Now
Jon Stewart on the War on Christmas : Dispatches from the Culture Wars
Is Hollywood mounting a war on Christmas? | 24 Frames | Los ...
2010's 'War on Christmas': A timeline - The Week
2010's 'War on Christmas': A timeline - Yahoo! News
Bruce Kluger & David Slavin: Fox News' 2010 War on Christmas!
It's not the cause of those who well-meaningly say Happy Holidays'. It's not Jews who insist on lighting a Menorrah. It's not the American Moslem community-who have not added an iota of controversy surrounding Christmas. It's not the atheists, who are just as likely to wish others Christmas cheer.
The 'war on Christmas' is a proxy between some religionists and 'secular progressives'. It's often only an excuse for some to scold the rest of society. As a Christian, I'm happy that the government seeks to avoid religious displays this time of year. I know that Christian denominations are often at odds with others'. Someone is always going to lose in this argument.
If the "war on Christmas" is lost, it's because of forces *within* Christianity. Consumerism. Misleading kids about Santa being a dispenser of overindulgence. Smugness on the part of some toward others. Trying to push traditions into place they don't belong, and upon people who don't want to celebrate those traditions in the same way. An assault on those that don't use the preferred words of others. The "war on Christmas" has been manufactured and propagated against the holiday by Christianity itself. The rest of society has remained fairly silent...as they should.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
I love the decorations, the music, and the fact that it is the one time of year I will get to see most of my siblings, see the new babies that have come into the family, talk about the loved ones we have lost. I do love Christmas, and hope you are having a good one.
A friend of mine is a supporter of the Salvation Army. A couple years ago their corner-Santas stopped saying "Merry Christmas" and replaced it with "Happy Holidays." So now, every time she drops some money in their buckets, she adds, "And a very merry Christmas to you!" So far, the bell-ringers have, without fail, broken into a huge smile and said, "YES! Merry Christmas!"
Madison Avenue and Americans United for Separation of Church and State may have conquered Christmas in the public square, but the spirit of Christmas, its meaning, its orientation toward Christ... this lives on in millions and millions of private hearts. The cultural elite ignore this at their economic peril.
Ohh, how awful! We care about other people's feelings!
If I lived in country predominantly inhabited by a specific religion, I would expect to be greeted by their custom. Shall I make a mountain out of a mole hill, or just go with the flow, adapt, even get into the spirit? Should they tone it down, or cede ground, because of me? No.
WWJD? He'd say of this mountain made out of a mole hill, "be thou removed."....
p.s. "And, Merry Christmas."
Celebrating the season of giving is great (I personally am a nonbeliever), but I wouldn't mind having less commercial pressure to buy and consume impulsively.
I can't help but wonder how the child will respond to the peer pressures of life, especially in a culture/country that refused to fight drugs on their own turf and go off hunting the bad guys in foreign countries?
Instead invite your neighbors and family to church on Christmas and share the spirit of Christmas face to face.
Some "freedom" that was, huh?
May Odin bless you and the Church, and have a Happy Yule.
Apparently, one thing thing we Christians *didn't* steal from the pagans is their secret of time travel. So, can you travel backwards as well as into the future? Maybe you could travel back several centuries, figure out who you stole YOUR festivals from, and humbly apologize to them.
"Darn pagans. They took our festivals!"--Pre-pagans, circa ?
holiday - derived from the idea of a "holy day"
holidays - plural (more than one)
To have a pleasant time sharing good food and drink with loved ones.
To have HuffPo moderators who freely allow differing points of view!
Oh yeah .... and world peace would be nice too!
Checking back here from time to time, I can't believe the number of pro-faith posts. Not that HP has suddenly become friendly toward faith--far from it. But clearly the site has decided it can allow an actual debate (or something like it) to happen without losing its precious atheist/pagan/secularist/NPR-liberal base.
Are you sure you are an S.J. Their standards must have fallen in the last decade or so.
You are right about Easter it is the central feast of Christianity, it is the triumph over death, the showing to mankind that this life is not the end. But Christmas is a more emotional Holy day, its the day God told mankind he really cared for them, so much He wanted to be one of them, and would one day die for them. The ultimate humanistic statement of the importance of human beings.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lewis-lapham/domesticated-deities-abou_b_795971.hth
Just kidding--that, obviously, will never happen.
I have another suggestion. Cast a wider net. As disgusted as you may be with the consumerism that has co-opted your holiday, I assure you that many of we atheists, Jews, and Pagans are just as disgusted.
We see our culture trading one god (false or otherwise) for another (which most assuredly is); and we fear for the future. We see the suffering of those who can't afford spam, let alone a Christmas ham. We see the kids with their toes hanging out the end, of the same shoes they wore last year. We see the gay teen, or the runaway, who can't face their family even on this supposedly sacred day. We want to help.
There is already a smattering of people who are using this day to help others, with or without religious reasons. A woman I found on this site, is using this holliday to fix a large dinner, and invite people from many different areas of life, who have no one to celebrate with. She is giving them simple generic gifts, and trying, if only for a day, to make their world better. I've started planning a similar party for next Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The teacher you celebrate on Christmas never told you to celebrate his birthday. Only to love one another and feed the hungry. Why not join those of us who already try to do that. Instead of fighting over our religious differences, we can celebrate a similar message. Join us.
And its a celebration of Peace, any anti-war marches planned? This has nothing to do with creed but a lot to do with the spirit of the season.
Hmmmm. This one concept explains alot. Apparently religious people have a hard time keeping the tenets of their religion, unless EVERYONE is forced to bow down to their religion? So, if a STORE, which is in business to make money, dishes up the holiday in the best way to maximize their profit, then this is a problem for religious people, because they MUST have everything catered to match exactly their religious beliefs by everyone, all the time, or they won't be able to resist the temptation to leave their religion? Uh, I would say your beliefs are pretty darn weak then. Oddly, whenever I am somewhere where I am inundated by Christian ideas, it never even slightly makes me doubt my atheism. I guess my beliefs are strong, and yours are weak, and you feel you must war on everyone to act like they believe yours, to kind of buttress you up?