As a non-Christian with a deep affection for Christmastime, I’ve always felt a little left out around this time of year, but not in the way you might think. I’ve always felt a bit out of place with the venerable conservative tradition of denouncing the “war on Christmas.”
I should offer some background.
When I was a kid, my parents cut out a jokey headline from a local newspaper that read “Santa Knows We’re Jewish” and put it on a cardboard Christmas tree ornament. My father insisted I be raised Jewish. (I went to a Jewish day school and was duly bar mitzvahed.) My Episcopalian mother insisted we celebrate Christmas.
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Ever since, I’ve always loved Christmastime, and it never occurred to me that when raising my own child we wouldn’t have a Christmas tree. No Hanukkah bushes for the Goldbergs, please.
Anyway, this time of year conservatives bemoan the effort to scrub the public square of overt religiosity, specifically any suggestion that the big holiday we’re all taking time off to celebrate is also a Christian holy day. I feel like a conservative Canadian living in America. I care a lot for a fight that’s not really my own.
I think conservatives have the better of the argument, of course. Every year there are enough “war on Christmas” horror stories to lend validity to the complaints.
For instance, this year, the sage bureaucrats of Loudoun County, Va., had the brilliant idea of letting Santa be crucified outside their courthouse. And it wasn’t even a jolly Saint Nick. It was a Halloween skeleton in a red Santa suit. It looked like a weird prop from a post-apocalyptic horror movie. “The zombies got Santa!”
Meanwhile, the Swedish branch of UNICEF put out a commercial depicting Santa as hard-hearted 1-percenter who scoffs at the idea of bringing presents to Third World kids. “Come on. I don’t do poor countries.”
And those are just the highlights. Incapable of getting around the inconvenient first six letters of the word “Christmas,” more and more people have decided to duck the issue entirely. Increasing numbers of public schools insist on celebrating “winter solstice.” Congress cannot send out “Christmas” cards. The governor of Rhode Island declared that the traditional Christmas tree would henceforth be christened — whoops! I mean called — a “holiday tree.”
I have no grand solutions. I don’t know how you could pass a law to fix any of this. Nor am I sure we would want to. This is a cultural problem, and the only way to fix it is to work it out in the culture. To that end, I have some small observations to mull alongside the eggnog.
While it’s absolutely true that there are sincere and committed Christophobes and joyless atheistic boobs out there, one of the major culprits is capitalism itself. I like capitalism — a lot. Heck, the best Christmas present I could get would be a Scrooge-like conversion on the part of the president after a visit from the Ghost of Socialism Past. But the downside of capitalism is that it will, eventually, encourage the commercialization of everything sacred. For instance, there’s an online “dating” company dedicated entirely to facilitating adultery. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that a holiday symbolized by a man who gives presents would be exploited. That doesn’t mean we have to surrender to the trend, but we should recognize all of the trend’s sources, not just the convenient ones.
On a different note, the supposed champions of making Christmas more “inclusive” should at least ponder the irony that they are being intolerant. If you take offense when someone says “Merry Christmas,” you, quite simply, are the jerk.
And for the atheists who see “winter solstice” as some kind of victory, you might consider the fact that what you’re doing is clearing the field not for glorious logic (which ain’t so glorious Christmas morning — socks are a logical gift), but a rank, petty, and vastly more commercialized paganism that lacks anything like the intellectual and moral rigor of Christianity.
Intellectual defenders of a secular Christmas hammer the point that there are some vestigial pagan frills to the Christian holiday, as if this proves something important. Indeed, in pop culture it’s now a given that Santa’s boss is “Mother Nature” (and his colleagues are the Tooth Fairy and the Miser Brothers). It’s pretty odd that a Christian saint — you know, Saint Nicholas — doesn’t answer to God, but to a pagan deity. And we all know paganism is such a font of tolerance. My hunch is that Santa goes right past the houses with “Santa Knows We’re Pagans” signs.
Cool column Jonah and you are right the "War of Christmas" is a cultural problem if we stand together we eventually can fix it. You also nailed the problem with pushing for a secular Christmas if Christianity is stripped from the public sphere of American life no one will like the result very much.
No sane person prefers "winter solstice" over "christmas".
It has nothing to do with which religious holiday is being given preferential treatment by elected officials. The point is that there should be no religious holidays endorsed by elected officials.
And it's not that elected officials shouldn't be able to celebrate their own religious holidays. Everybody can do what they want on their own time. The problem is that whenever any one religious sacrament is given government endorsement, everyone not of that religion is not being given fair treatment.
Our government, and our nation, are not comprised of only one religion. Christians happen to be in the majority currently, and can force their sacraments on the rest of the nation, but this may not always be the case. How would you like it if only Buddhist holidays were celebrated? Or Hindi? Or *gasp* MUSLIM?!? As a non-member of those groups, you would rightfully be indignant that your tax dollars were supporting a religious celebration.
I don't care if people say Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas or Happy Kwanzaa, it's their own prerogative. I only take issue when the government spends my money on religious crap. ANY religious crap.
So sure, say Merry Christmas. Hell, shout it from the rooftops for all I care. Just don't tell me that I HAVE to say it with you.
When you spend my tax dollars to say it, you're forcing me to say it with you.
I'd hate to think that Santa passes by Breaker Morant's house because he's a pagan, too, but the point is well taken. Whether you believe in a God, any God, or not, the sentiment surrounding "Merry Christmas" is heartfelt, just as "Happy Thanksgiving" is about wishing someone the same things in life that you value - home, hearth, family, health, happiness. Not all that hard to wrap your melon around, but for some people, the same people who storm city administrative offices when anything even remotely referencing "Hey Zeus" is placed on public property, it seems that the virtual stomping out of religious icons from the public view is the best way to spend their time.
For all their hard work, though, I still don't see universal good will toward men, or an end to poverty, despair, suffering, or illness. It's worth asking if people have time to petition confused city councilors to take down Christmas sleigh down off City Hall's roof, do they not also have time to deliver a meal to an invalid, work a few hours in a soup kitchen, or donate $50 large to a favorite charity.
Perhaps they do these things already, as well as rage against the Christmas machine. Perhaps. I would argue that the hour spent helping somebody else who really needs help is more of a demonstration of the spirit of Christmas, of humanity, than any dogged vigilance of the sacred public properties, so no Christmas symbol taints the hallowed, tax-funded ground.
As a Catholic, it always bothered me that snippy non-Christians and superior anti-Catholics would use the "it's a pagan holiday" against the celebration of Our Savior's birth.
Although some aspects of pagan life have been incorporated into Christmas (mistletoe, lighted trees, etc.), it is, at heart, a Christian holiday - a HOLY DAY.
To me, the argument against socialized health care is the same as the one against socialized religion: I don't want it, and the government should have no part in it. Compare the two following arguments. I consider both to be equally valid.
1. Anti-socialized medicine:
If you want a group health insurance program, then by all means, go ahead and get in on one. If there's not one that you qualify for, find yourself a group of people, an insurer, and figure out a way to finance it. I have nothing against that. I, however, already have private coverage, and don't need or want to be a part of your group policy. Do not force me to pay for part of your group plan when I won't be taking advantage of it.
2. Anti-socialized religion
If you want to be religious, then by all means, go ahead and join a religion. If there's not one that you agree with, find yourself a group of like-minded people, agree on a god, and figure out a way to worship it. I have nothing against that. I, however, am atheist, and don't need or want to be a part of your religion. Do not force me to participate in your religion when I don't believe in it.
The problem isn't that there are government endorsements of Christmas, specifically. The problem is that there are government endorsements of religion, in general. I dislike endorsements of winter solstice just as much as I dislike endorsements of Christmas. Both are religious holidays. Both should be officially ignored.
I take no offense when someone says "Merry Christmas." I do, however, take offense when my tax dollars are spent to put up a banner in the public square saying "Merry Christmas." Calling a Christmas tree a holiday tree does nothing to change the fact that it exists solely to promote Christmas.
My part is simply to genuinely and joyfully say "Merry Christmas" in response to "Happy Holidays". It isn't much. Yet in the hyper-lefty and "progressive" town in which I live it might be more of a gesture than it seems. That is my hope.
I'm surprised more Christians aren't quite happy to see Santa suppressed. He's no longer St. Nicholas, that's for sure. He doesn't worship any of the Pagan deities, but he doesn't seem to worship Jesus, either.
I've seen all the Christmas specials. I've never seen Santa Claus worship anything or anybody, nor have I heard him even refer to any God. Speaking AS a Pagan, tired beyond exhaustion of Paganism being taken - as you take it in your article - as a void, a kind of default position, I raise the objection: if religion isn't a positive act, it is nothing.
If Santa isn't worshiping Christ, he isn't a Christian figure. Self-respecting Christians would do well to take him down, and bring back the simple, lovely, Nativity scenes.
Having dispensed with Santa, I'll give a Christmas gift, from this Pagan, to all Christians. It's a totally certain way to improve Christmas.
Have all the children make out their Christmas lists a couple months ahead. All their Xboxes and GI Joes and whatnot. Buy all these items. Present the gifts, not on Christmas morning, but on Christmas Eve.
On Christmas morning, take all those presents out into the backyard, douse them with lighter fluid, and, while the whole family sings Christmas carols, light the pile ablaze.
When little Bobby sniffs, "But Daddy, I wanted my Xbox!" you just tell him "Your Xbox is a sacrifice to the Lord. This isn't your birthday, this is his birthday."
Then Christmas will really mean something. Since at present it doesn't, let me be the first and earliest to wish you all a Happy Easter.
And remember! If people don't honor the Gods with sacrifice and prayer, they aren't Pagan.
Now to get the grubby fingers of commercialism off our Solstice - which, since December 25 had nothing to do with Christ's birth, really is the Reason for the Season.
Of course if we are wishing someone a happy holiday, we shouldn't forget what makes the day holy, and it isn't some annual astronomical occurrence relating to the tilt of the earth's axis.
The one thing I'd quibble with is that I believe the problem of white-washing the Christianity out of the celebration of what most believe to be the birth of the Christ child is not simply a cultural problem.
In fact, that is not where this originated. It's not from Hollywood to Main Street. This is a process that, in the main, commenced within our public institutions, both the Courts of Law and our regulatory executive offices.
The atheists have sought successfully to recruit the efforts of public officials to divorce permanently our public tribunals from Our Creator.
Now, circa 1990-2000, the culture has caught up with this relatively official public policy.
If you want that cultural drift to change, then change the public officials who are enabling the atheists in their rather vapid struggle.
"Heck, the best Christmas present I could get would be a Scrooge-like conversion on the part of the president after a visit from the Ghost of Socialism Past."
That quote needs to be in stark relief. What a priceless statement.
I pray everyone has a Merry Christmas and the healthiest and happiest new year possible.
The atheists and neopagans, oh, and the Jehovah's Witnesses too, play gotcha in pointing out at Christmas has always been a mishmash. So what? I uses to rage about how the Japanese, of whom less than one-percent are Christian, "celebrate" Christmas in a mindlessly commercial way. But it's arguably less grotesque here than in America. After all, those horrible, shlocky American "Christmas songs" didn't originate in Tokyo...
Christians can continue to celebrate Easter as a truly religious holiday and cut some slack for everyone else in December. Jonah Goldberg is a wise and generous man. Bless him!
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