Who Speaks for Christmas - from Family Christmas Online^TM

• Not all devout Christians have celebrated Christmas - As two examples, neither the early Christians nor the Puritans who settled in North America celebrated Christmas at all.

• Christmas has never been an exclusively "Christian" holiday - Not only was the very date of Christmas influenced by Pagan year-end feasts like Saturnalia, but at many points in history the "Christmas season" was only an excuse for a week of "year-end" celebrations, culminating in riotous New Years’ parties. If you think this is a recent development, you should know that week-long "Christmas-season" secular parties were far more prominent in 18th-century England and North America than they are today. It took a poem, a novelette, and a Christmas tree in Queen Victoria’s mansion to reset Christmas to the family-oriented holiday we celebrate today.

  (For more information on such issues, you may check out our "Brief History of Christmas" article.)

In other words, it would be nice to think that Christmas was always a religious feast day cherished as a time to celebrate the First Coming of Christ and for families to come together. If that’s how you think of Christmas, good for you - I think it’s the best way to see the holiday. But it’s not the only view, and it’s not even the historically dominant view.

Sadly, that doesn’t keep certain self-appointed guardians of the "true meaning of Christmas" from trying to make life miserable for everyone who disagrees with their definition. But - to quote an old saying - who died and left them in charge?

Christmas Used to Belong to Everybody

We were vaguely aware that on Christmas Eve the Lutherans next door to us would walk up the hill at dusk to a service that included devotional remarks from the pastor and Christmas hymns in English and German, culminating in a candle-lit rendition of Stille Nacht.

As I got a bit older I learned that the family across the street would make a point of getting to their Baptist church on the Sunday before Christmas, but reserved Christmas Eve and Christmas day for multiple get-togethers with their extended family.

Other families in our small town avoided church altogether, but put just as much effort into decorating for Christmas as we did, spent just as much on presents, and spent just as much time with their families.

Still others did nothing at all for Christmas, except perhaps to complain if a Christmas parade or early store closing on Christmas Eve inconvenienced them. But they didn't mind if we celebrated.

Sometimes the whole community would come together, for things like a Christmas play at the elementary school, or a kids' Christmas party - Santa and all - at the firehouse.

All told, no matter what our individual beliefs and practices, Christmas was a time of community celebration, generosity, cheer, and good will for relatives, friends, and strangers alike. No one, from the most devout to the least observant, thought they had a right to tell anyone else how (or whether) to celebrate Christmas.

The "Xmas" Controversy

As a person who has tried to squeeze the word "Christmas" onto hundreds of page titles, I can tell you that the word is a typesetter's nightmare. As a lifetime student of history and a sometime student of Greek, I see nothing wrong with using the abbreviation Xmas once in a while, but I avoid doing so where it might be seen by people who get all of their cultural context and religious convictions from talk radio. Apparently most other people have been taking the same precautions, because you hardly ever see "Xmas" any more.

Do "True Believers" Have a Special Claim on Christmas?

For most of my life as a "Protestant," the most "offensive" most Evangelicals got on the subject was when they would put up billboards or send Christmas cards that said "Jesus is the Reason for the Season." Or maybe ending a "Living Christmas Tree" event (to which non-members were deliberately invited) with an altar call - neither of which ever offended anyone to my knowledge.

Community Christmases Still Happen

And it should go without saying, but it doesn’t any more, that none of us would have imagined that we had the right to tell other people how - or even whether - to celebrate Christmas.

Seasonal Marketing Adjusts to Demographic Shifts

So a few major chains finally stopped using the name of Christ to sell products that had nothing to do with the birth of Jesus, and started substituting terms like "holiday shopping." Good for them. After all, any holiday that you can "celebrate" equally well by buying 65-inch televisions, sexy underwear, or vampire movie DVDs has already lost its focus - if not its savor - anyway.

Maybe getting the name of Christ out of the marketing materials will give folks who cherish the religious, community, and traditional meanings of Christmas room to redefine the holiday in healthier terms.

Headline-Seekers Pretend to React to the Change with Outrage

Not only did the demagogues approve of big box stores using Christ’s name to flood our homes with cheap Chinese-made merchandise, they insisted that they had a moral imperative to do so! If "taking the Lord's name in vain" is one of the "big ten" sins, what does that say about demagogues who bully other people into doing so?

Some folks even seemed to think that it was an attack on their religious freedom if a store clerk said "Happy holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." Let’s face, it, in 2011, there were any number of events and trends that deserved outrage. This was not one of them.

Of all the ways we used to celebrate Christmas across cultural and social boundaries, getting snippy with store clerks who are trying to help you was never one of them.

What Was the Question?

Here’s who I think speaks for Christmas:

• Anyone who celebrates Christmas because it represents God’s greatest Gift to the world - His Son Jesus.

• Anyone who sees Christmas as a time to help the less fortunate.

• Anyone who strives graciously to uphold the Christmas traditions passed down through his or her family.

• Anyone who sees Christmas as a time to bring the family together, especially if it means laying aside disagreements and forgiving past hurts to do so.

• Anyone who can look anyone else in the eye and wish them the very best that the Christmas season has to offer, and mean it from the bottom of their heart, no matter what words they use to express their wishes.

Conclusion

If Christmas is your excuse to bully and berate other people who don't feel the way you claim to feel about the holiday, then you have disqualified yourself from being a spokesperson for Christmas. And you certainly aren't speaking for me. Nor do I think you are speaking for the Babe in the manger.

On the other hand, if Christmas is a positive force in your life, and it makes you strive to be a positive force in the lives of others, then YOU speak for Christmas.

God bless you and give you the kind of Christmas season that builds grace - and graciousness - in your life.

If you've been reading our pages, you know that we have more articles planned, and a lot on our plate, so keep checking back. And contact us with any questions or suggestions you have in the meantime.

Paul Race

www.familychristmasonline.com

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