What’s So Bad About Christmas?
This month’s Synchroblog is of course apropos for the season and is themed “Redeeming the Season.” While this leaves the topics wide open to addressing everything from Christmas consumerism to debating how to appropriately remember the Solstice, it prompted me to ask “honestly, what’s so bad about Christmas?” (or Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa, or whatever).
Sure I can (and have here) listed my complaints against Christmas, but what I’m referring to today is why people are so adamant on only acknowledging the holiday they happen to celebrate to the exclusion of all others. I’m talking about those who freak out of people say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Or the people who bring lawsuits against schools or workplaces for putting up “Christmas” lights. The message they send is - “I don’t care that we live in a pluralistic world, I insist that the universe revolves around me and my preferences, I don’t even want to be reminded that people different than me even exist.”
Examples. When I was in high school my December final exam one year for my dance class was to choreograph a dance to music of my choosing. I choose a purely instrumental piece that had the term “Messiah” in it. A Jewish friend saw my tape with that title and complained to the teacher that her religion was violated if she had to listen to “Christian” music during my performance. Or a few years ago when I was a substitute teacher I was in charge of a 3rd grade class on the last day before Winter break. Of course the kids did nothing constructive all day, just games and craft projects. At one point I passed out pictures of a wintery scene with a horse drawn sleigh on them for the kids to color. A Muslim girl in the class refused to participate and complained that I was forcing her to celebrate Christmas by coloring that picture. This was after I had sat with her through lunch and recess while the other kids ate and played and talked with her about Ramadan (which she was observing).
This is a season of holidays. And if we truly want to redeem it so to speak, it seems like we need to get over ourselves. Our particular pet holiday, although deeply meaningful to us personally, is just one among many. To insist that others acknowledge our holiday or to barricade ourselves from exposure to other holidays is just plain selfish. Instead of trying to fight expression of any and all holidays because ours can’t be primary, lets work to allow equal promotion for all. I always liked Austin’s Trail of Lights each December in Zilker Park. It was a holiday celebration that allowed displays from whatever group wanted to set up a display. So there were of course Christmas displays (both secular and sacred), Hanukkah displays, Solstice displays, and even one set up to acknowledge the Greek Pantheon. It was fun and festive, and worked off of mutual respect instead of faked collective ignorance as to the existence of the entire season.
So let’s redeem the season by letting it be what it is - a season of holidays. Let’s acknowledge that other people deserve respect and don’t have to be exactly like us. And maybe we could all end up having a bit more fun with more reasons to celebrate and less excuses to fight. Maybe.
For other contributions to this Synchroblog check out -
Recapturing the Spirit of Christmas at Adam Gonnerman’s Igneous Quill
Swords into Plowshares at Sonja Andrew’s Calacirian
Fanning the Flickering Flame of Advent at Paul Walker’s Out of the Cocoon
Lainie Petersen at Headspace
Sam Norton at Elizaphanian
Brian Riley at at Charis Shalom
Secularizing Christmas at JohnSmulo.com
There’s Something About Mary at Hello Said Jenelle
Geocentric Versus Anthropocentric Holydays at Phil Wyman’s Square No More
Celebrating Christmas in a Pluralistic Society at Erin Word’s Decompressing Faith
Redeeming the season — season of redemption by Steve Hayes
Remembering the Incarnation at Alan Knox’ The Assembling of the Church
The Obligation of Christmas at JonathanBrink.com
A Biblical Response to a Secular Christmas by Glenn Ansley’s Bad Theology
Happy Life Day at The Agent B Files
Tags:
Julie Clawson
Topics: Culture, Holidays, Synchroblog |
December 12th, 2007 at 5:41 am
Good points. We can be passionate about our particular faith yet respectful of others.
I live on Long Island, where there is a strong Jewish community and a growing Muslim population. I’ve found, however, that the strongest opponents to celebrating Christ in Christmas are secular folk (often former Christians) who are basically angry about everything. Likewise, often the most vociferous proponents of CHRISTmas seem to be looking for a good fight wherever it can be found. I think the Spirit of the season needs to have more of a spirit of humility.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:37 am
I think respect is the key here. While I may not celebrate the religious aspects of various holidays that I personally don’t hold to, that does not give me the right to speak poorly of individuals that do. As a believer, I have no obligation to accept another person’s beliefs if they don’t mesh with mine. That disagreement, however, needs to be approached with humble and personal dialog rather than ignorant and stereotypical condemnation. Good post.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
[...] at Alan Knox’ The Assembling of the Church What’s So Bad About Christmas? at Julie Clawson’s One Hand Clapping The Obligation of Christmas at JonathanBrink.com A Biblical Response to a Secular Christmas by [...]
December 12th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
it’s interesting to hear in the UK that the head of the equalities commission has basically called for christ to be put back into christmas. rather than people feeling embarrassed about the mono-christian celebrations of the past - now we celebrate so many different religious feasts we don’t need to feel bad about including christmas as a christian festival.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
What? Be selfless and not selfish? Isn’t selfish what Christmas is all about?
December 12th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
In the spirit of Judeo-Christian-Muslim unity, i hereby declare that today, December 12, is “Abraham Day”.
December 12th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
So is “Abraham Day” like Festivus? How should we all be celebrating?
December 12th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
[...] Bad Theology Happy Life Day at The Agent B Files What’s So Bad About Christmas? at Julie Clawson’s One Hand Clapping [...]
December 13th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
well said Julie! Let’s celebrate!
I finaly got a post up- it has been a rough week.
December 18th, 2007 at 11:51 pm
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptIt was a holiday celebration that allowed displays from whatever group wanted to set up a display. So there were of course Christmas displays (both secular and sacred), Hanukkah displays, Solstice displays, and even one set up to … [...]