I have a friend who will be headed to Afghanistan after the holidays. He’s part of the new “surge” that he feels is largely forgotten in the current media. While he’s trying to spend as much time with family as possible, the Fox News is issuing front line reports from the War on Christmas:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Do you remember that classic Christmas special, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”? Do you remember the point of it?
The misanthropic (or mis-who-ropic, I guess) Grinch tried to stop Christmas by stealing every outward sign of the holiday. He succeed in removing every outward, material manifestation of Christmas. But it didn’t work.
The twist at the end, and the dramatic irony in the show’s title, is that Christmas isn’t something that can be stolen. Christmas doesn’t depend on material trappings or outward symbols. Dr. Seuss is suitably vague as to what the real basis of Christmas is – there’s no who on a cross – but he makes it clear that Christmas would still continue despite a positively OCD level of theft from the Grinch.
But everywhere I look now, I’m seeing people who couldn’t disagree more with Dr. Seuss. Not only is Christmas dependent on those outward symbols, if you take one away then Christmas has lost a battle in the “War on Christmas.” Never mind that each individual’s right to believe and practice as they see fit is not infringed, the fact that the Post Office cannot display the nativity scene marks the death knell for the holiday.
And yet everybody seems happy to see Santa Claus, even though Saint Nicholas is one of the more credible Catholic/Greek Orthodox saints. You can still get cards of Jolly Old Saint Nick dressed as a Bishop, or something close to his traditional attire- I like to send those to Baptist relatives.
a fine example:
http://i2.squidoocdn.com/resize/squidoo_images/590/draft_lens13298821module118696251photo_1_1284053849fatherchristmas2.jpg
Like the tree, this is because Santa has become synonymous with the holiday, even though it has zero to do with it.
I like telling Christians that their tree is a pagan symbol and has nothing to do with Jesus’s death. Its fun telling little kids that Santa is their parents, too :)
I have to admit, the decorated tree is my favorite part of Christmas. Our tree is an aluminum pole with branches (artificial tree). Well… then there was the one year we just said, “fuck it” and decorated the cactus. And the joy (among other emotions) displayed when people open their gifts. Then we have Feats of Strength (opening packages, attempting to assemble things), Airing of Grievances (from personal snipes to general gripes, and a lot of “WTF were you THINKING?”). Oooh, and of course, the FEASTING! And the passing out.
“Santa” has been a running gag for ages, now — he’s thanked/blamed for the gifts nobody wants to own up to giving. LOL My family is strange. ^_^
I was thinking about just this the other day as I put up our outdoor lights. No matter how hard anyone tried, you could not make people celebrate as you do*. If you wish Christmas to be entirely secular, as I do, you make it that way. I do this in spite of all the Jesus of the Season. If you wish it to be entirely religious, you can do that, too. People do it all the time.
Look at it this way, Jews, surrounded by our Culture o’ Christmas somehow avoid celebrating it. If they can manage that, you can have any Christmas you want despite what I am doing.
*In an oppressive, totalitarian society, you could make people pretend to celebrate a certain way, but they wouldn’t really be celebrating, just putting on a show for the sake of not being punished.
I made a long post in the forums a few days ago in which I explore the word “merry,” well, that’s not really important, but I came up with a summary of this idea – “I think this is why they get angry – it’s not quite right in the world if you can’t assume any stranger you meet in town is a Christian.” Also, illogically, other people should be able to assume you are a Christian, after all, if you are one, how could they not? If we are not all Christians, then stop celebrating our holiday. It’s as if they haven’t noticed they had pretty much forced us to be unable to ignore it if we tried, and it’s not about Jesus anymore, unless it is for you.
Wait… a long post from you, Kodie?
LOL. <—-
I think that taps into the “Uncanny Valley” effect, where something being “not quite right” triggers a sense of “that person is an ‘other’” and a response of either closing down the reaction, or getting weirded out. I mean, it’s like you can tell when a person has Autism, it’s a “not-quite-right” vibe, and makes them “foreign” or “other”.
It takes a strong person to overcome that instinctive “other” reaction, and recognize that it is precisely our diversity that MAKES us human.
I’m not Christian, but I *absolutely despise Christmas* if only because of what it has become. It’s this time of year when people will kill other people for a cheap toy, will spoil their kids rotten with material things instead of spending time with them. It’s all about more more more and mine mine mine and gimme gimme gimme.
Every year, it comes earlier, is marketed harder, and seems more vicious. I can’t wait till January 1. Ugh. The sad thing? This is purely a first world problem. We wouldn’t be so selfish if we were all living in Uganda.
January 1 and christmas is over? You lucky one! Traditionally in my country the 3 magic orient kings (that would be more or less the translation, it is supposed to be a representation of the 3 “kings” who followed the star to Betlehem to praise Jesus) don’t come until January 5.
I feel your pain. I enjoyed Xmas when I was stationed in Germany. There was certainly plenty of materialism afoot, but the music, decorations, and the style and quality of everything was great. Of course, the gluhwein made the outdoor markets glow a bit brighter.
Don’t confuse Christmas with Christmas sales and ads. Maybe it isn’t the season to be jolly, but I certainly enjoy the celebration. In my experience, Christmas is about spending time with family, having fun, celebrating, and also exchanging gifts and eating food. It wouldn’t be complete without each of those pieces.
I think you are way too harsh on people if you think every time people enjoy getting presents (especially children) they are being too “materialistic” or “greedy.”
*shrugs* The commercialism was almost inevitable. However, as adults — you know, supposedly mature, older, wiser, able-to-control-ourselves ADULTS — we should be above killing over a toy. Hell, I’d happily take a rain check on the toy — pre-order one, have a gift certificate thingie made up that can be brought to the store by the child (and parent) on such-and-such day, and get the toy.
Seriously, it would teach kids a bit of character to learn that you can’t always get what you want, and, sometimes you have to wait for what you want. It’s the “NOW” thing that bugs me. Instant gratification leads to misery, man.
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God forbid they should try to include everyone… no seriously God forbids it.
Thou shalt not fucketh those who shareth not thou superstition.
Unless you’ve captured them in war, then you can rape ‘em all you want.
It’s simply amazing to stand at the sideline and watch the amount of time and emotion you Americans (and I suppose, to a minor degree you Brits) devote to this silly, useless battle year after year (though I realize most of you treat it ironically).
The joys of religion.
I really don’t get too much of it outside sites like this one. What’s really funny to me is that for most of us, Happy Holidays is a fine greeting, and if anyone feels a “war on Christmas,” it’s high time they realize how little anyone actually cares about Jesus and more cares about the people around them, and that the more this festivity is crowding a lot of people’s lifestyles, the more inclined we are to include them. It’s just that if you hold dear your sacred beliefs that it’s Jesus’s birthday, suddenly your take on the holiday is that you’re the excluded ones. They “gave” everyone this grand holiday until we couldn’t ignore it, and then we continue to celebrate it, and now they’re like the Jews when nobody ever remembered to wish Jews a Happy Channukah, and they don’t like it. If they want to call it a “war,” they are stupid asses. When someone wishes you a “happy holiday,” you’re supposed to say “thank you, and same to you as well.” There is no malice intended by that thought, and shame on anyone who is not Christ-like enough to accept that! If there’s any time of the year to put away our differences and love our fellow human, it’s Christmastime. Lack of awareness to that end makes Christians look really stupid, and if I say Happy Holidays and someone gets all aggravated about it, I will tell them that they should cheer up and stop being a sourpuss about it, they’re ruining it themselves. The misanthrope in me hopes they do. I hope they grudge themselves into a big pout and blame everyone else, for they can look as stupid as they are.
I find it a bit odd that there’s even a hint of controversy over the phrase “happy holidays”. To me it’s a phrase that is quintessentially American, and here you’re likely to have people give you a funny look for using a phrase that identifies you as a tourist, rather than because the phrase is not religious. In this far more secular society, it is perfectly normal to wish everyone a happy Christmas.
Good post. This all summarizes my feelings on this time of year. Unfortunately we are playing a massive game of redefinition, being an admitted “atheist” or “secular” in this environment is almost like committing social suicide.
Aside: This year I further nailed down my dislike for Christmas music. It’s repetitious and crappy music that no one would listen to were it not for the time of year.
The ultimate irony here is that EVERY trapping, song, story and concept concerning Christmas has been made up out of whole cloth. With the exception that Jesus was in all probabilty born somewhere, absolutely every cherished myth about Christmas is fantasy. The Christmas story, so vigorously defended and promulgated by Christians and Fox News, is a series of legends and traditions that have been invented and embellished upon for 2000 years. There is simply no hard evidence for any event. The Christmas “story” has as much credibility and legitimacy as The Three Little Pigs. Or Moses, or the Ark, or Mohammed. And yet we fight. *sigh*
“What fools these mortals be.” – Puck.
“With the exception that Jesus was in all probabilty born somewhere,…”
‘Nailed’ by David Fitzgerald puts forward a pretty good case saying that not only is a historical Jesus unlikely, but practically impossible. I never considered myself a mythicist, but this book does give pause for thought.
“War on Christmas” is to me an attempt at emotional manipulation of people with words, similar to calling people against going to war in Iraq in 2003 “not supporting the troops”.
It’s a phrase using real words, but with twisted connotations that do not point to actual facts with any accuracy.
“Dr. Seuss is Weeping”
So there IS life after death!
I would tolerate Christmas a lot better if it weren’t forced down my throat by greedy retailers starting around Labor Day. I’m fine with the lights and the tree and the presents and the Santa-and-reindeer motif, and enjoy it as a chance to get together with my friends and family and eat nutritionally questionable food in large quantities to ward off the darkness of an otherwise dismal period of the year- but these are not specifically Christian ways of dealing with the winter solstice and more to the point, they don’t require acts of worship, and they’re a lot of fun. I would prefer it if the whole advertising blitz were confined to December, or at least after Thanksgiving. This year, there was hardly room for the Halloween candy display in the grocery store because of all the Xmas tchotchkele for sale. I don’t feel that I’m under assault from religion nearly as much as from businesses trying to cash in on the season.
I have a real problem with people who can’t accept “Happy Holidays!” as a greeting. If someone objects, I’ll cheerfully retract my good wishes if it offends them, but I won’t smooth things over by saying “Merry Christmas!” instead.
Expecting Christian’s to do what they constantly preach?
How silly.
Happy co-opted, hyper commercialized, pagan holiday celebrating the winter solstice, the lengthening days, and the approaching spring.
that’s been my greeting this year, at least for the most part. Unfortunately that might cause me some problems at work if I were to say it to the wrong people. Those guys get “Happy Holidays”.
I usually just say, “Merry Seasonally Appropriate Festival!”
I like to implore people to celebrate axial tilt, the reason for the season.
It’s easy in the Scandinavian countries, since our name for the holiday hasn’t been Christofied. We still use the pagan word “jul” (cf. yule) or variations thereof. Our pagan ancestors were the ones who invented that word and we’ve stuck to it.
So Christians and non-Christians alike celebrate “jul” where I come from, and noone has a problem with it.
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