![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/168\/2012\/12\/santa.jpg\" "\\"Santa")
<\/a>As this posting falls on December 24 it seems virtually impossible to make it a workaday one rather than a seasonal theme. \u00a0The relationship between work days and Christmas was handled memorably in the early years of colonial America by the governor of Plymouth, William Bradford.\u00a0 His band of Pilgrims being low church and high principled, Bradford records in Of Plymouth Plantation<\/a> his unwillingness to give laborers the day off:<\/p>\n\u00a0On the day called Chrismasday, the Govr calmd them out to worke, (as wasal used,) but the most of this new-company excused them selves and said it wente against their conscientes to work on that day. So the Govr tould them that if they made it mater of consciente, he would spare them till they were better informed. So he led-away the rest and left them; but when they came home at noone from their worke, he found them in the streete at play, openly; some pitching the barr and some at stoole-ball, and shuch like sports. So he went to them, and tooke away their implements, and tould them that was against his consciente, that they should play and others worke. If they made the keeping of it mater of devotion, let them kepe their houses, but ther should be no gameing or revelling in the streets. Since which time nothing hath been atempted that way, at least openly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
This oft-quoted passage sometimes is presented as evidence of early New England crabbedness\u2014fanatics who wanted to cancel Christmas!\u2014or of a dogged work ethic. I find respect for Bradford\u2019s approach keen now, in the heart of the \u201cHoliday Season,\u201d when mob-bustle and merchandizing is at the flood.\u00a0 Bradford\u2019s gesture is somewhat in keeping with exhortations to \u201cKeep Christ in Christmas\u201d or that \u201cJesus is the reason for the season.\u201d \u00a0Either all this to-do is to celebrate the Incarnation or it isn\u2019t.\u00a0 To be sure, conscience compels some to celebrate the Incarnation with sober, house-bound devotion and others with noise and play and revelry.\u00a0 I like the revelry.\u00a0 Still, if the holiday is not a holy day, why is it not a work day? \u00a0In a New York Times<\/em> op-ed<\/a>\u00a0Molly Worthen broaches the question, noting that since Christmas has been a federal holiday for 142 years, \u201cMost of us have no choice but to stay home from work or school.\u201d<\/p>\n
As several recent books demonstrate, Americans have added much to traditional customs around Santa Claus<\/a> and Christmas trees<\/a>. But the twist we lament when we complain of commercialized Christmas is the amount of work<\/em> that has been loaded onto it.\u00a0 Admittedly there always is work that comes with preparing for a holiday, a lot of this involving gingerbread or stollen or paska or feasts of seven fishes. Much of this work is worthy, yet the extent of it seems wrong.\u00a0 Consider what has become a common greeting for casual interactions at library or post office or grocery line: \u201cAre you prepared?\u201d<\/p>\n
When first greeted this way I had no idea what was being asked.\u00a0 Was the question directed to the state of my soul, was I prepared for judgment or for the Second Coming?\u00a0 Since it has been asked a lot this season, posed alternately \u201cAre you done<\/em>?\u201d or \u201cAre you ready?\u201d I figured out that it was asking whether I was ready for Christmas.\u00a0 That is, have I bought and wrapped as much stuff as needed?\u00a0 Expenditures aside, the labor of acquiring, sorting, and festooning holiday stuff is gigantic. Among the crowd of elementary-school parents I see, many women have been done<\/em> since October.\u00a0 Customary by mid-November are self-deprecating mentions of being \u201cway behind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Whose children have figured out heart\u2019s desires for Christmas by mid-October? \u00a0\u00a0Does shopping in October help to keep the Christ in Christmas in December?\u00a0 Maybe it just extends I-want and to-do lists two months longer.\u00a0 Reader, are you ready? \u00a0I \u00a0welcome advice for better answers to that pre-holiday greeting.<\/p>\n
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As this posting falls on December 24 it seems virtually impossible to make it a workaday one rather than a seasonal theme. \u00a0The relationship between work days and Christmas was handled memorably in the early years of colonial America by the governor of Plymouth, William Bradford.\u00a0 His band of Pilgrims being low church and high […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1190,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[500,516,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-religious-history","category-christmas","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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