The Ghost of Christmas Future

What will Christmas be like in twenty years? Probably very politically-correct affair, a good excuse for lots of shopping and parties. And it may have nearly nothing at all to do with Christ. At least as a national holiday.

The pundits are howling this year. That there's a war on Christmas. That Christmas is a Christian holiday foisted on a long-silent, larger-than-reported group of agnostics, atheists, and pagans. That the Christian Right is tilting at Windmills in their minds. AND, that Christians need to shut up, move their celebration of Jesus' birth to a more historically accurate time of year, and drop all the popular trimmings which they've "stolen"; from evergreen trees to shopping sprees.

Well, it's made me think. It's made me question what the history of the holiday we've ALWAYS celebrated in the U.S. as Christmas actually is.

At least since Roman times, various cultures have celebrated the winter solstice. The Romans harvested evergreen trees for their "Feast of Saturnalia" which grew from a day of celebration to a week, and devolved from carefree revelry to...well, to the point that early Christians equated the word "saturnalia" with "orgy". And you thought people were offended by Merry Chrismas at work. Let a mixed crowd walk into the company "Saturnalia". Sadly, this would probably cause less public stir.

So, it's true, a healthy portion of Christmas traditions aren't uniquely Christian. It's also true that Americans have celebrated this holiday as "Christmas" from the country's inception. For over 200 years, no knickers were knotted. The Framers probably had some inkling of what they intended, and what would have been inappropriate. Maybe it would be OK if the delicate geniuses at the ACLU followed their lead. It has been simultaneously a celebration of Jesus' birth and time of not particularly religious family gathering and good cheer. Everybody used to relax, more or less, and enjoy.

Since an Air America personality has accurately argued that evergreens, celebration of winter solstice, and gift-giving have been appropriated by Christians, they have proven that our traditional public celebration is not uniquely Christian. There goes the agnostic/atheist/non-Christian argument that we're mingling church and state. As for the secularist "diversity" contingent, why suddenly so non-inclusive of Christians in the national holiday? Isn't it ironic that diversity is the ideal so long as the crowd is Wiccans, Druids, Hobbits, the trans-gendered and Saturn devotees...but not Christians?

Why protest people of faith choosing to celebrate the birth of Jesus on this day? What's so galling in being wished "Merry Christmas", a gesture of goodwill from one person to another? What can the objection be to marking the birth of Jesus who taught, in part, to love our neighbors as ourselves (a rule Howard Dean believes government should embody). Is it really effrontery to observe the birth of one of human history's shining examples of how to live (for any person, religious or not)?

For Christians, for agnostics & atheists, for pagans, Christmas is our shared national holiday of hope and renewal, undergirded with symbols of the same. As such, it's inclusive, and can be celebrated as Christmas by all. No serious person can equate this with state establishment of religion. We can each take the particular meaning we value in candles, trees and gifts. Even Nativity scenes, while full of religious symbolism, also reflect a historical event and are, therefore, not exclusively religious in nature.

What will Christmas be like in twenty years? In this season of hope, mine is that it will be a time when we each make a conscious effort to emulate Christ's humility, compassion, patience, truthfulness and kindness (compatible with every faith). And maybe the example will communicate a sense it is inspired by something beyond our own earthly humanity.