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Christmas vs. Holiday
The New American ^ | 12/25/2006 Edition (Published 12/12/2006) | R. Cort Kirkwood

Posted on 12/13/2006 4:57:35 AM PST by CalcuttaIke

How did America, a nominally Christian nation, get to the point that a cheerful "Merry Christmas" is seen as intolerant and our gifts are placed under "holiday trees"?

"The President and Mrs. Reagan extend to you their best wishes for a joyous Christmas and a peaceful New Year." In 1982, that was the message appearing on President Reagan's Christmas card to thousands of GOP faithful. In 1983, the "greeting" changed: "The President and Mrs. Reagan extend to you their warmest wishes for happiness at the holidays and throughout the new year." Thus did the Reagan White House stop sending Christmas cards and start sending "holiday greetings."

This semantic change in the official greeting from the White House, probably unnoticed at the time, was not the beginning of the "War on Christmas." That war arises from the enmity to all things Christian among atheists, civil libertarians, leftists, and public school unions, as well as the political, cultural, and financial elites, who abhor anything restraining mass consumerism and "individual liberty." Simply put, it's God vs. Mammon.

Manifestations of the war against Christmas abound, including the American Civil Liberties Union's legal war against "unconstitutional" manger scenes depicting the Nativity in the public square, and even renaming Christmas trees "holiday trees," again, on the public square.

And this war extends beyond Christmas. In public schools, Easter break is "Spring break." Kwanzaa and the Muslim holy days of Ramadan are studied and recognized. Meanwhile, Jesus' birth, the central event dividing, chronologically, the ancient world from the new, has gone down the memory hole: B.C.E. (Before the Common Era) and C.E. (Common Era) have replaced B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini — The Year of Our Lord).

Most Americans are familiar with the war-on-Christmas stories. They react to them as one would expect: with anger and amazement. They want to "put Christ back in Christmas." They want everyone to remember the "reason for the season."

Recognizing this anger and fretting about profits, Wal-Mart, Target, and other retailers are again using the word "Christmas" in advertising and store displays. Wal-Mart instructed clerks to wish customers "Merry Christmas," as opposed to the drab secularisms, "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays." And some municipalities such as Milwaukee are once again decorating Christmas trees as opposed to "holiday" trees.

Still, the question remains: how is it the warriors against Christmas succeeded so famously, and what role did Christians play in their success?

American Christmas

In 2001, writing in Chronicles magazine, church historian Aaron Wolf detailed the history of Christmas in America and how the modern celebration became what it is.

Wolf reported that the war on Christmas began long before the ACLU filed its first lawsuit. The Puritans were anti-Christmas Christians, he observed, who rejected the "organic incarnational understanding" of Christianity — the Son of God becoming man — and banned celebrating Christmas in Massachusetts until 1681.

As Wolf, libertarian economist Murray Rothbard, and others have observed, Puritanism eventually devolved into Unitarianism, which rejected the Incarnation in fact and gave birth to the "reason for the season" that so many Americans now understand: a time of material giving and good deeds. "By 1842," Wolf wrote, "a new interpretation of the holiday was in place."

Wolf and other historians trace the imposition of the liberal spirit on Christmas to Charles Dickens, the Unitarian author of A Christmas Carol:

I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.... And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!

These words, Wolf reminded readers, come from Fred, the nephew of Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. Everyone familiar with the story should also be familiar with what central Character it lacks: Jesus Christ.

Two more interesting facts about Christmas: Santa Claus is a Unitarian invention spun off the very real, heroic, and virtuous St. Nicholas. A Unitarian penned "Jingle Bells," a delightful tune, Wolf observed, devoid of Christian intent or meaning.

Obviously, nothing is wrong with gift-giving or performing good deeds, either at Christmastime or during the rest of the year. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and visiting the sick are among the corporal works of mercy. But Jesus, whom Christians believe is the Greatest Gift to mankind, is either window-dressing for Christmas or ignored altogether.

What We Believe

Many Americans, including many Christian Americans, have swallowed the modern meaning whole. Forgetting the Incarnation, they summon Dickensian ghosts to tell them what Christmas is "about": gift giving, secular charity, "peace and good will," family and friends, sitting by the Yule log, kissing under the mistletoe.

Yet these abstractions don't say much about what Christians believe or ought to believe. This isn't to say that Americans don't know, on a tacit, intellectual level, why we celebrate Christmas. But it is to say Christ no longer animates the celebration. Christmas has become a secularized holiday as opposed to a Christian Holy Day.

Twentieth-century popular music and films, which the cultural and financial elites offered for the "holiday season," cemented the secularization. Many of the singers who popularized such tunes as "White Christmas" (Bing Crosby) and "Let It Snow" (Dean Martin) were Christians. Yet they, along with the troubadours who sang "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and "Frosty the Snowman" (Gene Autry) and "The Christmas Song" (Nat King Cole), weren't caroling about Christmas. They were warbling about winter.

This celebration of a secular winter respite was a profound change in keeping with the "new meaning" of Christmas. It is why, for instance, in the 1960s' "classic" Rudolf animation for television, Santa Claus laments that Christmas might be "canceled" because a horrible blizzard smothers "Christmastown" on Christmas Eve. Christmas canceled? Only if it's a holiday dependent upon good weather.

Along with Rudolf and Frosty, Americans watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas!, Dr. Suess' Christless contribution to holiday cinematic fare. Again, The Grinch offers viewers the "Christmas-is-canceled" theme when the hideous Grinch steals the gifts and Christmas vittles from Whoville. Surely, when he takes their baubles and "roast beast," he believes, the Whovillians won't celebrate Christmas. But alas, the residents of Whoville know the "true meaning" of Christmas. It is the same "meaning" Scrooge discovered on his nocturnal adventures with the three ghosts.

Another yuletide obligation is watching Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart, who, like the singers mentioned above, was no enemy of Christmas. Yet, despite the film's few Christian moments, what the cultural cognoscenti call a "classic" is "not," as one reviewer pointed out at IMDB.com, "a film about religion." Instead, it is yet another Dickensian allegory. It contemplates "hope, truth and the depth of the human heart." George Bailey, the archetypal, unfulfilled Everyman, finds the "meaning of life" on Christmas Eve, but not through the Incarnate Lord. Instead, an angel shows him what his town would have been like if he hadn't been around. Christians should wonder what life would be like if Christ hadn't been born.

One of the better Christmas television programs is a Charlie Brown Christmas, wherein Linus explains "the meaning of Christmas" by reciting the Nativity narrative from the Gospel According to Luke. Unsurprisingly, television executives were unhappy with the idea. According to USA Today, the executives at CBS complained to Peanuts' creator Charles Schultz, "Look, you can't read from the Bible on network television." On seeing the film, they thought Schultz had "ruined" Charlie Brown. Schultz's amusing denunciation of materialism surfaces when Lucy says she wants "real estate" for Christmas, and Sally, in a letter to Santa Claus, asks for "tens and twenties." Linus offers the corrective Lucan Lesson.

Point is, nothing is wrong with Christians singing "White Christmas" or watching It's a Wonderful Life or Charlie Brown, if they understand what they are singing and watching, and don't substitute this secular entertainment for the Incarnation as the central historical and spiritual truth about Christmas. But how often do Christians sing "Silent Night" versus "White Christmas"? How much time is spent sitting in front of a television set, watching the Grinch, versus the time spent kneeling before a manger scene, contemplating the mystery of the Incarnation?

The honest answer to this question shows that popular culture has transformed the meaning of Christmas. No longer a prayerful contemplation and celebration of the birth of Christ, it has become a solemnization of saccharine, gooey warmth in wintertime: roasting chestnuts, gifts under the tree, and snuggling by the fire.

For Christians, the difference is hardly inconsequential. Christ was born, serious Christians believe, to die in agony on the Cross for the sins of mankind. Of course, everyone claims to know and understand this, but our annual rites and revelries belie the claim of profound understanding. Many Americans, even American Christians, mistakenly believe Christmas is "about" that "kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time," as Dickens put it, "when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely," meaning the secular "peace and goodwill" that percolated from Dickens' literary brain pan.

Christmas isn't "about" any of these things. It is "about" One Thing, that sacred day 2,000 years ago when a Babe was born in Bethlehem, not to offer Capra's wonderful life on Earth, but to offer Christ's Eternal Life in Heaven. On Christmas Day, Christians must ask which life they are contemplating.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: birchnuts; christmas; politicalcorrectness; rcortkirkwood; tna; waronchristmas; waronchristmas2006; waronjesus; whocares
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How much time is spent sitting in front of a television set, watching the Grinch, versus the time spent kneeling before a manger scene, contemplating the mystery of the Incarnation?

Many of us do, but how much better it would be that "most" or "all" Christians do?

As Christians, we're not directed to be fanatical about our religion and that is why there is a vast difference between Christians and Muslims.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

1 posted on 12/13/2006 4:57:39 AM PST by CalcuttaIke
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To: CalcuttaIke

Happy Holy Day.


2 posted on 12/13/2006 5:01:15 AM PST by Pan_Yans Wife
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To: CalcuttaIke

Don't even ask about Advent - commercial business has no time for that season! Christmas starts late October according to most stores.


3 posted on 12/13/2006 5:01:53 AM PST by rjp2005 (Lord have mercy on us)
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To: rjp2005
Christmas starts late October according to most stores.

It seemed this year as though the Christmas decorations were up simultaneously with those for Halloween.

4 posted on 12/13/2006 5:08:30 AM PST by CalcuttaIke
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To: Pan_Yans Wife

Happy RamaHanu-KwanzMas


5 posted on 12/13/2006 5:10:49 AM PST by Long Island Pete
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To: CalcuttaIke

It did. Home Depot had the stuff out BEFORE Halloween even.


6 posted on 12/13/2006 5:17:28 AM PST by rjp2005 (Lord have mercy on us)
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To: CalcuttaIke

I'd like to wish you all a Hope Filled Advent!


7 posted on 12/13/2006 5:23:34 AM PST by NC28203
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To: CalcuttaIke

The other day the guy ringing the bell and manning the collection pot for the Salvation Army outside my local grocery store said "Happy Holidays" to me. I said, "No, Merry Christmas! The Salvation Army is the only place I will contribute money outside of my church, but don't forget who put the 'salvation' in The Salvation Army."

I hope not to hear "Happy Holidays" from him again.

On a much brighter note, I phoned a construction outfit which had a bid from me on a project and the receptionist answered with "Merry Christmas". I really like that company now, whether they accept my bid or not.


8 posted on 12/13/2006 5:25:31 AM PST by Emmett McCarthy
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To: CalcuttaIke

...the meaning of your post is unclear...are you intimating that if we, as Christians, steadfastly reflect upon the religiosity of Christmas, this comports with fanaticism and likens us to Islamofacists?


9 posted on 12/13/2006 5:32:16 AM PST by IrishBrigade
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To: rjp2005

"Christmas starts late October"

Wow,the Christmas "sales" season starts late in your area huh !!!


10 posted on 12/13/2006 5:32:39 AM PST by Obie Wan
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To: CalcuttaIke
I was in a dentist's office yesterday, looking over their ?Christmas? card collection. Not One of the cards said anything about Christmas. People are so afraid they might offend a client or a co-worker, they're self-perpetuating this form of PC. I've been in business for myself for nearly a quarter of a century and say Merry Christmas to all I see during the day. Not once has anyone ever appeared to be offended and most return the comment.
11 posted on 12/13/2006 5:39:25 AM PST by wolfcreek (Please Lord, May I be, one who sees what's in front of me.)
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To: All

This is just another step towards communism. I lived in Albania for a couple of years after I graduated from high school. The communist dictator declared the nation "atheist" in 1967 and shut down all religious institutions, destroying churches and mosques or turning them into gyms or warehouses.

The Albanians lost the Christmas tree and it became the "Tree of the New Year". Its hollow symbolism just didn't have the same feeling as the Christmas tree. In many more ways than the Christmas tree we are slipping the slope towards socialism and communism. Doesn't anyone realize the system has never succeeded?


12 posted on 12/13/2006 6:07:01 AM PST by Skenderbej
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To: CalcuttaIke
""I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.... And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!""

I think the author gives a poor interpretation of the above words. The character speaks of the "veneration DUE" to its "sacred" namesake.

I also must disagree that Puritanism evolved into Unitarianism. The Hugh Peters and Cotton Mathers did not become the Adlai Stephensons. Rather the makeup of the colonies changed. One should note some differences between the Unitarianism of 1840 and that of today and note the strong words directed at such liberalism at the time from other Christian sects in the Northeast.
13 posted on 12/13/2006 6:07:42 AM PST by Monterrosa-24 (...even more American than a Russian AK-47 and a French bikini.)
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To: CalcuttaIke
I am so sick of the "War on Christmas" hand wringers that I'm declaring war on them.

There are so many holidays between Thanksgiving and the New Year that it IS the holiday season. More "holidays", official, Christian or not, fall in this 45 day period than at any other time of the year. Yes Christmas is front and center. But what does the word holiday represent. The same as Christmas. It's representing a Holy Day.

Frankly, virtually every organization fronting the concern of the "War on Christmas" is in it for the same $$ that Penny's Sears and Macy's. This is probably thier businest time along with the highest amount of money coming in.

14 posted on 12/13/2006 6:20:11 AM PST by joesbucks
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To: CalcuttaIke
LOOk this war will go on as long as Christmas is honored . The idea is not to stop the trees or the presents, the idea is to stop the miracle of the baby who was born on Christmas . I know all about what they say, it was not the day He was born etc. The idea of the other faiths is to get the man who finally talked , love and above all peace. JESUS will survive as long as one of us is alive to tell of his birth, life and death and of course resurrection. We Christians all know what we ARE against in America and across the world. This is a war of ideas and when they find out about on solidarity life, the SON OF GOD WHO BECAME MAN SUFFERED AND DIED FOR US WILL SURVIVE.
15 posted on 12/13/2006 6:27:30 AM PST by betsyross1776
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
You know, you hit the nail on the head. Most anti-Christmas people do not know that Holiday actually means Holy Day.

I have gotten so tired and adnauseam to Happy Holiday, just because I know they are deliberately leaving Christmas out, but Holiday has a meaning they do not know.
16 posted on 12/13/2006 6:28:20 AM PST by rose
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To: rose

Well it became a bit intolerable when Coca-Cola changed their "Christmas can art" (which I think is still pretty good stuff)

To "Holiday 2006" instead of invoking "Christmas"...


17 posted on 12/13/2006 6:32:55 AM PST by stevie_d_64 (Houston Area Texans (I've always been hated))
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To: CalcuttaIke

I always mail Christmas cards and I make sure it says Christmas specifically, with religious pictures, etc on the cards. I am always saddened at how hard it is to find cards with the specific message of Christmas on them.


18 posted on 12/13/2006 6:37:20 AM PST by WV Mountain Mama (Our gingerbread house may not look the greatest, but my kids and I had the greatest time making it!)
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
First of all, I learned this from my religion(Catholic); and look in the dictionary.

holiday\ha-le-da\n (ME.fr.OE haligdaeg.fr. halig, holy + daeg, day 1: a day set aside for special religious observance 2: a day of freedom from work; esp: one in commemoration of an event 3: Vacation-holiday vb

Nor exactly as spelled in dictionary, the a has slash above it, and the ae are as one letter.
19 posted on 12/13/2006 6:45:29 AM PST by rose
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To: stevie_d_64

I agree and detest it, was just passing along what holiday really means, although I still do not like the usage, especially in place of Christmas


20 posted on 12/13/2006 7:06:41 AM PST by rose
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