Beginning its article with “Attention, culture warriors,” Time magazine briefly recounts the history of the War on Christmas in this week’s issue, noting that while the Puritans were not so big on celebrating the coming of the Christ child, their descendants–especially those who work at Fox News–have made a lot of hay (and good money, no doubt blowing it on gifts under the tree) excoriating those who would take the Christ out of Christmas.
Time cites Fox News host Bill O’Reilly for his annual segments, starting in 2002, on the siege against Christmas. O’Reilly once called the unmerry greeting “Happy Holidays” the first step on the slippery slope toward “”legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage.” And Americans have backed O’Reilly up. By 2006, the piece says, 68 percent of Americans “agreed that the holiday was under assault.”
Now, call me Scrooge, but I notice that 68 percent is some 40 to 20 percent greater a percentage of Americans than the percentage that attends church on a weekly basis. Figures specifically for Christmas season attendance aren’t easy to come by, but if we can extrapolate the 10 percent attendance bump churches get this time of year in Britain, we can comfortably guess that barely half of all nominal Christians show up for Yuletide services–including Christmas Eve, because as Time pointed out last year, nobody goes to church on the 25th anymore. (Even when they go to church, people refuse to let it interfere with the true object of the holiday: the presents.)
I’m not suggesting that everyone should get to church this Christmas, only that the concerns about the welfare of Christmas are misplaced. To borrow a currently popular argument for gay marriage, those who wish to defend the sanctity of an institution should first ask themselves whether we as a country treat that institution as something worth defending.
Another disclaimer: I’m all for store clerk wishing customers “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”–store clerks are always portrayed as the press-ganged foot soldiers in the War on Christmas. The clerk, after all, is already surrounded by tinselly trees and Santas, with carols blaring over the P.A. For me, the question is why the typical Christmas scene is taking place in a store in the first place. Why is it so important what incantation is uttered over a retail counter?
The answer, and my point, is woefully obvious: Christmas, like the humbled American economy, is focused on shopping. According to the National Retail Federation, Americans will spend $437.6 billion on Christmas this year alone–one half of the estimated toll of health-care reform over the next decade.
Now that’s a war on the true spirit of Christmas. If Americans want to stop it, they need not insist that department stores put Christ in Christmas. All they have to do is take Christmas out of the department store.
posted December 12, 2009 at 10:02 am
I agree that it is a slippery slope we are on, but I don’t agree with taking Christmas out of the department stores. I don’t think people should be obliged to give presents to children because they expect them, but I do believe that at Christmastime, we should have the spirit of giving. What greater gift than Jesus Christ to the world! Also, the wise men gave gifts to Jesus, although it has been said that the wise men appeared years later. I enjoy spreading love and joy and giving gifts at Christmastime. It just depends on the spirit that you have. Christmas cards, although the custom is waning, are a great way to keep in touch with people you have in your heart all year long also.
posted December 12, 2009 at 10:23 am
“What greater gift than Jesus Christ to the world!”
WTF?
The wheel has easily been a greater gift to the world than a 2000 year old middle eastern Jew who is alleged to have done miracles, and is supposedly alive!
posted December 12, 2009 at 11:12 pm
Bill O’Reilly made up the war on Christmas. It was a way to be devicive and start getting Americans to argue about silly stuff so no one could get along at election time. It was also a way to play into the fear we were all feeling after 9/11.
There are several holidays at this time of year… “Happy Holidays” is just a way to be nice to someone. Why would anyone be offended about someone being nice? You can’t always know if someone is a Christian just by looking at them. And the start of a slippery slope thing? WHAT?!?! I don’t see how a kind greeting could lead to the demise of society (which is what Bill was alluding to). The whole war on Christmas thing is really petty, totally false, and makes me sick. It’s the ultimate Bah Humbug!
posted December 13, 2009 at 3:28 pm
The typical Christmas scene takes place in the stores, because… before Church officials grabbed Mithra’s Winter Festival (which was also called “The Nativity” or “The Nativity of the Sun” or “The Nativity of the Unconquered Sun”) in 379 AD and adopted it as their own, it’s roots goes all the way back to Babylon — to a place called Chaldea where there was sorcery (i.e. manipulation), sun god worship, and the Land of Merchant status originated.
Throughout antiquity, the celebrated birthday of all sun gods (primordially Babylonian Tammuz) was the ancient winter solstice before the Roman shift in time — December 25th.
Christians (whom I am one) need to rightly discern history as well as Scripture. The Catholic Encyclopedia credits the Nativity of the Unconquered Sun as claiming strong responsibility for the Dec. 25th date for Christmas. We need to realize that the first recorded evidence of Christmas taking place on December 25th isn’t found until the time of Constantine on 336 AD. Translation: Nothing resembling Christmas existed for the first ~300 years of Christianity.
If you’d like to understand more, my book “Santa-tizing: What’s wrong with Christmas and how to clean it up” is available on Amazon. Having researched everything Christmas for over 10 years, I can guarantee that you will be intrigued and enlightened and eternally glad you did
I
posted December 13, 2009 at 3:32 pm
When the screen refreshed, it left out my name and url so I wanted to let you know the name and website associated with the previous comment.
Thanks!
Robin Main
http://www.santa-tizing.com
posted December 14, 2009 at 12:22 pm
MERRY CHRISTMAS everybody, and may God grant you ALL a safe and happy New Year!
posted December 14, 2009 at 2:26 pm
Happy Holiday, everyone!
posted December 14, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Blessed Winter Solstice!! Happy Chrismaka!! Merry Hannamas!!
posted December 15, 2009 at 2:27 pm
At the risk of being called a Scrooge, I just want to point out a few facts, as others have done. Christmas began as a pagan holiday, celebrated by Druids, Romans, Greeks, & many others to welcome the ( Re – ) birth of each culture’s particular Solar or fertility deity. When Constantine became the 1st Christian emperor of the Roman Empire, the old holiday was ” baptized “, the Solar deity was banished, & Christ was introduced in his place. Jesus was most likely born towards the Spring of the year, but his birthdate was changed by the early, newly – legitimized Church to make the old pagan holiday into a holiday that believers could observe without guilt. In the 20th – early 21st century, Christmas has become less about Jesus Christ’s coming into the world, & more about a fat guy in a red suit that can zip around the world in a single night, & also about getting that ” PERFECT ” gift for one’s kin or significant other, and attending parties. Okay, before dismissing me as a total Scrooge who has become dissillusioned with the holiday, let me say that the Christmas that counts is the one that a person celebrates in their own life. Does it honor Jesus, whose ” birthday ” it is supposed to be ? Does it honor Peace on Earth, Goodwill towards All Men Upon Whom God’s Favor Rests ? Or it is a season simply devoted to getting, giving & party – going ( also traveling to some exotic location, & maybe getting that Christmas bonus )? If it’s one of the 1st 2, then, just in my opinion, it is a worthwhile Christmas, worthy of observation, no matter what the world might think. Think about it, & thanks for your time. A Merry Christmas to all !
posted December 20, 2009 at 1:26 pm
Jesus was born on March 27th.
posted December 25, 2009 at 12:15 pm
The War on Christmas is more serious than you seem to think.
Santa’s dead!