Beyond Greetings - The True Meaning of Christmas

My favorite TV Christmas Special is A Charlie Brown Christmas I like it because of one particular scene in the show. Charlie Brown is a bit depressed around Christmas time. Everyone is talking about what they want Santa to bring them. Lucy tells Charlie that Christmas is a "Big commercial racket run by a syndicate in the east." Charlie Brown is called on to direct the Christmas play and no one listens to him. They are all into their own thing. Charlie brings in a small natural Christmas tree because he thinks it needs him and everyone laughs at him.

Finally, in frustration, Charlie yells, "Doesn't anyone know what Christmas is all about?" Linus steps forward and says, "Sure, Charlie Brown, I do" A spot light shines down on him and he recites:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
(Luke 2:8-14)

He concludes by saying, "That's what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown."

It seems that the commercial interests, the right wing radicals, the left wing radicals, even the passionate Christian activists have forgotten this. We are so focused on what is said in a greeting or a corporate ad campaign that we have forgotten "the reason for the season." Whether we say "Happy Holidays," "Merry Christmas," or even "Merry X-mas" we all know the holiday being referred to. It is the one and only national holiday based entirely on a Biblical event. We can't escape that.

This is much more important than a word in a greeting. Some people have become so focused on the word "Christmas" they have forgotten about the Christ of Christmas. He came to bring Peace on Earth, Good will toward men, to lead us to glorify God. The recent debates have done little to promote peace, good will or the glory of God. And it has done the devils work by distracting from the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas cannot be separated from Good Friday and Easter. They are a package deal. Although Christmas has become the most celebrated holiday in our culture, the early church celebrated Easter for almost two centuries before celebrating Christmas. Why? It was what Christianity was all about. The miracle of the virgin birth would be only a physiological novelty or a less vulgar version of the Pagan stories of young women seduced by anthropomorphic Gods giving birth to heroes. But this story is different. This is not a half-divine hero. This is not even the story of a great teacher. This is the story of a redeemer, who pays the price of redemption by his own death. This is the Holy God who becomes the perfect man so he can die, not for his own sins, but for those of others. He is not dying for the "sin of the world" in the abstract, but for my sins, for those times I was hateful, or prideful, when I lied, when I stole, when I wanted someone dead, when I was unkind, when I did wrong. He died for me. He died for you. He didn't die for the "sin of the world" in the abstract. He died for the "Sin of Terri" up close and personal. He was the redeemer and the redemption together.

And then he rises from the dead, triumphant on the third day. He gives us the hope of eternal life. Not just an extension of our regular lives indefinitely, but of a transformed, transphysical existence which transcends the boundaries of regular physical existence. It is a great promise and a great hope.

The fight over Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas will soon be over. It will be a small scrimmage in the culture war, soon forgotten. What will endure is the work of Christ on the Cross. God gave you and me a gift. It is a gift of eternal life. It lies under your Christmas tree today (even if you don't have a tree). It is wrapped with a tag with your name on it and signed "Love Jesus". Will you leave it under the tree, or will you open it up? The choice is yours. He gave you the gift. But will you receive it.

Have a Merry Christmas, a Happy Holiday Season, but most of all, have a joyous Easter of the Soul as you celebrate your own Resurrection in Christ.

Corporate Greed, Timidity, Hypocrisy and Merry Christmas

Okay, for the past several days I've been focusing mostly on the anti-"happy holiday" crowd and the silliness of such an outcry over a rather minor point. But now, to be fair as a refugee from the culture war, I must say, the corporations stumbled big time on this one through a combination of greed, timidity and hypocrisy.

Certainly, many businesses instituted a "Happy Holidays" policy which played down or eliminated any mention of the word Christmas. This was likely done in part to reach out to those who do not celebrate Christmas and to be inclusive of such holidays as Kwanzaa and Channuka. Even though those celebrating such holidays represent a small portion of the total population when measured by millions of purchases in hundreds of stores, the potential profit is significant. And, even conservatives should agree that the main business of business is business.

However, sometimes you can be pennywise and pound foolish. Once such a policy became known, they were bound to know the Political Religious Right would make a meal of it. Ironically, this is one place where two traditional allies Big Business and Conservatism found themselves on opposite sides of the fence. The fact that there have not been wholesale firings of clerks saying "Merry Christmas" or any real sanctions or the fact that Christmas decorations dominate does nothing to ameliorate the fanatics on either side of the aisle.

Secondly, businesses which were founded by risk takers have been inherited by risk managers. Fear of giving offense in even minor ways has reached new levels in society. This is not without reason. I have heard unofficially that some businesses are claiming that they were in fear of lawsuits if they didn't back away from the use of "Merry Christmas." Of course, such a lawsuit would have little if any chance of even making it to court, simply fighting the filing could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. They probably figured that no one would be offended by "Happy Holidays" which was a reasonable assumption. But we live in unreasonable times and suddenly they find themselves caught between pressure groups being used as pawns in the culture war. And as we all know, pawns are the first pieces to be sacrificed in a chess match.

The thing that personally irritates me is the basic hypocrisy behind this. If the point was to be more inclusive of diverse people and their religious systems, the stores need to do something more than change their greeting. Look around these stores. Their clerks and signs say "Happy Holidays" but their merchandise and decorations say "Merry Christmas". You see Christmas Trees (even if called Holiday Trees, only one holiday uses a tree for decoration these days and that's Christmas), Christmas decorations, Santa Clauses, Frosty's, Nativity Scenes, Angels, Stars, Christmas Cards (with a tiny section of Channuka cards featuring little or no selections if any), Santa Hats on every head, and Christmas movie DVD's everywhere. The fact is that no one entering the store would know any other holidays were celebrated in December.

No matter what is said at the door, the truth is, it's a Christmas promotion. The stores would respond rightly that Christmas decorations dominate, because that is the most widely celebrated holiday with nearly 98 percent of the U.S. population celebrating it in some way. So, then why not be honest about it. You are targeting those who celebrate Christmas as your main customers. Why not be honest about it? You are not really promoting Channuka or Kwanzaa. So, why pretend to be interested in consumers who celebrate those holiday? Until you have a menorah in a display next to an angel or a Santa Claus, don't pretend that a generic greeting at the door makes your store one committed to diversity.

Again, the silliness of the culture war is seen. Greed and Timidity lead to a poor, offensive, and ineffective policy to give the illusion of inclusiveness. And gave the Religious Right a cause to be angry even at the most joyous and happy time of the year.

Merry Christmas to All. (Like I have a consumer base to worry about?)

The Real Threat to Christmas

I was watching “Miracle on 34th Street” (the original version with Natalie Wood as Susan) the other day. In one scene Kris Kringle complains about how commercialism is ruining Christmas. Alfred, the young janitor Kris has befriended, says, “Yeah, there are a lot of ‘ism’s out there, but commercialism is one of the woist.”

Certainly, I find that the greatest dangers to the true spirit of Christmas are not coming from some left wing conspiracy or “political correctness” but from some of those “ism’s” we see.

Let’s start with Alfred’s – Commercialism. As we noted in another posting, there is no way to actually separate the sacred from the secular in Christmas celebrations and, indeed, I’m not sure they can or should be separated. And part of the “secular” celebration of Christmas is the giving of gifts. What has started as a way to remember others in a special way, has turned into what a former pastor of mine called “an orgy of spending.” I knew one woman who would give a price tag to every gift when she was asked what she got. For instance, she wouldn’t say, “John, gave me a necklace.” Rather she would say, “John, gave me a $500 necklace.”

I know one woman who was offended that she was given the same gift as another woman in her office. She read some sort of insult into that fact. One wonders if the other woman who received the same gift felt the same way.

Indeed, it seems as if Christmas is defined by the gifts given. A Christmas tree without gifts under it seems barren. And Christmas Day is over once the gifts are opened in many households.

Businesses then respond to this and amplify it through their advertising and marketing of Christmas (whether they use the name or not) as being basically about the gifts given. Love = Expensive Gift seems to be the equation taught.

But that isn’t the only “ism” that is hurting Christmas. A second is secularism. I remember my mother telling a joke when I was a child about two women looking into a store window. Among the other Christmas decorations was a Nativity scene. One woman asked the other what that was, and the other woman explained. Upon hearing it, the first woman snorted in disgust, “They’re dragging religion into everything nowadays.”

Certainly, the secular is part and parcel of Christmas and always has been, but at it’s heart isthe sacred celebration of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. Even if one only sees him as a great teacher, he is worthy of the honor. However, in our popular culture you would think the holiday is about a jolly old fat man in a red suit. In fact, in more than one TV movie, Christmas is “saved” by someone helping out Santa in some way. At least, the book The Grinch Who Stole Christmas without mentioning the Nativity made the point that Christmas came without the decorations or gifts or dinner of “roast beast.”

Only one of the classic TV specials aired on the major networks even mentions Christ. That one is “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in which Charlie Brown in desperation asks if anyone knows the meaning of Christmas, and Linus steps into the light and tells the Christmas story.

I was watching a show on the Bravo network called something like “100 Things we Like about the Holidays.” Someone mentioned this special and said, “It seems like every other special sort of tap dances around this, but Linus says it outright.” Indeed, our whole society seems to be tap dancing around what we are celebrating.

While I am a big believer in the separation of Church and State, I have problems with Nativity Scene lawsuits. It’s like saying you can’t have a picture of Lincoln on display on Lincoln’s birthday. I can see fairness coming into play. You could add a menorah and some kwanza candles for the other holidays, but it seems odd that you have a birthday celebration and the one being honored is hardly ever mentioned.

Perhaps the greatest danger to Christmas is Activism and Fanaticism. And this comes from both the right and the left. I already mentioned in passing the Nativity scene lawsuits which marginalize the very core of the Christmas celebration. But the right wing, fundamentalists are not without fault here either. I’ve noticed that this year some Christians are almost militantly snapping “Merry Christmas” not so much as a greeting but as a quasi-political statement. Christmas itself has been co-opted by the conservatives as their own private property and are using it to drive a wedge between people of faith. By creating this false war on Christmas, they are hoping to undermine their political opponents. They are casting liberals in the role of a 21st century Scrooge trying to ban Christmas.

On the other hand for the past 20 years or so, there have been a core of Christian extremists who claim that Christmas is a pagan celebration and should not be celebrated. These condemn Christmas trees, decorations, gifts, and dinners as part of pagan debauchery because of the historical fact that Christmas was scheduled at about the same time as a Pagan celebration by the fourth century church in order to evangelize the pagans.

These are the real dangers to Christmas. The holiday will never be banned. It’s a big moneymaker. However, its vitality, its spirit, can be drained. But that can only happen if we let it. As for me, I choose to be joyful and try to remember the lessons of Peace, Love, and Joy taught by this season. I will remember the Christ child born in a manger, attended by angels and adored by shepherds and magi alike. I will also remember that child grown to an adult, teaching a wayward generation and eventually dying for my sins and being raised again giving me the hope of eternal life. I will remember my lessons of Christmas and none of the “ism’s” can take them away from me.

History or Nostalgia?

One characteristic of the culture war seems to be the substitution of nostalgia for history. I was watching a TV special about the history of the celebration of Christmas recently in which one historian commented that each generation remembers the Christmases they experienced as children and assume that those celebrations were and will continue to be eternal.

The evidence of history however shows that the celebration of Christmas has not been a completely stable tradition even in Western Civilization. For instance, the celebration of Christ’s birth was banned by the early church. While the death and resurrection of Christ was celebrated as early as the second century A.D., the birth of Christ was not celebrated until the middle of the fourth century.

The early church lived in a world where emperors were deified and their birthdays were made holidays usually celebrated with drunken reveling and bloody gladiatorial games. The church felt it was wrong to celebrate the birth of Christ as if He was an earthly ruler. Early church leaders even banned scholars from attempting to ascertain the date of Christ’s birth.

As the sway of paganism in Rome was being displaced by Christianity in the fourth century, Church leaders saw an opportunity to evangelize the “barbarian” Germanic tribes through the creation of a winter festival to coincide with pagan festivals. So, even though, much of the best scholarship of the time placed the birth of Christ in late March or early April, they decided to celebrate His birth in December (and early January).

So, the celebration of a Mass in honor of Christ (Christ-Mass) was instituted. Some pagan customs were Christianized. Holly, for instance, came to represent the shed blood of Jesus.

As an institution in the Catholic church, Christmas was carried over into the “high church” protestant traditions of the Lutheran and Anglican churches. However, with the rise of Puritanism, the traditions of both Catholicism and the “high church” were rejected. So, when the puritans immigrated to the New World, they made a conscious effort to reject such celebrations.

Massachusetts colony actually had a law on the books banning the celebration of Christmas which was on the books until the mid-1800’s. Other colonies (particularly those with higher numbers of Catholics or Lutherans) were less strict, but still the celebration of Christmas was not widespread in the New World. Even the United States Congress for it’s first 67 years did not recess for Christmas.

It wasn’t until the early 1800’s that Christmas began to make a comeback in the New World. But even then, it was a largely secular holiday. Most protestant churches had their roots in the puritan tradition and did not generally have Christmas programs. It was only when they saw their congregations visiting Catholic churches during the holidays that they began in the late 1800’s to respond with programs of their own.

The American tradition of Christmas has not ever been a mostly sacred holiday. It has always been largely a secular one. I’m not saying this to justify such an attitude but rather to create a perspective. Before we look back at some “ideal” time when Christ was the center of Christmas is more fantasy than historical reality. Even in the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, Christmas celebrations often became bacchanalian events with little concern about the Christ child.

We cannot look to history for a period when Christ was the center of Christmas. Such periods are brief, if they existed at all. However, we can individually make Christ the center of our Christmas and create a “historical” tradition in our own families that they will carry on to the next generation. The culture at large may not keep Christ always in Christmas, but you and I can.

Orson Wells, War of the Worlds and the "War on Christmas"

In 1938 Orson Wells and the Mercury Theatre of the Air threw the American public into panic with the broadcast of an adaptation of H.G. Wells' War of the Worlds. Presented as a news broadcast, the radio drama "reported" on an invasion of the world by martians. Those who had not heard the beginning of the program actually believed a real threat was posed by martians. People panicked, packed churches, evacuated towns, picked up arms and even committed suicide all because of an imaginary threat.
So, what does this have to do with Christmas? Well, in 2005 we have another imaginary war being reported, and as in 1938, the media is at the center of this tempest in a teapot.

Perhaps no single event emphasizes the silliness of the culture war more than the "attack" on Christmas being reported by Christian activists and even the mainstream media. To listen to some in the media, you would believe that the celebration of Christmas is threatened by governmental and corporate efforts.

Of course, a drive through any town or a stroll through any department store will belie the idea that Christmas as a celebration is in any real danger. At the intersection of the two busiest streets in my small town is a 30 foot Christmas tree. Looking out my window I see an inflated Santa on the lawn across the street from my house. I'm listening to the traditional Christmas music channel on MusicMatch radio, specifically "Joy to the World." A couple of mornings ago, I heard the high school marching band practicing "Silent Night" and "Angels We have heard on High."

So, why are the reports of the death of Christmas circulating on cable news shows and through the various Christian media? Is this totally made up? Where did it come from?

Well, there is not a simple answer. But much of it comes from two Fox News commentators John Gibson who wrote the book The War on Christmas: How the liberal plot to ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse than you Thought. I must have missed the newscast where anyone proposed banning Christmas. I'm sure the corporate interests alone would squash that one.

But hold on, according to some these corporate interests are in on the plot. They point out that many retail outlets do not use the phrase "Merry Christmas" in their advertising. This is true enough. Many do use Happy Holidays or Seasons Greetings. Isn't that an attack on Christmas?

Well, take a stroll down their aisles. We see Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas wrapping paper, Christmas Cards, Santa Clauses, and even nativity scenes for sale. The last I heard none of these were used in the celebration of Hannuka or Kwanza. In fact, you would be hard put to find a Mennorah or Star of David in any one of them.

But what about that "Happy Holidays" policy? Well, it's an attempt to appear to be inclusive of all the holidays when in reality the only holiday actually represented in the decorations is Christmas.

Besides you can put up the signs before Thanksgiving and not take them down until after New Years. And, in spite of reports to the contrary, there are no official punishments for clerks saying "Merry Christmas."

Companies are out to make money. By including Hannuka and Kwanza (even with using Happy Holidays) they hope to increase the bottom line. That is something that pro-business conservatives should understand.

So, what is really up? Just my take on it. I think some Christian activists are afraid that people will stop being angry for a few minutes over the holidays. Activism of any sort requires anger and a type of us-vs-them attitude. Christmas, by it's nature, inspires unity, setting aside differences, and extending love and tolerance (not acceptance or agreement, but tolerance) of others.


So, they begin to stir up some sort of false controversy. However, unlike Orson Wells' broadcast, where the panic was unintentional, the outrage is intended. They actually hope that people will believe that there is some sort of attack on our most beloved holiday. That way, they can promote other aspects of their agenda. Now, some parts of that agenda I agree with, but it is disingenuous to try to create a "war" where none exists.

This is the ultimate silliness.