Christmas
Some people know me as the guy who hates Christmas. This is probably an assumption made upon hearing me say things like, “I hate Christmas,” or “Christmas is for babies,” or “Christmas is for dummies.” The truth is that I love Christmas. As a religious observance, it’s beautiful. Christmas hymns often make me cry, and there’s nothing sweeter than the overwhelming love of God, realized and celebrated during the advent season. It’s all the other things that we’ve added to the holiday, to make it more fun or more inclusive or easier on the conscience, that I hate about the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. How in the world did a celebration of the incarnate God turn into what we have now? Frosty the Snowman? O Tenenbaum? Day After Thanksgiving Sales? Santa Clause?
Where, in the exchanging of Christmas wish lists or in heartwarming holiday television specials or in tiny bulbous lights wrapped around a dying tree which will certainly shed its prickly needles and embed them deep into our carpets and furniture, is Jesus revealed, displayed or celebrated? I say, let us treat Christmas like a tender brisket or steak. Let’s take a large knife with a sharp and sure blade and trim this holiday of its healthless, unsubstantial fatty portions. Made for television movies featuring Zach Effron or disgusting green ogres? Cut! Lengthy lists of toys purchased to ensure the happiness of children? Chop! Winter-oriented songs about blankets of snow or driving a sled over
blankets of snow? Slice! See? What’s left is the delicious, delicate meat. Tasty! Nutritious! Healthful! Yum!
Socrates once said that an unexamined life is not worth living. I say the same is true of our
holidays and traditions. We are adults. We have reason on our side. Let us use this powerful tool of cognizant thought to reflect on our holiday activities and choices. In recent years, conservatives have cried out against the war on Christmas. I say that holiday sales, enormous turkeys, tacky movies about Santa Clause and his brother, silver bells and evergreen trees placed into living rooms which would otherwise never house living plants (let alone, ones that makes such a mess) are the real war on Christmas. Christmas lovers, stand up! Arm yourself with the sword of critical reflection and the shield of maturity. The war on our beloved Lord’s incarnation celebration has been destroying the faith of
otherwise pious believers. We cannot stand by while Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Toys-R-Us suck the life-giving breath out of our most beloved and precious holy day. Be brave! Take courage! Never fear; this fight may not kill you.