Christmas Is for All of Us

While I agree with the author that most of the important aspects of Christmas are secular, one cannot escape the fact that Christmas was originally intended to be a religious holiday. All of the secular aspects that the author cited were incorporated into the religious celebration by its earliest celebrants as a means of using this “Holy Day” as a means of influencing moral behavior, something religious leaders always do, for good or ill.

The most celebrated story associated with Christmas, is Dicken's “A Christmas Carol” and it is noteworthy that in the entire story, there is only one, passing allusion to Jesus Christ, coming in Tiny Tim's thoughtful observation that he hoped that people saw him in church because being crippled “it might be pleasant to them to remember upon Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk, and blind men see."

Nevertheless, the whole thrust of the story is secular - man's moral responsibility to his fellow creatures; it was a social commentary on the appaling conditions that working class people in England were experiencing; a political commentary on the distribution of wealth and the control that the wealthy had over the poor. Scrooge's transgressions were not merely religious ones, but moral ones. As Marley's ghost put it, "Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were, all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!"

The original purpose of the drive to “Put Christ back into Christmas” wasn't intended to be exclusionary, but was rather a backlash at the overt commercialization that has turned this religious holiday into just another profit center; a gauge for measuring the success or failure of America's retailers. Its unfortunate that political agendas have misdirected that purpose into an exclusionary celebration and hanging out a sign “For Christians Only.”

The answer to this is less secularization of Christmas, not more. Put Christmas back into the religious box where it belonged in the first place; take all the trappings down from the public forum; and eliminate Christmas as a national holiday. At the same time, people should commit themselves to the true “business” of mankind; mercy, forebearance and benevolence. These qualities should not have anything to do with a religious observation, no matter how many people observe it. Everyone will still be able to get together with family and friends, eat and drink to excess, and give each other gifts if they wish. Local communities can still hold coat drives, perhaps because it is a human and humane thing to do, rather than “because its Christmas.”

In the end, Scrooge's redemption is not a religious epihany but a moral one. He does not awaken on Christmas morning committed to attending church or to pray more often, but to properly attend to the “business” of mankind, as Marley's ghost had admonished him.

Mark of NJ 12:10PM December 25, 2011