Thursday, December 08, 2005
More Offensive Celebrations
It's Christmas time, and that means that all the stores are advertising their holiday sales, my firm is having a holiday party, and everyone is sending out their holiday cards.
It makes me sick.
I realize that not everyone in the world is Christian, but do Sikhs or Muslims or atheists really get into the "holiday spirit"? Do they put trees in their houses and decorate them with lights and ornaments? Do they give each other presents every December? Do they even talk about Santa Claus, let alone Jesus Christ?
Why oh why can't we call Christmas "Christmas"? I remember when I was young realizing that I shouldn't write the word "Xmas," because that takes "Christ" out of it (not realizing at that time that the X represents the cross, which represents Christ). But now we're not just taking Christ out of Christmas, we're taking Christmas out of Christmas.
As much as I harp on this subject, I even find myself in a pickle from time to time. The other day Shelly and I were writing our monthly newsletter to family and friends, and it was proposed that we should close with some sort of Merry Christmas greeting. But then we remembered that of the hundred or so people we send this mass email to, three of them are Jewish. I actually paused for a second and considered wishing everyone a happy holiday season instead. Or at least saying, "Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah." But then I remembered that I'm a Christian and although I hope my Jewish friends are happy and enjoy their Festival of Lights, it's important to me to remember why I'm so happy this time of year. Because of Jesus Christ. Plus, our Jewish friends are not jerks. So we wished everyone a Merry Christmas and left it at that. None of the three Jews complained, and one even wrote back to congratulate us and wish us well with our new baby.
Part of this whole thing for me is just annoyance at using the general term "holiday" when everone knows you mean the specific holiday Christmas. But there's an even worse danger I don't think of as much, and that's the well-documented commercialization of Christmas. Even when we call it Christmas, it's more like Holiday anyway.
As an example, I stated in an earlier post that I was excited last week to purchase new Christmas albums by Diana Krall and Jane Monheit. They are both fabulous recordings that I highly recommend. So focused was I on the word "Christmas" that I noted gleefully that most of Jane's songs actually have "Christmas" in the title, and Diana's whole album is entitled "Christmas Songs." But both of them are completely Christ-less. Although Jane sings the oft-forgotten "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," which includes the faith-affirming line "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep," nowhere on either album is Jesus ever mentioned. And that's kind of sad.
Of course, it's interesting that the all-Christmas-music all-the-time radio station here in DC, WASH-FM, promotes and talks about its "holiday" music, but plays exclusively Christmas songs, including even the occasional Jesus-centric song, from "Do You Hear What I Hear?" to "O Holy Night."
The other little irony about this whole thing for me is that society has no problem calling Easter "Easter." Maybe it's because Easter isn't as big a deal as Christmas. But stores don't sell "holiday candy" and "holiday baskets" and "holiday egg kits" in April.
Finally, opinionjournal.com's James Taranto gives this little observation that made me smile. He quotes the Houston Symphony Orchestra's website as posting the following announcement:
Then Taranto notes: "If they really want to be sensitive to those who can't stomach 'Christmas,' shouldn't they change the name of the work to, say, Handel's 'Dude'?"
It makes me sick.
I realize that not everyone in the world is Christian, but do Sikhs or Muslims or atheists really get into the "holiday spirit"? Do they put trees in their houses and decorate them with lights and ornaments? Do they give each other presents every December? Do they even talk about Santa Claus, let alone Jesus Christ?
Why oh why can't we call Christmas "Christmas"? I remember when I was young realizing that I shouldn't write the word "Xmas," because that takes "Christ" out of it (not realizing at that time that the X represents the cross, which represents Christ). But now we're not just taking Christ out of Christmas, we're taking Christmas out of Christmas.
As much as I harp on this subject, I even find myself in a pickle from time to time. The other day Shelly and I were writing our monthly newsletter to family and friends, and it was proposed that we should close with some sort of Merry Christmas greeting. But then we remembered that of the hundred or so people we send this mass email to, three of them are Jewish. I actually paused for a second and considered wishing everyone a happy holiday season instead. Or at least saying, "Merry Christmas and Happy Hannukah." But then I remembered that I'm a Christian and although I hope my Jewish friends are happy and enjoy their Festival of Lights, it's important to me to remember why I'm so happy this time of year. Because of Jesus Christ. Plus, our Jewish friends are not jerks. So we wished everyone a Merry Christmas and left it at that. None of the three Jews complained, and one even wrote back to congratulate us and wish us well with our new baby.
Part of this whole thing for me is just annoyance at using the general term "holiday" when everone knows you mean the specific holiday Christmas. But there's an even worse danger I don't think of as much, and that's the well-documented commercialization of Christmas. Even when we call it Christmas, it's more like Holiday anyway.
As an example, I stated in an earlier post that I was excited last week to purchase new Christmas albums by Diana Krall and Jane Monheit. They are both fabulous recordings that I highly recommend. So focused was I on the word "Christmas" that I noted gleefully that most of Jane's songs actually have "Christmas" in the title, and Diana's whole album is entitled "Christmas Songs." But both of them are completely Christ-less. Although Jane sings the oft-forgotten "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day," which includes the faith-affirming line "God is not dead, nor doth he sleep," nowhere on either album is Jesus ever mentioned. And that's kind of sad.
Of course, it's interesting that the all-Christmas-music all-the-time radio station here in DC, WASH-FM, promotes and talks about its "holiday" music, but plays exclusively Christmas songs, including even the occasional Jesus-centric song, from "Do You Hear What I Hear?" to "O Holy Night."
The other little irony about this whole thing for me is that society has no problem calling Easter "Easter." Maybe it's because Easter isn't as big a deal as Christmas. But stores don't sell "holiday candy" and "holiday baskets" and "holiday egg kits" in April.
Finally, opinionjournal.com's James Taranto gives this little observation that made me smile. He quotes the Houston Symphony Orchestra's website as posting the following announcement:
Handel's Messiah By Conductor Christopher Seaman
Both an awe-inspiring holiday tradition and a memorable religious experience, Handel's Messiah returns this holiday season. Guest conductor Christopher Seaman leads Houston's premier performance of Handel's choral masterwork, which includes the timeless Hallelujah Chorus.
Then Taranto notes: "If they really want to be sensitive to those who can't stomach 'Christmas,' shouldn't they change the name of the work to, say, Handel's 'Dude'?"
Comments:
You're not alone!
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-christmas9dec09,0,4039464.story?coll=la-home-headlines
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