Christmas is about Christmas, right? Uhmmm, well maybe not.
"Bottom line is Christmas is about Christmas. That's why we have it. It's not about winter solstice or Kwanzaa. It's like, 'Wow you guys, it's called Christmas for a reason.'" -Erin Ryan, president of the Redding (CA) Tea Party Patriots.
I hate to correct Mr. Ryan, but Christmas is only kind of sort of about Christmas, and even less about Jesus Christ. Sure, there are religious aspects to Christmas for a lot of people, and I would never belittle those beliefs, but Christmas is a complex four-sided beast of a holiday. Its origins lie in ancient paganism, and it retains many of those trappings. It was later adopted by Christians, who put their own spin on it (at least some of the time, in many ways it's kind of a "new" holiday). It's also a giant secular holiday about gift giving, parties, and family. The final side is either your favorite or least favorite, it's a holiday of corporate gluttony and a testament to the current American way of over-indulgence. (Don't worry, no judgement here, my family has always over-indulged!)
At the very core of Christmas is the winter solstice. Mr. Ryan proved his absolute stupidity by saying that Christmas is not about the winter solstice. Christmas is celebrated on Dec. 25th because of its proximity to the winter solstice. By the time the Christian Church developed, winter solstice celebrations were common throughout the world, and it made a great deal of sense to the early church to celebrate something at that time of year. If you knew you were going to lose one of your favorite holidays would you convert to a new religion? When you can't beat them, sometimes you have to join them! If you've ever bothered to read the Bible you'll find no mention of a December 25th date for the birth of Jesus, nor any mentions that the day of his birth should even be celebrated.
In many ways Christmas is a celebration of winter. We decorate with snowflakes, and it might be the only time all year we actively wish for snow. Since it tends to snow during the winter, and the winter solstice is the first day of winter, well you know, it's a part of that Christmas being about the winter solstice argument I've been trying to make. What's wrong with celebrating the natural turn of the Earth anyways? The winter solstice is a naturally occurring event, the recent outcry about acknowledging it in a Gap ad is almost laughable. Maybe next year we can prevent the solstice as not to offend the easily confused?
Ancient pagan winter solstice celebrations looked a lot like our modern Christmas. There were gift exchanges, and even some of the decorations those people used before the birth of Christ are still in use today. If you bother to really look at Christmas decor you'll notice that it's all green. The things we use to decorate are things that bloom and live through winter. That goes back to a very pagan concept called "like attracts like." If you want it to be warm again, you should probably surround yourself with green growing things. It's pretty simple. That's why we use holly, ivy, poinsettias, fir trees, mistletoe etc. Those were certainly never gifts from the Magi, they were the trappings of the winter solstice in Europe (with the exception of the poinsettia which is from Mexico).
You can try to take the pagan winter solstice out of Christmas, but you won't be left with very much. Even the birth narratives of Jesus reflect a kind of pagan outlook. Contrary to public belief, a great many sons of deity were born near or on the winter solstice, and a large amount of them were born with great celestial occurrences marking their birth. Many of them were also visited by kings or magicians, and had virgins for Moms. Most Bible scholars tend to discredit the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke (they are missing in Mark and John) as recent additions, a sort of cosmic mythology used to prove a theological point. There's certainly nothing in the latter parts of the New Testament to confirm any of the birth story. If Jesus had truly been born of a virgin under a magical star you think Paul might have mentioned it somewhere!
For most of its existence Christianity has tended to look down on Christmas a pagan celebration. It was a feast day in a lot of churches, but it wasn't the holiday par excellence it's become today. Until the 19th Century it was rarely celebrated at all, and it took a book, Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" to really establish the tradition. One of the more curious aspects of 'Carol' is that it completely takes the Christ out of Christmas. There are no mentions of Jesus in the book, and Dickens' Christmas is more of a Dionysian Revel than a religious holiday.
One of the best things about the grafting of the Jesus story onto the winter solstice holiday was that it prevented the holiday from just becoming a celebration of excess. While I'm quite in favor of Dionysian Revels, one of the truly magical things about the Holiday Season is that sense of compassion and charity it stirs up in so many of us. A great many people do a lot of wonderful things at Christmas-time, and that generous spirit has often been inspired by the legacy and teachings of Jesus. As I said before, Christmas is a complex thing, created from many different strands of thread, and I think all of them have contributed in positive ways to the holiday. In many ways, Christmas has come to represent the best of Christianity with that spirit of giving.
So much about Christmas these days is secular. While I can trace back a lot of trappings and traditions to winter solstice celebrations, there are a lot of elements about Christmas today that are strictly secular. While Santa Claus might claim Odin as a great-grandfather, he's a rather secular creation, molded into shape by a political cartoonist and the Coca-Cola Company. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer began his life as a department store tie-in. Frosty the Snowman has no religious connotations, but I can't imagine Christmas without him.
Of course these secular figures also represent that commercial aspect of Christmas that you either love or hate. Christmas is a celebration of consumerism. "Black Friday" is a holiday unto its self, the malls hum, and people make up lists of stuff that they want. l certainly don't mind this part of the holiday, and it also puts to rest the argument that Christmas is about Jesus, or even about the winter solstice, it's about all of those things, and spending money.
I love Christmas. I loved it as a Christian, I love it as a Pagan, and I love it as a shopper and watcher of Christmas TV specials. I hang my stocking by the bookshelf with care every year and put a nativity scene near by. I also have a few menorahs floating around the house (might as well invite everyone to the party). Christmas is about what YOU want it to be about. If Jesus is the reason for your season, that's great run with it and celebrate it, but don't tell me that's all that it's about. And if you believe that's all that it's about, please take down your Christmas tree, stop giving presents, and cut out the Santa Claus. Of course those of us who are smart revel in all of it, regardless of where it came from.
I hate to correct Mr. Ryan, but Christmas is only kind of sort of about Christmas, and even less about Jesus Christ. Sure, there are religious aspects to Christmas for a lot of people, and I would never belittle those beliefs, but Christmas is a complex four-sided beast of a holiday. Its origins lie in ancient paganism, and it retains many of those trappings. It was later adopted by Christians, who put their own spin on it (at least some of the time, in many ways it's kind of a "new" holiday). It's also a giant secular holiday about gift giving, parties, and family. The final side is either your favorite or least favorite, it's a holiday of corporate gluttony and a testament to the current American way of over-indulgence. (Don't worry, no judgement here, my family has always over-indulged!)
At the very core of Christmas is the winter solstice. Mr. Ryan proved his absolute stupidity by saying that Christmas is not about the winter solstice. Christmas is celebrated on Dec. 25th because of its proximity to the winter solstice. By the time the Christian Church developed, winter solstice celebrations were common throughout the world, and it made a great deal of sense to the early church to celebrate something at that time of year. If you knew you were going to lose one of your favorite holidays would you convert to a new religion? When you can't beat them, sometimes you have to join them! If you've ever bothered to read the Bible you'll find no mention of a December 25th date for the birth of Jesus, nor any mentions that the day of his birth should even be celebrated.
In many ways Christmas is a celebration of winter. We decorate with snowflakes, and it might be the only time all year we actively wish for snow. Since it tends to snow during the winter, and the winter solstice is the first day of winter, well you know, it's a part of that Christmas being about the winter solstice argument I've been trying to make. What's wrong with celebrating the natural turn of the Earth anyways? The winter solstice is a naturally occurring event, the recent outcry about acknowledging it in a Gap ad is almost laughable. Maybe next year we can prevent the solstice as not to offend the easily confused?
Ancient pagan winter solstice celebrations looked a lot like our modern Christmas. There were gift exchanges, and even some of the decorations those people used before the birth of Christ are still in use today. If you bother to really look at Christmas decor you'll notice that it's all green. The things we use to decorate are things that bloom and live through winter. That goes back to a very pagan concept called "like attracts like." If you want it to be warm again, you should probably surround yourself with green growing things. It's pretty simple. That's why we use holly, ivy, poinsettias, fir trees, mistletoe etc. Those were certainly never gifts from the Magi, they were the trappings of the winter solstice in Europe (with the exception of the poinsettia which is from Mexico).
You can try to take the pagan winter solstice out of Christmas, but you won't be left with very much. Even the birth narratives of Jesus reflect a kind of pagan outlook. Contrary to public belief, a great many sons of deity were born near or on the winter solstice, and a large amount of them were born with great celestial occurrences marking their birth. Many of them were also visited by kings or magicians, and had virgins for Moms. Most Bible scholars tend to discredit the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke (they are missing in Mark and John) as recent additions, a sort of cosmic mythology used to prove a theological point. There's certainly nothing in the latter parts of the New Testament to confirm any of the birth story. If Jesus had truly been born of a virgin under a magical star you think Paul might have mentioned it somewhere!
For most of its existence Christianity has tended to look down on Christmas a pagan celebration. It was a feast day in a lot of churches, but it wasn't the holiday par excellence it's become today. Until the 19th Century it was rarely celebrated at all, and it took a book, Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" to really establish the tradition. One of the more curious aspects of 'Carol' is that it completely takes the Christ out of Christmas. There are no mentions of Jesus in the book, and Dickens' Christmas is more of a Dionysian Revel than a religious holiday.
One of the best things about the grafting of the Jesus story onto the winter solstice holiday was that it prevented the holiday from just becoming a celebration of excess. While I'm quite in favor of Dionysian Revels, one of the truly magical things about the Holiday Season is that sense of compassion and charity it stirs up in so many of us. A great many people do a lot of wonderful things at Christmas-time, and that generous spirit has often been inspired by the legacy and teachings of Jesus. As I said before, Christmas is a complex thing, created from many different strands of thread, and I think all of them have contributed in positive ways to the holiday. In many ways, Christmas has come to represent the best of Christianity with that spirit of giving.
So much about Christmas these days is secular. While I can trace back a lot of trappings and traditions to winter solstice celebrations, there are a lot of elements about Christmas today that are strictly secular. While Santa Claus might claim Odin as a great-grandfather, he's a rather secular creation, molded into shape by a political cartoonist and the Coca-Cola Company. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer began his life as a department store tie-in. Frosty the Snowman has no religious connotations, but I can't imagine Christmas without him.
Of course these secular figures also represent that commercial aspect of Christmas that you either love or hate. Christmas is a celebration of consumerism. "Black Friday" is a holiday unto its self, the malls hum, and people make up lists of stuff that they want. l certainly don't mind this part of the holiday, and it also puts to rest the argument that Christmas is about Jesus, or even about the winter solstice, it's about all of those things, and spending money.
I love Christmas. I loved it as a Christian, I love it as a Pagan, and I love it as a shopper and watcher of Christmas TV specials. I hang my stocking by the bookshelf with care every year and put a nativity scene near by. I also have a few menorahs floating around the house (might as well invite everyone to the party). Christmas is about what YOU want it to be about. If Jesus is the reason for your season, that's great run with it and celebrate it, but don't tell me that's all that it's about. And if you believe that's all that it's about, please take down your Christmas tree, stop giving presents, and cut out the Santa Claus. Of course those of us who are smart revel in all of it, regardless of where it came from.