As a non-Christian, I am alternatively bemused and annoyed by the intensity of the holiday and the passions it generates. I fail to see what self-imposed stress, mass consumerism, and culture wars have to do with celebrating the birth of one of history's pre-eminent philosophers of tolerance and peace.
Too often, what I see around Christmas are the actions that define our culture's problems regardless of what is being said. Conservatives complaining about the secularization of Christmas conveniently fail to notice that it's not urban latte liberals buying mounds of plastic Santa crap at Walmart and driving the Nielson success of tepid secular Holiday Specials on TV (or if it is, they're a far larger majority than conservatives would care to admit). Liberals offended by the Christ in Christmas might want to consider that the core teachings of Jesus underpin the best of Christmas values, and that it's the secular aspect of the holiday that drives the most offensive behavior to liberal sensibilities. Peace and love are, after all, values associated with crunchy left wingers today, oddly enough. Why fight that when you can embrace it? Both sides of the political spectrum would do well to consider that their priorities and arguments in the Christmas wars are trending very close to self-parody.
Even as a non-Christian, I would happily re-emphasize the (accurate) religious side of the holiday with a few weeks of quiet national reflection on the values of peace, love, and moderation in exchance for stripping away the 6-8 week secular orgy of consumption, reindeer, and obnoxious pop carols. So there's my Christmas wish.
5 comments:
Hear, hear! This is a wonderful post that I can truly relate to Eric. I'm going to be brutally honest here for a moment, its a little embarrassing for me, but I think it will illustrate your point a little bit. I was brought up in the home of an agnostic and a non-practicing Christian-when-she-wants-to-be. Religion was just never part of my upbringing at all. In fact, it wasn't until I was a teenager that I understood Christmas to be religious and what it was all about. And then I really started to dislike the holiday. My thoughts were "They sure don't act like they are taking the holiday seriously according to their religious faith, it looks to me like an angry Christian would like to trample me with their cart to get to that cheap toy."
My partner grew up in a fairly religious family, and he explained a lot of it to me, but his religious family only denotes the religious nature of the holiday when they say their prayer before the meal - that is IT.
I would happily celebrate Christmas as you describe - reflection of peace, being close with family doing simple, non-consumerist activities together. I'm certainly tired of the played out Christmas movies, the rude people, and all the shopping, shopping, shopping. This is one of those times of year I am thankful that I don't watch TV.
We are spending Christmas at home, just the two of us this year, we are going to make simple food from local ingredients we've stockpiled, and we are going to enjoy games together, reading, playing with the cats, and relaxing. Sounds way better than coming home loaded down with lots of stuff you have to find room for!
I hope you and yours have a great relaxing holiday. And thank you for this post, I feel much the same way, but you articulated it much more eloquently and succinctly than I would have. I'd just end up sounding someone bitching and moaning. :-)
Hey, I do like me some "It's a Wonderful Life" now and then. And if "White Christmas" is wrong I don't want to be right.
Cheers.
Jennifer,
Thanks. We're doing the same; just the two of us and our farm-raised food. Quiet, calm, reflective. We were looking forward to Joanna's parents joining us, but weather has intervened, and they will be here in a few days instead. Just as good; the specific date is arbitrary.
It's worth noting that lots of family can be a really good thing as well, if they all like to celebrate the same way. Growing up, I spent most of my Christmas days with one side of the family that really emphasized the relaxing, non-consumptive, family time approach; we played games all day, ate lots of homemade food, did a brief family-family present exchange, took walks, etc. Very low on the stress, very high on the values.
Scott,
I was more referring to the marathon live or taped TV specials hosted by washed up celebrities and so on; less to specific classic films. Look at it this way; there's a difference between specific films that you can rent/own/watch when the family wants to, and specials put on for the sole purpose of getting people in front of the TV watching ads as long as possible. I've got no complaint with watching holiday films; I do with the idea that this holiday involves a blaring TV telling us what it's all about while hawking as much consumerism as possible.
Oh, no worries. I guess I've never seen the kind of Christmas tv specials you're talking about...that sounds dreadful. Merry Christmas (in my own, hopelessly irreligious way).
A Belated Merry Christmas, Eric.
Neil
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