Stealing Christmas (from Christ) Part 2
Or: Christless Christmas Begins
Christmas is no longer (exclusively) a Christian holiday. There I’ve said it. The elephant in the room has a name tag. This is an obvious observation; one that any of us could verify at any time, in any mall in the western world.
There exists a completely separate secular Christmas and it’s popular, I mean really popular. Every year, the Santa worshipers increase their lead over team virgin birthday. This majority is quiet, filled with people either unaware or unwilling to admit their own allegiance.
Take a moment to think about your Christmas; is it more Kringle or Christ? Look around your home and take inventory of your Santas and your snowmen. How many baby Jesus decorations did you find? One? In your nativity scene, right?
Christmas was once based on Christ but many of us don’t celebrate that Christmas anymore. We pretend it isn’t true. We trim our trees and sing our songs and light candles on Christmas Eve yet we always feel like we’re crashing the party. We‘ve been raised to believe that Christmas is for Christians; but why? Who says so?
I want Christmas too!
I love Christmas. It’s my favorite time each year. I love the lights, I love finding the perfect tree, I love listening to Christmas carols and eating my Mother’s peanut butter fudge[i]. I savor the merriness that arises in people for those few precious weeks after Thanksgiving. People become almost tolerable.
Christmas reflects my childhood and rekindles in me the last handful of traditions I’ve maintained. I clutch them tightly. Every December my eyes grow wide looking at lights. I listen to Frank Sinatra and Vince Guaraldia, Nat King Cole and Burl Ives. I spend fifteen minutes testing branches for an ornament I’ve had over twenty years. In a mind as muddled as mine these memories are important. Christmas is important. Christmas means something to me…
But,
I am not a Christian. I played the role for many years[ii] , but it never agreed with me. I do know a lot about the baby Jesus and his virgin birth; his manger and his wise men, his kings and especially his giant star.
I went to high school in
So where does that leave me?
I am not a Christian and I love Christmas.
I am not a Christian and I love Christmas. It feels good to say that.
I feel less like a mouse stealing Christmas crumbs.
Raise your hands. Are there others like me? Are you on your tippie-toes in the back of the room, trying desperately to join in all the reindeer games? Has your enjoyment of Christmas been hampered by your lack of Christ?
No more! Let the Christians keep their Christmas (as if they need my permission). This year I’m proclaiming my own, Christless Christmas.
A non Christian Christmas; the oxymoron is delightful.
There isn’t much to change. I mean what the hell do reindeer, elves and snowmen have to do with the birth of the Messiah anyway? Christless Christmas is already here. All I have to do is advertise!
This year, if you are not a Christian and you love Christmas; stand proud! Enjoy your Christmas. Celebrate what it means to you. This year, stop feeling like an intruder in your own traditions. Hang your stockings, bake your cookies and wish everyone you know a Merry Christless Christmas!
[i] I’m fat, just in case you didn’t read Stealing Christmas (from Christ) part 1
[ii] I attended Sunday school for years as a child, I even sang in a church choir. This was followed by four years in a Catholic high school and eleven years of collegiate philosophy classes such as Comparative/ world religions and Philosophy of Religion.
[iii] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlehem,_Pennsylvania#Christmas_star
