On Christmas
This year I've heard even more of the Christmas - Holiday argument. Here are my thoughts.
First of all, I love Christmas. I love the music, the gifts, the drinks (egg nog and the special Starbucks drinks), and the cooler weather. I hate crowds and consumerism, but that's beside the point.
I'm not a big fan of companies taking "Christmas" out of the advertising. I would say most of the gifts will be given on Christmas eve or on Christmas day. But I suppose they thought, "We can sell more items if we include Hannukah and Kwanza and just say 'Happy Holidays.'" Who knows if they're correct in their thinking, but it is certainly their right to choose their method of marketing.
It is also the right of the consumer to not visit a store that they disagree with. Usually we call this, "I don't like that store," and sometimes we call it a boycott. Realistically, we all 'boycott' stores--I don't like Chinese food so I don't go to Chinese restaurants. I'm prejudiced against their food. Other people don't like wing sauce so they avoid Wing Stop or B-dubs. Others can't stand barbeque. So they don't go to a restaurant that only serves barbeque. Of course, tastes are trivial in light of more important matters.
Just like people who avoid restaurants based on taste, so certain groups of people avoid stores because of philosophical differences. The case this Christmas is whether or not a store supported "Christmas" in their advertising. After the initial round of Holiday advertising, certain Christian groups wrote letters to various stores requesting that they advertise with Christmas. I think it's a reasonable request. I didn't request it, but I think it's reasonable. Some stores likely said, "no," while others added Christmas back to their ads later in the season (Target). It's a simple game of "What does my customer want."
Stores play that game every day. They stock the shelves with scores of items, and each item that they stock is there for a very specific purpose: to be bought by a consumer. If they don't plan to sell it, then it's bolted to the floor (think of the racks). Otherwise, everything they do is determined by the customer. In most cases, the customer votes on what he likes based on what he buys. Do you think that shirt is ugly? Well then, don't buy it. If enough customers agree with you, the store won't be stocking a shirt like that in the future.
Other times, customers vote on what they like by writing letters or issuing press releases. PETA did this with KFC a few years ago--something about KFC not treating their chickens with enough respect. To me, that is ridiculous. To PETA, it's a way of life. And in the same way, many Christians this year cast their votes against stores because of their advertising method. The most sacred thing to Christians, Christ, is being omitted from the very holiday that is making the stores gobs and gobs of money. It only seems reasonable to demand that the stores acquiesce and put Christ back in the holidays--after all, what do they care? Their main goal is to turn a profit.
It seems as though most of America no longer celebrates Christmas. It's simply the time to spend too much money on your kids and rack up some credit card debt. Maybe you and the family head up to the local church for a Christmas eve service, but really, if you think about the amount of time you spent on each event, the most important thing is the loot that is stashed underneath that plastic tree.
In this case, it is only reasonable that Christ is being taken out of Christmas. The reality is that this should be called the "What in the World Will I Get" Holiday--because that is how we treat it. In the same way that Christians took certain pagan symbols (the Christmas Tree) and included them with the Christmas celebration, so pagans today are taking the elements of Christmas out (giving gifts) and applying them to their own secular holiday. That's why we will hear Holiday Tree more and more each passing year.
Of course, to me, this is sad. Remember, I love Christmas. It's the best time of the year... But to me, it seems like the battle over Christmas is a battle that Christians lost a long time ago. We are giving the poor old cancer patient aspirin and saying it will solve the ills of the world. I am not saying we shouldn't fight this battle--not at all. You want to soothe the dying patient as much as possible. But the root of the cause is so much deeper.
The removal of Christmas is just another symptom of a disease which some may call post-modernism and others may call anti-Christian. Who knows what the disease really is. The thing about Christianity that we miss so often is that we, as Christians, are called to imitators of Christ. We are to love our neighbor. We are to care for the needy. We are to comfort the sick.
Sure, some of us do this really well, but most of us stink. We stink really bad. And as a result, the battle over the culture is already lost. And the most we can seem to muster is to be annoying and reflexive. "Oh crap! I can't believe they did that again. Honey, get me the typewriter so I can write another angry letter."
But our real response should be, "My neighbor is lost, I'd like for them to come to church with me." Of course, that statement lives in the land of "should be" where none of us really are. I just don't know how we can get there.
Comments
br Said: (January 1, 2006 12:37 PM)
i really enjoy your thoughts on this, i wrote something very similar before christmas and never posted it...so, can i put up a link to yours? (not really going to wait for permission...)