The Christmas Paradox

It is hard to believe that we are approaching the Christmas season. I can’t help but wonder what happened to all the time. It seems like yesterday I was just putting away Christmas decorations. While I do enjoy the Christmas season, I find it an extreme paradox. A holiday that is supposed to be based on the Christian messiah, but it really has little to do Christianity. Jesus was not born in December (I hope that doesn’t shock anyone), but one day is as good as another to celebrate I suppose. Then we have the mass consumption that ensues during this time even reaching to a point of being a mad feeding frenzy on the final few days. For many businesses, the holiday determines whether or not they survive. A bad Christmas season and they are out of business.

For me, it is this mass consumption mindset that bothers me along with the Churches defense of it being their sole dominion. Particularly since the early church originally objected to the holiday and at one time was even made illegal. For as surly as the Christmas season beginnings so do the lawsuits to either keep or have removed “religious” themes for public displays. Then along with lawsuits there will be the boycott company “X” for using “happy holidays” and shop at “Y” because they say, “Merry Christmas”. Armies of volunteers are marshaled to defend the sacred saying as if the phrase was endowed with magical or mystical power.

We really need to put this into a little focus. The phrase certainly does not help the value of the products that they sell. Nor, will it give the company a soul and improve its ethics in the here and now or the afterlife for that matter. Many of them may still support questionable or illegal activities in the countries that supply them the products that we must have. Our conscience might be better served to boycott these companies throughout the year for unethical treatment or exploitation of people and not over their marketing campaigns during a holiday.

I can’t help but feel that the message that the holiday supposedly brings is lost in the fever of hate and self-centeredness. Plus, the nature of the holiday emphasizes what really amount to an anti-Christian lifestyle of greed and gluttony as well as a non-Biblical message of works. What does it say about the faithful when they are so willing to punish and oppress others based on a greeting? Where is the living up to this grand message that they proclaim to have?

Before you go crazy, I am not suggesting that the holiday be canceled. What I am suggesting is that more thought and reflection be placed on the holiday. Does it make sense for the Christian or anyone for that matter to trample their neighbor while racing into Wal-Mart to get the latest gizmo or gadget? Are those things so important that we must max out our credit cards? Are we somehow less of a person if we don’t get something or get a particular thing? Are we teaching our kids to measure Christmas and possibly themselves by the number of things that they get or the dollar amount of the gift cards? None of this is reminiscent of a Norman Rockwell painting where family is gathered eating dinner and enjoying each other’s company. It seems that the “peace on earth and goodwill toward man” has been thrown out in favor of “get all you can, and the rest be damned”.

I think that we could go a long way to healing the America if we stressed the importance of people over things. There were times when Christmas was a little lacking and the kids got less, and parents got even less. But the emphasis was the family being together and enjoying the morning traditions that we had established. It is these traditions that the children still ask about and insist upon. The things gotten in the past are rarely talked about. Strangers and guest were always welcomed with open arms and given a place at the table. These are the things that made Christmas, Christmas.

Here is my hope. Instead of the Christmas being a lawn ornaments lighting the front yard or some park ride for five dollars a carload, maybe we could start lighting the lives of others. It would certainly have a larger impact on the world than some light show for a few days a year and pay much bigger dividends. Think about the end of the Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol, old Scrooge knew how to keep Christmas in his heart all year long. Can we say that? To do that requires a special and caring view of people.