Restoring the meaning of Christmas

For years, people have complained about the increasing commercialism of Christmas, and the concurrent decline in the meaning of the holiday. Maureen Dowd -- no doubt a secularist --recently wrote a column titled "Jingle Bell Schlock" in the New York Times, in which she admitted, "I've never said this out loud before, but I can't stand Christmas." To those who regularly read Maureen Dowd's columns (for whatever reason you choose to subject yourself to that, you have my pity), this was probably not the surprise she hoped it would be. In the article, she mentions reasons why she hates Christmas, "besides the obvious fact that yuppies have drenched the holidays in ever more absurd levels of consumerism." This article also lists some complaints about the commercialization of Christmas, not only from the author, but also those he solicited from readers. And as Charles Krauthammer put it in a recent (and excellent) article, "It is Christmastime, and what would Christmas be without the usual platoon of annoying pettifoggers rising annually to strip Christmas of any Christian content?"

This year has seen a sea change. This story discusses how many Christians are attempting to re-emphasize the meaning of the Christmas celebration. These reclamation efforts are in response to years of lawsuits and threats of lawsuits by -- who else -- the ACLU to keep Christ out of public Christmas displays.

Ours is a pluralistic society, open to people of all faiths, or none. The solution is not, as American Atheists would have it, to remove all religious displays from the public square. It is to welcome all celebrants into the culture. Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. Hanukkah celebrates the miracle that one day's worth of oil burned for eight days during the rededication of the Jewish temple. Each holiday has its own story. No parts of the stories need to be excised to make them "comfortable" for non-adherents. That is not the tradition of our free society. There is nothing wrong with Christians trying to restore the true reason for the Christmas season in the culture, which by necessity will change the emphasis of the holiday from its recent commercialization. As the angel said, Fear not.