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Coronado

Keeping Christmas by J. F. Kelly, Jr. 12/26/07

I asked the very pleasant clerk at the local post office for some Christmas stamps the other day. “Which ones would you like?” she asked me, holding up an assortment of stamp sheets commemorating Hannukah, Kawanzaa, snowpersons, reindeer and miscellaneous snowy scenes. “The Christmas ones,” I replied reaching for the stamps depicting the Madonna and Child, the only stamp in the batch having anything actually to do with Christmas.

The post office was far too busy and the clerk much too rushed for me to belabor the point, and besides, I didn’t want anyone to “go postal” over my lack of political correctness. But customs die hard and Christmas means too much to Christians to allow it to be stripped of its real meaning, at least without a polite protest.

Christmas Day is literally the birthday of Jesus Christ and it is one of the two holiest days of the year for Christians, the other being Easter which marks His resurrection from the dead. It may come as a shock to many young Americans, but Christmas was not originally established as a national holiday in order to provide a convenient date for Santa Claus to drop down the chimney and Easter is not all about the annual visit of the Easter Bunny to fill straw baskets with chocolate covered marshmallow eggs.

Mind you, I have absolutely nothing against Santa, the Easter Bunny, snow persons or Rudolph the Red-nosed reindeer except when the political correctness authorities decree that they most be substituted for the religious figures and symbols that are actually relevant to the holiday. Nor do I have too much of a problem with the commercialization of Christmas, at least to degree. Gift-giving is fun and “Christmas” shopping is good for the economy, bringing great profits to believers and non-believers alike. Indeed, for many businesses, “Christmas” sales are the difference between a profitable year and a non-profitable one. I’m all for the former, so long as it doesn’t bankrupt families or cause great economic stress and anxiety. The Christmas season is supposed, after all, to be joyous, peaceful and calm.

Indeed, Christmas is an occasion of great joy and celebrations for the Christians that make up five-sixths of the population of this land founded by Christians and rooted in Christian-Judeo principles. Many of them came here to escape religious persecution and to practice their own forms of Christianity free from state interference. They wisely provided for freedom of religious practice and for the separation of church and state But Christianity was and is the predominant religion of the land and ours is a predominately Christian culture. It probably never occurred to the founders that some day political correctness would extend to the point that Christmas displays in public facilities would be forbidden.

Christians and non-Christians, believers and non-believers alike are invited to share in that joy and to enjoy all the customs and celebrations associated with the season. But in deference to history and to Christians, the reason for the season should not be forgotten or banished from public display. And the reason for the season is not the arrival of winter or the observance of Hannuka, which my Jewish friends tell me is a minor feast day, or of Kwanzaa, a harvest feast observed by a relatively small percentage of African-Americans, or of Santa Claus. The federal holiday is Christmas. That’s because the founders were Christians who established a nation under God and who wished to provide for a national observance of the birthday of His Son.

What I object to is not efforts to promote inclusion or to guard against state endorsement of a particular religion to the exclusion of others. My objection is the overkill represented by banning any religious displays or speech associated with Christmas. When, for example, businesses instruct their employees to not wish customers a Merry Christmas for fear of offending someone, I wonder just what it is that is so  offensive about a custom practiced in this country since its founding and that is as American as apple pie. And when local governments prohibit Christmas Carols (the real ones, not Jingle Bells) or other seasonal religious music or displays, they are robbing an overwhelming majority of Americans of some of our richest culture.

If, through the efforts of a small minority in a land where majority rule is supposed to prevail, the celebration of Christmas becomes relegated exclusively to homes and churches, then the American culture will be all the poorer for it. Meanwhile, in keeping with the cherished custom, I extend to one and all a very Merry Christmas. CRO

copyright 2007 J. F. Kelly, Jr.

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