Abolish Christmas? Humbug!
Resist
temptation to throw holy infant
out with the bath water.
By Gerry Bowler • Special to ChristianWeek
As I write this, the weather on the prairies is unseasonably hot but there are unmistakable signs that the seasons are about to change. Yellow leaves are wafting to the ground, geese are gathering in vees overhead and horrible new fall television series have appeared. But I cast my mind beyond these autumnal splendors to the winter that will surely follow and ask you to join me in considering Christmas.
There is a movement these days amongst some Protestant groups in North America to do away with Christmas, part of a centuries-old struggle about the proper way to mark the Nativity of Jesus. Citing its alleged origins in pagan festivals, its long association with Roman Catholic ceremonial and present-day excesses, these critics would like to consign it to the same historical scrap heap that contains other discredited holidays such as Saturnalia, the Feast of Fools and Alan Eagleson’s birthday.
Though many Christians are uneasy about modern trends that secularize and commercialize Christmas, most would say that abolishing all celebrations of Christianity’s second most important feast would be to throw the holy infant out with the bath water. What is needed, they would assert, is a change in the way we think about Christmas.
And so I proclaim a week in October International Let’s Talk About Christmas Week, echoing a call first made by the American Christian organization Alternatives for Simple Living. Let us use this time, when we are still free from the pressures that mount as December 25 approaches, to consider how our families can celebrate Christ’s birth in a fashion that does him honor. Here are some things to think about.
1. Plan to reduce anxiety and stress. Use this week to plan activities in which the Christmas workload is shared and not disproportionately piled on to mother’s shoulders. Don’t assume that you need to blindly follow old traditions; ask your family what they would really like to do and what they would like Christmas to mean. Ask your church to reconsider those time-consuming Christmas pageants and concerts and to replace them with simpler ways of expressing the Christmas message.
2. Plan to spend less money. It is a sad irony that the birth of the One who asked us to consider the lilies of the field should prompt an annual consumer feeding frenzy that plunges too many of us into debt. Set a limit on spending. Draw names of family members instead of assuming that each must receive something from everyone else. Give your children one gift they would really like instead of a plethora of presents. Stay out of the malls and look for gift shops that feature crafts made in developing countries. Think about presents and decorations that you and the family can make yourselves.
3. Plan to spend more of yourself. The baby Jesus was God’s gift to humanity. Imitate that gift by giving your time to charitable causes and to family members. Visit those who are shut-in or hospitalized. Volunteer at a soup kitchen or food bank and take your children with you. Take a portion of what you spent last year on gifts and give it to the needy. Follow the old Scandinavian Christmas custom and scatter food in your yard for the winter birds.
4. Plan to emphasize the religious nature of the holiday. Remember that Christmas is not just a day but an entire season in the Christian calendar. Teach your family about the meanings of the Annunciation, Advent, Childermas and Epiphany and the rich lore that surrounds the Nativity. Replace the thoroughly commercial figure of Santa Claus with more Christian examples of gift-givers: the wise men, Saint Nicholas or the Christ Child.
Christmas must be a time of celebration, not a time to be endured or hurried through, to emerge in January fatter and poorer. If we pause now to examine our motives and our actions we can make the season a richer time for ourselves and set an example for our neighbors.
Gerry Bowler is a Winnipeg writer and historian. He can be reached at gbowler@videon.wave.ca
