OP/ED: The only real reason to hate Christmas
By Kyra Hoggan
I don’t see how a person as afflicted with ADD as myself could help but adore Christmas – all those twinkly lights and sparkly ornaments and bows and ribbons and bells, oh my!
I hear other people’s angst about the increasingly commercial aspect of the holiday, but that’s never troubled me over much. Seems to me if some over-entitled egomaniac wants to throw down with other Wal-Mart shoppers to snare the very last iPhone 5 for his toddler, that doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with Christmas, it just means the dude’s an idiot who’d be better off investing that electronics budget in a capable therapist or maybe some Lithium, you know?
My family doesn’t have to turn into materialistic, money-grubbing zombies every December just because TV commercials try to tempt us in that direction, having been blessed with brains of our own – we exchange gifts, sure, but we’re reasonably sane about it.
So, no, I don’t have much negative to say about Christmas … except this one issue that really gets my tinsel in a twist.
Years ago, I saw a woman wish a colleague a happy holiday. The recipient of said kindness actually turned around and yelled at the person offering it, patronizingly enunciating every syllable.
“It’s. Christ. Mas. Our. Lord’s. Birth. Day,” she hissed, before embarking on a diatribe so pompous it would’ve made Donald Trump’s toupee stand on end, about the meaning of the holiday and a world gone to hell in a handbasket because of the disrespectful, selfish ne’er-do-wells who would rob our Baby Jesus of his birthday by sacrificing same at the altar of politically-correct heathenism, and if those people can’t respect our traditions, well then, they should just go back to wherever they came from.
I think I displayed heroic restraint when I refrained from asking her where Christianity is originally from, and how/when Canadian First Nations people brought the word of Christ to HER people, who were clearly of European descent, and just how she would feel about going back to wherever she came from, after choosing to disrespect the Great Spirit and Mother Earth. Bon Voyage, Madam.
Having long ago chosen to refrain from engaging with bigots – which is about as pointless as trying to solicit Goodwill donations at a GOP convention – I just walked away … but in the intervening years have paid closer attention to the issue, and been shocked and dismayed at just how many decent, caring people hold similar (if less bigoted) views.
The first, most obvious offense, to me, in the it’s-Merry-Christmas-not-happy-holidays paradigm is the fact that there are ample, excellent reasons to get up-in-arms and angry in this world.
Child poverty, human trafficking, forced prostitution, corrupt politicians, autocorrect. Any of these are legitimate reasons to get upset and then some.
To choose to expend your energy and drive to change the world on condemning those who are trying to be nice to you is a true abomination, and SUCH an affront to all Christ stood for – goodwill, acceptance, love for thy fellow man, etc.
“Judge not lest ye be judged … unless someone tries to be kind to you, thus providing you the opportunity to judge them and find them wanting,” is not quite the Biblical quote. I don’t have to break a sweat to come up with an opinion of whether I think Jesus would find it a fitting tribute to Him that people should celebrate His birthday by smacking down others who were just expressing a kind sentiment, and excluding them from enjoying a holiday in which they are forced to participate (hence the term ‘statutory’ ) because they dared espouse a differing belief system.
Secondly, that attitude is an affront to history, and to truth – I adore watching those A&E documentaries about the historical underpinnings of both the Bible and Christian tradition, and I’ve literally never seen even the most pious Biblical historian argue that Dec. 25 is actually when Christ was born. It’s almost universally understood that Christmas wasn’t created until centuries after Christ died, and church leaders at the time chose the date to coincide with the pagan holiday of Winter Solstice in the hopes of presenting a Christian paradigm convenient enough that the general population might play along. And in terms of Canadian history, Christianity is absolutely not the traditional religion of our country … it was brought here by immigrants.
Finally, it’s an affront to the fundamental political foundation of our country. A separation of church and state has been recognized as vital to personal freedom, and inclusivity and acceptance of other cultures, views and … that’s right …religions has long been a baseline of the Canadian culture and self-perception. Yes, Muslims and Jews and people of other faith traditions DO have their own holidays – but I don’t recall Qwanza or Ramadan or Hanukkah being declared statutory holidays. Christmas means, for them, forced days off, in which they stay home and some have to pay their staff for the time off … but they’re not allowed to participate in the season even enough to say “Seasons Greetings” or “Happy Holidays”? How very Christian of us.
And I’ll tell you what else – they pay taxes in this community, same as everyone else, and I don’t hear them whining about having to spring for Christmas decorations or lights or community events. For someone to actually complain that city decorations don’t exclude them by focussing exclusively on Christianity – suffice it to say, if the city sign near the Shell station hadn’t read Seasons Greetings, you can bet your reindeer, there would’ve been a column about it.
I’m not willing to be angry at Christmastime, so I’m done ranting now. Let me sum up by saying this: I would never presume to tell anyone if, when, or how, to celebrate Christmas. But for me, it’s about love, and acceptance, and embracing ALL those around us: family, friends, and community. Not just parts of the community, all of it. To my mind, Jesus was pretty clear about wanting us to do that.
Peace, love and goodwill toward men will never be ours, as long as we keep finding excuses to exclude people from it.
