The Conflict Around Christmas

As Thanksgiving comes and goes, the Weedsport School District and surrounding community, like so many other towns here in the United States, begin to prepare for the yearly celebration of Christmas. For many this is the highlight of the winter season and celebrations range from the madness of Black Friday to the decoration of the tree and house. Weedsport has many a street riddled with the seasonal strands of lights, all hailing in the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ…  

That is what many would tell you here in Weedsport. We as a community are primarily Catholic or other similar sect of religion that believe in Jesus and celebrate the 25th of December as his birthday. That said, many families attest to celebrating the holiday without the involvement of religion. These groups see Christmas as a time to relax and spend time with family, give gifts, and enjoy the merriment of the season.

The controversy around this is that because of the original intent of this holiday, the more secular members of this religion look down on the commercialization of their holiday and want to essentially put the “Christ” back into Christmas. They detest everything from Santa Claus to gift giving. While this is not an unreasonable request, there are many counter arguments against them which portray Christmas as a holiday that is not tied down to a religion. One that any and all are free to celebrate.

The latter side argues that Christmas is actually based around the Roman holiday Saturnalia, a celebration to the Roman deity Saturn. In this tradition, this was a holiday from all forms of work and schooling, included gift giving, and fell on the date of December 17th. The rich gave to the poor and as a celebration of the end of the harvest and preparation for winter. A tree was brought into domiciles to symbolize life and nature that is kept inside during winter.

Looking at this evidence, it is quite possible the modern celebration of Christmas was inspired, at least in part, by Saturnalia. However this is not an outright conclusion that the celebration of the birth of Christ was appropriated from this holiday. Christmas in the Catholic sense, shared many of these traditions.

The most reasonable assumption is that time melded these two celebrations together and that history carried these tradition out from beyond the borders in which they were created. Britain and other European tribes felled the Roman Empire, but cultural diffusion kept the pagan tradition of Saturnalia alive. Great Britain then spread out into colonies all over the world, and took their way of life with them.

The United States then chucked a yule log into the flames of this controversy in 1959. Groups associated with the John Birch Society (a radical right wing organisation founded by candy manufacturer Robert Welch in 1958 to fight the Communist menace to the United States.) published a pamphlet called “There Goes Christmas” claiming that there was a Communist plot to take the Christ out of Christmas. The John Birch Society itself acquired the idea of a War on Christmas from anti-Semitic publications that claims that Jews were starting a War on Christianity.

The term War on Christmas was then revived in the 1990’s in no small part by Bill O’Reilly who dragged the controversy around using the term “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas” into mainstream culture. The argument itself seems to be rather anti-multiculturalism but has continued to persist to recent media with the release of the “red cup” by the coffee store  Starbucks. In years past the Christmas season led to themed cups with anything from snowflakes to reindeer decorating the beverage container. This year however, the design is minimalistic in that the cup is now red. No decoration, no words, just the color red. By many this is seen as the latest battle in the “War on Christmas” and that their rights are being violated by its very existence.

Overall, extremism in either way can lead to conflict and controversy. However it should be said, in all of this conflict surrounding Christmas, the main point of the holiday is being missed. Whether you involve religion or not, Christmas is not a battlefield, and sometimes it’s just best to let sleeping reindeer lie and enjoy your holiday season with friends and family.