Pastor Dan's Christmas Challenge

Oh God, Christmastime again *HURL* why do we need so much Christian propaganda everywhere? -Avery

What's the big deal with putting Christ back in Christmas? His name is right there in the label. How much more IN could he get?-Mike

Of course I don't want people wishing me Merry Christmas. It's a Christian Holiday. I am not a Christian. Why is that hard to understand? -TardisTime

Christmas is OUR Holiday. So of course it will have OUR imagery. Get a big enough celebration of something YOU worship, and then we'll start taking out the pentagrams or whatever and see how YOU like it. -Anonymous



Yesterday was the first Sunday of Advent, the beginning of a new liturgical year and the church season of hope for the coming of Christ. It is NOT, contrary to popular opinion, the CHRISTMAS season, which has twelve days and starts on December 25th. (You may have heard a song about it.)

But despite that little inaccuracy, Christmas is in the air, on the air, on the buildings, on the radio, on the Lifetime movies, you name it. As you can see, I had some Christmas related questions building up, and so after waiting until after Thanksgiving to answer them (you're welcome) I realize that we have a running theme here... Christmas as a Christian Holiday.

On the surface it seems obvious. Christ Mass, the celebration Mass (sharing of the Eucharist) that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. It is, as Mike said, right there in the name. But the answer is more complex than that.

We haven't the foggiest notion of when Christ was actually born. I've seen in some recent conversation the supposition that he was born in July, but that is really wild conjecture based on more wild conjecture around guesses of the nature of the Bethlehem star, and about as likely to be correct as the process that selected December 25th, insofar as both are drawing from a 365 day pool, each of which has an equal chance of being correct.

No one involved in setting Christmas on December 25th did so because "it's his birthday".

Christmas came to be celebrated in the way it was (evergreen trees, in the winter, etc) because a number of converts didn't want to give up their celebration of Winter Solstice. They brought the party, and the priests provided the name and some new imagery. For a great many people, the party, not the theology, was the point, and so an ancient celebration got some new duds and just kept trucking along.

That's kind of what the really good parties do... they have a life force almost entirely their own, an energy that is the real point, regardless of the trimmings the partiers put on them.

So what is Christmas now? To a great many people, especially my Atheists, it remains THE Christian Holiday, the time of year in which the prevalence of Christian ideals in our society are the most visible... but is it, really? The Party has changed before, and there are certainly a great deal of Christians claiming that it isn't theirs anymore... so what is the Party now? Has it changed?

I have a slanted view of this. I am literally contractually obligated to attend a great deal of specifically religious iterations of the Party, and so the Christmas I see still has a lot of the religious imagery interwoven. But my experience is almost certainly an outlier, and this is where the challenge comes in.

This may also serve as a way to take some of the irritation out of the season for folks who are tired of being bombarded by Christian imagery this time of year, as well, by giving you a quick mental exercise each time you do it. Give it a shot.

This December, every time you see some sort of representation of Christmas in culture, no matter where you find it, pretend for a moment that you have never heard the name "Christ," rendering the title itself meaningless. Then, with those outsiders eyes, look at the thing you have seen(or listen to the thing you have heard) and try to imagine what you would assume this supposedly religious holiday is all about now.

Is it a memorial of the birth of a magic child who is now worshiped? Is it a call to buy buy buy? Is it a celebration of traditional family? Is it a big "Yay! Winter is Great!" party? Is it a time for caring for those in need?

If you REALLY want to nerd out, keep track of what you see, and then send me your results. I'll take all I get and talk about it again after Christmas is done.

My suspicion is that we will find that, though the name has stayed the same, the party has changed yet again. But I can't say that with certainty yet... so if you'll accept the challenge, we'll do the research.

At the very least, it will give you something to do besides wishing you could stab the Mall Santa.