i am really puzzled by all this huffing and puffing by conservatives about how christmas is an endangered species in american culture. (e.g.). maybe it's because i view christmas essentially as an outsider, i just can't see them as anything but horribly misguided.
i am not christian, i was not raised christian, and i never celebrated christmas as a child. as a result, on a certain level at least, i will never totally get christmas. i watch as the end of the year approaches and my surroundings become increasingly christmas-centric, the decorations appear, the religious imagery is everywhere, everyone pretends to be nice to each other. i buy presents for people and people buy presents for me. but as much as i enjoy the benefits of christmas that i get from my christian in-laws and various friends (e.g. the food, the gifts), its not the same for me. it is fun but not magical. i look around and see people around me feeling something that i simply am not feeling. when i look at a christmas tree i get no glowy feeling in my gut, i just see a dead tree with a lot of stuff on it. it can be pretty, sure. but then it's still a pretty dead tree with stuff on it. i think you need to have celebrated christmas as a child to get the glow as an adult. even though i now celebrate christmas each year, i do not experience the holiday with that larger-than-life sense. it just is another, albeit unusual, day for me.
because i'm coming to the holiday as an outsider, without a lot of the emotional baggage, i think that makes me a better judge of the state of christmas than some of the conservative critics. and from my perspective, the critics are ridiculous.
you really cannot seriously argue that christmas is not ubiquitous in american society for the last 5 to 6 weeks of the year. beginning in mid-to-late november, we are all awash in all things christmas. it is literally everywhere. although a lot of it is secular, religious stuff is everywhere too, notwithstanding the objections of some talking heads on t.v.
for every "holiday party" there are at least a dozen "christmas parties." indeed, i haven't even been to a "holiday party" yet this year, although i've been to a 5 or 6 "christmas parties." that includes my own law firm's christmas party where four of the seven attorneys are jews.
and while the news media can find one or two shopping malls in a nation of nearly 300 million people with a menorah but not a nativity scene, they don't seem to notice that the opposite is far far more common. (e.g. the place next door to my office)
don't get me wrong, i don't care all that much about menorahs or nativity scenes. this stuff really doesn't offend me. but i can't help but see this whole controversy as simply absurd on its face. maybe christians who take their religion seriously notice the non-christian stuff more than the christian stuff. the familiar things always seem to fade unnoticed into the background. to them, a menorah or "happy holidays" really stands out in a way that a cross or "merry christmas" does not. they probably don't even notice what they don't notice.
but to me, their claims of christmas under assault just look ludicrious. it's like we're all walking through a haystack together when someone points to a single needle and yells "what happened to all the hay?"
(note: this post is an expansion of a comment i wrote at tripp's site)
ADDENDUM: okay, this is kind of funny (via atrios)
