A war on Christmas? No — it’s nothing but a noisy complainer’s power play
A war on Christmas? Humbug!
The usual suspects are grousing about a “war on Christmas.” It would be laughable if it were not so predictable. There is no war on Christmas. There was one — more than 370 years ago. It was waged by conservative Christians (the Puritans), and Christmas barely recovered from it.
What we have today is just another salvo in a continuous war over Christmas by folks who want to use it to advance their own interests. It’s about power. It’s not an effort to better celebrate the birth of Jesus.
The ruckus this year focuses on efforts to reduce travel over the long holiday weekend and thereby reduce exposure to the deadly coronavirus that has so far killed more than 320,000 Americans. Those efforts are interpreted as a liberal/communist/whatever plot to cancel Christmas. These strident voices and their inane conspiracy theories do more harm to Christmas than a thousand rants by atheists and anti-theists.
Christmas has been a battleground since its inception a few hundred years after the birth it celebrates. Even the origin of Christmas is disputed. The standard version that you’ll read in so many poorly researched articles and books is that Christians stole the holiday from pagans. It is certainly true that Christians chose to celebrate Jesus’ birth in the midst of a huge party season in Rome. But Christians had good reason to believe that Dec. 25 was the correct date, and they were willing to duke it out with the empire over rights to it.
Pagan claims to the date go back to the year 274, when the Roman Emperor Aurelian declared Dec. 25 a holiday marking the birthday of the sun. But as early as 221, Christian historian Sextus Julius Africanus had claimed the date as Jesus’ birthday in his “Chronicle,” a catalog of world events.
The holiday of the birthday of the sun never caught on, if it was ever actually celebrated. But the birthday of the son is still vigorously celebrated today, despite the efforts of those who want to turn it to some other purpose.
The “war on Christmas” humbug marks right up there with ravings against the use of “x,” as in “Xmas.” We’re not talking “The X-Files” here, or Brand X either. From the earliest days, when space on writing materials was at a premium, “x” was a common abbreviation for Christ. Why? Because “x” is the first letter of the name Christos in Greek, a primary language of the ancient world.
Maybe what we really need here is a war on ignorance and the way some wily operators try to use ignorance to manipulate others.
By the way, Christmas is a season, not a single day. It lasts from Dec. 25 to Epiphany, Jan. 6. So you’ve got 12 days to wish others a merry (which is to say, a blessed) Christmas. Or happy holidays. Whatever you think will bring the most cheer to those you’re addressing.
Jim Hopwood is a semi-retired United Methodist minister, now pastor of Edgerton United Methodist Church in Edgerton, Kansas. He is a former staff member at The Kansas City Star and the author of “Keeping Christmas: Finding Joy in a Season of Excess and Strife.”