God Forbid: Exploring what the Christmas Season is and Should Be

Around this time of year, a warm, cuddly feeling fills the freezing cold air at Kennebunk High School, where all through the final week before break, we feel the spirit of Christmas giving us a big, encouraging hug, and coaxing us into completely neglecting our assignments.

Perhaps Christmastime enthusiasm around here is just a little bit ironic; we live in a particular area of the world where, if someone sneezes and you say “God Bless You,” you’re almost obliged to add, “No offense.” So what causes a ruthlessly secular people to be so enthusiastic about a religious holiday? Well, that’s clear: The TRUE meaning of Christmas. No, you dummy, not the joy caused by a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, or the unparalleled happiness in His salvation. We’re in Maine. We love Christmas for legitimate reasons, thank you very much. These include the shelter of warmth in your home amidst a storm right outside your window. Perhaps it’s the long wait for Santa Claus that grows excitingly shorter as you crave that morning more each day. Or, perhaps it’s the togetherness that we feel just accepting that Christmas is a big deal and going along with it like everyone else.

Is this right? (I’m not going to leave it to debate, by the way, the answer is ‘no’). It’s nice to be a part of the “holiday spirit” every year, but what we get out of it should be something legitimately important. Everyone knows and loves the Charlie Brown Christmas Special from the ‘60s: Everyone loves Christmas for its commercial appeal until Linus shows them something more important in the Bible chapter of Luke, verses 8-14. They realize that the foundation of Christmas – the reason for its existence as a celebration – brings them far more joy than aluminum trees, shopping, and pageants. The only difference is that today we call people like Linus “hypocrites,” “morons,” and “haters,” just on the knowledge that they are Christians1.

In a place where we strive to do what is right, because we believe it is right, we must avoid the deadly hypocrisy of persecuting anyone for their faith, in any way, because we share the world with them. So I’d encourage you, the reader (if there’s anybody out there) to think, the next time you look at your shiny, decorated tree, or wrap a present for a loved one, or go into Mr. Black’s room: What could cause an entire world to feel Christmas’s joy? What is the root of this happiness in an otherwise bleak winter? When you think about it, you may even decide that Charlie Brown isn’t such a blockhead after all. God Bless, and Merry Christmas.

 

1 – I have been called all of these things because of my faith in the last month and many times in my life.

 

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I do not have a problem with the fact that people say “Happy Holidays.” Hanukkah and Kwanzaa are significant holidays with which I neither have a problem nor condone that anyone else does. I do have a problem with the way people refuse to accept an offering of “Merry Christmas.” I was personally verbally presented with the threat of a lawsuit at work for saying those two words, very routinely, in parting with a customer. Lighten up! Christmas isn’t hurting you, and undermining the 1st Amendment for the sake of ‘political correctness’ certainly isn’t helping anyone