By: Mary Mostert, Analyst, Banner of Liberty (www.bannerofliberty.com)
December 25, 2004
I’ve been reading a lot of stories about what many think is a “new” problem: Having Christ in Christmas or as the Wall Street Journal puts it: Christmas and Christianity.
The first time I wrote about this “problem” was thirty-six years ago, when I had six children at home, with five of them in a Western New York suburban school district. At the time I wrote a weekly editorial page column and I was an agnostic-humanist. The area had a large Jewish minority, and the rabbi in one of the liberal Jewish Synagogues had gone to the school board to complain about Christmas trees. It was reported in the paper that he had said that “while most Christians do not feel the Christmas tree is a religious symbol, the majority of Jews feel it is and it does hurt Jewish sensitivities.”
I suppose, as an agnostic-humanist it was supposed to hurt my sensitivities too – only, I knew perfectly well that the Christmas tree is not a Christian religious symbol. And in a column which I called “How Scrooges Spoil Christmas” I responded to the rabbi as follows:
“The poor Christmas Tree just can’t win. First it was banned in America by the Puritans because it was a pagan symbol, handed down from Scandinavian tree worshippers. Now it is in danger of being banned by Jews for being Christian. If this keeps up, the first thing you know we are going to have to have a Christmas Advisory Board – made up, naturally, of non-Christians – to tell us what Christianity is.“In fact, we may need such a board soon in Penfield. At the height of our Christmas controversy, we had an open house at the new junior high school. The 9th grade science classes had made atom model of the first 20 elements and hung them on the lights. One of the models had been made of small Christmas tree ornaments by a Jewish child.
“I related this to one of the Rabbi’s supporters and asked if the display (1) indicated a fine ecumenical spirit (2) was a breach of the separation of church and state, or (3) was just a clever use of available materials for a science project?
“I was told that teachers ought to do this kind of project in February to avoid that sort of thing.”
What have we all learned in the past 36 years about this issue? Apparently not very much. In fact, this now nationwide debate I’m afraid indicates there are a lot of Christians whose religious faith is so shaky they now believe the Christmas tree actually IS a Christian religious symbol. About 30 years ago I abandoned agnosticism and became a Christian. However, I still totally agree with what I wrote on this subject 36 years ago. I think it bears repeating for all sides in this latest Christmas Tree War:
“If some people would ban Christmas trees and atom models made from tree ornaments because they consider them ‘religious symbolism,’ it is only a matter of time before quite large chunks of our cultural heritage are banned. There will be others who will object to Negro spirituals, the music of the 15th through the 17th centuries, the history of the crusades and the Reformation, Renaissance art and Abraham Lincoln’s Bible quoting speeches.“Christmas trees are not religious symbols, except perhaps to the Druids and the Scandinavian tree worshippers.
“But how dark and dreary December would be without them! They are fun and they are pretty. They make children laugh and adults smile. They make strangers speak kindly to each other and harried shoppers pause for rest. They gather cans of food under their branches for hungry children and they give sparkles to the eyes of those who are nearly without hope.
“Christmas Scrooges who object to present day Christmas because it is either too much a religious symbol for some or because it is too much commercialism for others ought to stop and listen to the sounds of December. The sounds of December are happy sounds.
“In a world so full of woe and war, misery and despair, anger and hat, you’d think that people could find something better to do with their time than pick on a little Christmas tree in a kindergartner’s room.”
Christmas trees are a cultural symbol and the date, December 25th, has nothing at all to do with the birth of Christ – since the Scriptures tell us plainly that the Shepherds were in the fields that night. The weather in the town of Bethlehem 2000 years ago was not that much different than it is today and shepherds would not be in the fields in the middle of the winter. They would have been in the fields beginning in early April to about October.
So why do we celebrate His birth on December 25th? Saturnalia, in pagan Europe and the Roman Empire commemorated the birth of the sun god in late December. Saturnalia was celebrated by getting together with family and friends and merry-making, prayer for the protection of winter crops, celebration of the beginning of the Solar Year and honoring deities. Early Christians sort of swiped the sun god’s birthday. At the time, it seemed a good public relations move, since Saturnalia marked the time when once again the days would begin to get longer.
Christmas is the broadest imaginable cultural celebration when nights are long and cold. Anyone, regardless of their beliefs, or lack thereof, who is determined to destroy Christmas, is, indeed, a Scrooge. The best approach to a Scrooge is to smile broadly and to tell them heartily, MERRY CHRISTMAS, MR. SCROOGE!
To Comment: Mary Mostert