Merry Christmas! Love, A Non-Believer

I love the holiday season. Thanksgiving is a stand-alone holiday and is awesome in its own right. But, once it’s over, and Black Friday begins, the “Holidays” officially commence. I count Black Friday as the first of the “Holidays” because it so much highlights one of the things I love most about the season: Capitalism baby! America is all about people trying to sell stuff to each other.

 

This truly is the “most wonderful time of the year” when people of all walks of life to try to get along better with each other. We give to and receive from each other. How awesome are PRESENTS!!! Everyone has a special day of their own each year to get presents: birthdays. The Holidays are a time for everyone to not only get but also to give each other PRESENTS!!! It is also a time to reflect on and discuss all the happened in our lives, both good and bad, during the year.

 

I really enjoy making and keeping traditions. The holiday season has some awesome ones, including: reveling in the novelty of snow and cold before both wear out their welcome and we wish it would just be Spring already; putting up and trimming the tree; hearing holiday music all month; celebrating the Winter Solstice and how daylight will only start to get longer from there; and kissing under the mistletoe.

 

My favorite holiday of all falls on December 25^th: the day known as Christmas. The family traditions of my childhood were centered on that day: from getting up first thing in the morning to dash to waiting presents to later on having dinner with loved ones. For non-Christians it can be awkward to celebrate a holiday called “Christmas.” Many of us choose to stick with the general refrain of “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” But the thing is that people were making merry on December 25^th long before there was a Jesus.

 

I encourage anyone reading this to check out this page on the website of a Christian group called “The Restored Church of God”:  http://www.thercg.org/books/ttooc.html This article essentially damns Christians for celebrating a holiday that was not theirs to begin with and one that Christ himself would frown upon his followers celebrating. I personally wouldn’t want Christians to feel bad for trying to celebrate their lord and savior during this season. In fact, I have a lot of respect for Christians who are devout enough to try to “put the Christ in Christmas” in spite of how difficult it is to do so when everything about this season is based in very non-Christian origins.

 

The non-religious nature of Christmas is truly evidenced in an American culture where neither “The Christmas Song” (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire) nor “A Christmas Story” (you’ll shoot your eye out!) have anything to do with Jesus or religion. Most telling is the fact that the word “Christmas,” though it contains the word “Christ,” and whose etymology comes from the Old English for “Christ’s mass,” is actually pronounced “ˈkris-məs.”

 

So, my Christian friends and family members, you can have your angels, Silent Night, Joy to the World, and nativity scenes. My family and I will take the rest because it doesn’t belong to you exclusively.

 

Merry Christmas!

Comments

[Jessie]

Liked the social commentary and introspection! You should blog more, John.

Appreciate your honesty more than you could imagine. So refreshing!

[Jen]

Happy Kwanzaa