Christmas and the Holidays
I’ve been noticeably absent from posting this month. The holidays, my grandmother’s passing and work has kept me pre-occupied. One of my goals for the new year is to get to post on here as much as possible. But we all know how new year’s resolutions go.
Today I wanted to post about Christmas. Seems fitting being that it is today. We are not really celebrating Christmas this year due to my Grandmother’s passing. We’ll have dinner and a few presents, but it won’t be like years past. In the past we would have rivers of presents lining the tree, on the piano, the floor, everywhere. It was so bad you couldn’t walk some years through the hall. My mother loves getting presents for people.
Which bring me to the point of my post. What is Christmas today. I ask because I love Christmas but am not really that religious. So is it a religious holiday or has it grown to a national tradition? I’ve argued this with friends, some Jewish, who feel that Christmas is solidly a religious holiday. To be sure, most Jews do not celebrate it for the religious connotations. And also, a great deal of Christians do feel it’s about the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Where then do those people, like me, who have some of their fondest memories of Christmas as a child but aren’t religious at all fit in?
Initially I’d say, you fit in where you choose to. I have a friend that is an Atheist and he loves celebrating Christmas. For him it’s a time to come together, forget grievances, and celebrate all the good fortunes we have in our lives. The quandary comes in when you try to share a family, household, traditions with those that feel Christmas is more than a national holiday.
I feel that Christmas is what you want it to be. A jolly fat man in a red suit flying around the world delivering presents really doesn’t have much to do with Christianity. In fact, the more we look and investigate, Christmas was actually created and celebrated by ancient people’s. Perhaps not in it’s current form but the Winter Solstice was celebrated on December 25th many years before Christ was born.
What does all this have to do with me? I am starting a relationship with someone that does not want a Christmas tree or to celebrate Christmas. It’s a point of contention for sure. She is Jewish and feels that the holiday can dilute a Jewish home. The Jewish people, of which I partially belong on my father’s side, are a people that hold strongly to their traditions. I can respect and understand this but at the same time does the inclusion of a new tradition really threaten existing ones?
I have found that answer to be yes, oddly. Even though Christmas truly does pre-date Christianity, due to how deeply it is now intertwinedwith Christmas, makes it, to some, a religious holiday. That fact precludes it’s inclusion in many households, not just Jewish ones. Though the holiday Thanksgiving is welcomed by all that come to the U.S., as is Halloween, Christmas is not. I find it interesting that Halloween, with heavily rooted traditions in pagan beliefs, is so widely accepted and Christmas is not.
It seems that Christmas has become the last stand for many. Jews even modified their own holiday, Chanukah, to include the giving of gifts instead of putting up a tree. That was not part of the holiday before the 1900′s and I don’t believe that aspect of the tradition is done in Israel. Chanukah isn’t even a major holiday for Jewish culture, it’s really meant for just the kids.
The end result? I may not get a Christmas tree for a few years. People, and cultures, are tend to borrow and even steal traditions from one another rapidly. Just as Christmas has roots in ancient cultures, it has been modified and fitted to fit the times and people of today. I suspect that tradition will continue for years to come, the slight tweaking of traditions from culture to culture, year after year.
Bottom line, enjoy the holidays. I find it equally as interesting that every culture has some form of celebration during this time of year. Christians, Jews, Muslims, most celebrate something. So even if your situation changes, you’ll likely be able to celebrate some type of holiday during the winter solstice. You could even celebrate just the solstice itself and honor the real origins of this time of year.
And with that, I wish you all Happy Holidays!
