My brother once proposed that the issue be resolved by cities setting aside an area where Christians could erect a créche, one on which Jews could display a menorah or another symbol of Chanukah, a space for those African-Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa, and a site of equal size provided for atheists which they could leave empty.
Committed non-believers have failed to recognize that Christmas is no longer exclusively a Christian holiday; Christmas has become a thoroughly secularized one, as well. While some devout Christians decry this, they should not. Just as July 4th fills most Americans with pride in our nation’s heritage and Memorial Day brings feelings of reverence and thanks to those servicemen who have given their lives to preserve our freedom, the Christmas season evokes in most Americans, religious or not, a spirit of “peace on earth, goodwill toward men”.
In its secularized form, during the Christmas season most people accept that it is the “season of good cheer” and act that way. Which is not a bad thing. The mood of individuals seems to soften – they become more generous, are more kindly-disposed toward others. It is a time when secular organizations collect toys for underprivileged children, donated in the spirit of charity. More than any other time during the year, people feel a concern for the poor, distribute food, arrange Christmas dinners for the homeless.
A statistic that one wonders how it was determined, claims people smile at one another more often during the Christmas season. Devout Christians should be gladdened that some of the spirit manifest in their celebration of the birth of Christ has radiated into the secular world.
Unfortunately, there is an increasingly dark side to the Christmas season. The commercial Christmas injects into the atmosphere the spirit of avarice and ill humor; it violates everything the season otherwise represents. People spend frivolously very hard earned money, often going into debt to do so. Through the power of advertising parents, many who cannot afford it, feel compelled to buy extremely high priced toys. Some men allow themselves to be convinced that women desire, above all else, expensive diamond jewelry. One advertiser urges men to buy themselves a Christmas gift, a $60,000 automobile.
The commercialization of Christmas has reached the point a devout Christian could believe the Devil has entered the Christmas season. If not actually evil, something distasteful has become pervasive. How else to explain otherwise ordinary Americans trampling another human to death and then stepping over his body? And for no better reason than to buy something at a reduced price. Not one or two vicious people, but 2,000 of them. There is no reason to believe that if any group of shoppers in that parking lot had been lifted and placed in front of the doors, they would have acted any differently.
It is easy to place the blame for the incidents on those shoppers, but the real culprits are the businesses that incite them. We should not permit these instincts to be deliberately aroused; this type of Black Friday event should be banned.
Aware of the pernicious effects of commercialized Christmas, we cannot avoid being part of it. However, when we become shoppers, we can at least do our best to prevent it from contaminating us. Smile at strangers and wish them a Merry Christmas. When a Grinch pushes in front of you in the checkout line, don’t fight it. Feel sorry that they are missing the joyfulness of the season. When you leave the store, put something in the Salvation Army kettle. Do so even if all you can afford is a dime. The thought behind it counts, not the amount, and you’ll feel good for it.
We are in a time when worry and despair seems to have spread across the land. Which is all the more reason, whether in its religious or secular form, we should, however briefly, open our hearts to the spirit of Christmas. And in the spirit of Christmas, be of good cheer, let peace on earth, good will toward men prevail.
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