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Secularization of Christmas

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"The Holiday" redirects here. For the film, see The Holiday (2006 film)
A Macy's storefront in San Francisco, California during December 2004.
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A Macy's storefront in San Francisco, California during December 2004.

The secularization of Christmas and the War on Christmas refer to the notion that the traditions of Christmas are under attack from a general secular trend, or from a conspiracy of anti-Christian forces, or both. While differenet versions of this argument have existed for two centuries, there are significant differences between them. The term "War on Christmas" was first coined by Peter Brimelow in the December 12, 2000 column at VDARE.com. It is now widely used, even by commentators who deny that any such thing exists.

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Protestantism

Prior to the Victorian era, Christmas was primarily a religious holiday, and its importance was often considered secondary to Epiphany and Easter. As was the case with other Christian holidays, it borrowed elements from pagan culture, including the Advent period, gift giving, yule logs, Christmas trees, decorations such as candles, holly, and mistletoe. During the various Protestant reformations, these paganizing elements were a source of controversy. Some sects, such as the Puritans, rejected Christmas as an entirely pagan holiday. Others rejected certain aspects of Christmas as paganizing, but wanted to retain the "essence" of the holiday as a celebration of the Christ's birth. This tension put in motion an ongoing debate about the proper observance of Christmas.

19th Century

The current state of observance of Christmas is largely the result of a mid-Victorian revival of the holiday spearheaded by Charles Dickens, who in A Christmas Carol sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity, in contrast to the prior, community and church centered observations whose observance slowly dwindled in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The holiday, remade as a family centered rather than community centered festival, carried its own set of contradictions: the practice of gift-giving raised the possibility of commercial cooptation, and the familial rather than community focus of the holiday was not particularly conducive to communal religious observance.Ronald Hutton, Stations of the Sun: The Ritual Year in England. (Oxford, 2001) ISBN 0192854488

Early 20th Century

In the early twentieth century, Christian writers such as C. S. Lewis had already noted a distinct split between the religious and secular observance of Christmas. In Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus, Lewis gives a satire of the observance of two simultaneous holidays in "Niatirb" (Britain backwards) from the supposed view of the Greek historian and traveller. One, "Exmas", is observed by a flurry of compulsory commercial activity and expensive indulgence in alcoholic beverages. The other, "Crissmas," is observed in Niatirb's temples. Lewis's narrator asks a priest "why they kept Crissmas on the same day as Exmas?" He receives the reply:

"It is not lawful, O Stranger, for us to change the date of Crissmas, but would that Zeus would put it into the minds of the Niatirbians to keep Exmas at some other time or not to keep it at all. For Exmas and theRush distract the minds even of the few from sacred things. And we indeed are glad that men should make merry at Crissmas; but in Exmas there is no merriment left." And when I asked him why they endured the Rush, he replied, "It is, O Stranger, a racket. . . ."[Exmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus] by C. S. Lewis
The December 1957 News and Views published by the Church League of America, an organization co-founded in 1937 by George Washington Robnett[#endnote_uoregon] attacked the use of Xmas in an article titled "X=The Unknown Quantity." The claims were picked up later by Gerald L.K. Smith who in December 1966 claimed that Xmas was a "blasphemous omission of the name of Christ" and that "'X' is referred to as being symbolical of the unknown quantity." Smith further argued that Jews introduced Santa Claus to suppress the New Testament accounts of Jesus, and that the United Nations at the behest of "world Jewry" had "outlawed the name of Christ." [#endnote_kominsky]

Christmas observances were banned in the Soviet Union and under certain other Communist regimes.

21st Century

The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought
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The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought

In the year 2000 and subsequently, the analysis of a "War on Christmas" became a prominent piece of conservative cultural criticism. The idea of a war on Christmas in America gained prominence following extensive coverage on the Fox News Channel. The channel's commentators Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity first spoke of a "war on Christmas" in the months leading up to the 2004 holiday season, and picked up the topic again in late 2005. In particular, they cited certain school decisions and municipal codes that were supposed to single out Christmas observances for special restriction.

In several cases, the news items mentioned on Fox were denied by the persons involved. For example, O'Reilly said that the township of Saginaw, Michigan, "opposes red and green clothing on anyone." The town supervisor responded that "O'Reilly's comments are flat-out not true...the township hall has red and green Christmas lights adorning the building at night." [#endnote_media matters] Nevertheless, these reports bolstered a widespread popular sentiment that Christmas was being attacked by the political left. This was, and is, widely discussed on the Internet, especially in the blogosphere. A Fox News / Opinion Dynamics poll for November 29–30, 2005 found that 42% of respondents believe that "there is a War on Christmas in the US today," with 48% in disagreement. Media Matters for America, a watchdog group critical of conservative media, reported that from Monday, November 28, to Friday, December 2, Fox News aired 58 different reports, interviews, and debates about the War on Christmas. [8] Many print and television media outlets are skeptical, calling it a conspiracy theory or a deliberate attempt to further a conservative Christian agenda. [1] [31]

The phrase "Season's Greetings," as opposed to "Merry Christmas," has become a particular concern to many people. The phrase "Season's Greetings" is used on many postcards, (as, for example, those sent out by the ALA), and by door clerks at Wal-Mart and other major stores. Again, O'Reilly argued: "Every company in America should be on their knees thanking Jesus for being born. Without Christmas, most American businesses would be far less profitable," O'Reilly said on a Fox News program. "More than enough reason for business to be screaming 'Merry Christmas'." Critics, however, point out that attempting to include non-Christians in Christmas by generalizing the holiday is a wholly capitalistic method of increasing profits — the more people affected by marketing, the more people will come out and purchase. [7]

While the controversy over the phrase "Season's Greetings" strongly echoes Robnett's concern about the phrase "Xmas," the "War on Christmas" idea, however, differs from earlier discussions of the secularization of Christmas in two important regards. First, it treats many of the paganizing elements of Christmas observance as if they were essentially Christian symbols, so that, for example, Saginaw's purported ban of red and green clothing is an anti-Christian act. This is in contrast to many earlier critics of Christmas, such as the Puritans or the Jehovah's Witnesses, the removal of Christmas trees, yule logs, and so forth would be viewd as pro-Christian.

Second, earlier critics have usually seen Christian observance as coming under attack from generalized secular and capitalist trends. Modern critics tend to see Christmas as being specifically attacked by a conspiracy of secular forces, and are less concerned about the commericialization of Christmas per se. For example, John Gibson, wrote a book entitled The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday Is Worse Than You Thought (ISBN 1595230165), which was published in October of 2005. Gibson and others claim the abolition of Christmas (War on Christmas) is part of a broader "culture war" waged by progressives. O'Reilly claimed that "it's all part of the secular progressive agenda ... to get Christianity and spirituality and Judaism out of the public square." He also went on to say that this larger agenda includes "legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage." [3] In this alleged recent movement, Gibson has charged that a wide array of groups, including "liberals," "secular progressives," the ACLU, the Anti-Defamation League, and Americans United for Separation of Church and State are the forces behind the attack, while O'Reilly has focused more narrowly on the ACLU and billionaire financier George Soros. [4] [5]

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Secularization of other Christian holidays

''See: Spring/winter holiday

Organizations

References

Notes

  1. ↑  ["Subject guide to Conservative and Libertarian materials, in Manuscript collections" University of Oregon]
  2. ↑  Kominsky, Morris (1970). The Hoaxers: Plain Liars, Fancy Liars and Damned Liars, pages 137-138 ISBN 0828312885
  3. ↑  Goldberg, Michelle. ["How the secular humanist grinch didn't steal Christmas."] Salon.com. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  4. ↑  Davis, Matthew. ["Lines drawn in battle over Christmas."] BBC News. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  5. ↑  "[O'Reilly: 'War' on Christmas part of 'secular progressive agenda' that includes 'legalization of narcotics, euthanasia, abortion at will, gay marriage']." Media Matters. 21 November 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  6. ↑  "[O'Reilly: 'There's a very secret plan ... to diminish Christian philosophy in the U.S.A.']" Media Matters. 30 November 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  7. ↑  "[O'Reilly: Soros is 'Moneyman' Behind War on Christmas.]" Daily Kos. 2 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  8. ↑  O'Reilly, Bill. "[Take your Christmas and stuff it.]" Jewish World Review. 13 December 2004. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  9. ↑  Saunders, Greg. "[Christmas Slime Is Here Again.]" This Modern World. 7 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  10. ↑  "[Battlefront Fox: Cable network aggressively promoted idea of Christmas 'war']." Media Matters. 7 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  11. ↑  "[Newspapers, commentators agree: Virginia, there is no War on Christmas]." Media Matters. 23 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  12. ↑  McAdam, Harry and Tim Spanton. "[Battle to save CRIMBO.]" Accessed 26 December 2005.
  13. ↑  "[Happy Holidays From the Republican National Committee.]" Accessed 26 December 2005.
  14. ↑  "[Target Ad: Gather Round.]" Target.com. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  15. ↑  "[Boycott of Target over next Christmas.]" World Net Daily. 2 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  16. ↑  "[Bill O'Reilly doubleplusungood.]" onegoodmove. 4 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  17. ↑  "[Have President Bush, First Lady And Republican National Committee Joined 'War On Christmas'?]" Americans United for Separation of Church and State. 30 November 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  18. ↑  Cooperman, Alan. "['Holiday' Cards Ring Hollow for Some on Bushes' List.]" Washington Post. 7 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  19. ↑  ["O'Reilly falsely claimed a Texas school district banned red and green clothing, called move 'fascism'."] MediaMatters.org. Accessed 25 December 2005.
  20. ↑  Breen, Kim. ["O'Reilly: I made mistake]". The Dallas Morning News. 21 December 2005. Accessed 25 December 2005.
  21. ↑  ["'Red & Green Clothing Ban' False Rumor"]. PISD.edu. 12 December 2005. Accessed 25 December 2005.
  22. ↑  "[O'Reilly's claim about Michigan town's opposition to Christmas colors is 'flat-out not true'.]" Media Matters. 13 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  23. ↑  "[Saginaw Township On The O'Reilly Factor Radio Program.]" WNEM TV5. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  24. ↑  "[O'Reilly falsely claimed that 'spiritual' Christmas stamps are no longer being offered.]" Media Matters. 13 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  25. ↑  "[War on Christmas Fraud Exposed: The Silent Night 'Rewrite' That Wasn’t.]" Think Progress. 14 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  26. ↑  Lewin, Adrienne Mand. "[Critics Aren't Keeping Quiet Over 'Silent Night' Lyrics Change.]" ABCnews.com. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  27. ↑  Cline, Austin. "[Christian Conspiracy Theories and the War on Christmas.]" About.com. 28 November 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  28. ↑  "[Keep Christ in Christmas.]" Knights of Columbus. 7 December 2005. Accessed 26 December 2005.
  29. ↑  "[O'Reilly retreats in 'war on Christmas,' declaring: 'Happy Holidays is fine'] Media Matters. 20 December 2005. Accessed 28 December 2005.
  30. ↑ [link]
  31. ↑  Young, Cathy. "[What "Happy Holidays"?: Raging Christmas nitwits will be back next year.]" Reason Online. 28 December 2004.
  32. ↑  [Media Matters report on Bill O'Reilly]
  33. ↑  [The Dodgeville School District sues the Liberty Counsel.]
  34. ↑  "[Newspapers, commentators agree: Virginia, there is no War on Christmas] Media Matters. 23 December 2005.

See also

External links

 

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