Merry Christmas 2021

This is the cutest presentation of the Christian Gospel I have ever seen:  this video clip has really made my Christmas this year!

 
Even though I have been enthralled by the video above, with its adorable singer, I have also been thinking about what a weird hodge-podge of a festival Christmas is. In short, it is somewhat disingenuous of us Christians to claim that Christmas is all about Jesus – at least the way it is celebrated. I have written about this before on my other blog, but to me it is increasingly harder to ignore that what Christians call “Christmas” is a crude attempt to superimpose faith on an existing festival, and one which is very, very pagan, actually.

For instance, consider this: Two thousand years ago a pregnant young lady and her fiance of humble means travelled across their country and gave birth to a baby. Why on earth do we commemorate that by gathering together in our families for a huge meal of excess? It would make a lot more sense if people deliberately ate simple meals to symbolise the simplicity of the lives lived by Mary and Joseph.In fact, even the use of the word “merry” in the typcial Christmas greeting of “Merry Christmas” suggests a big feast, carousing, celebration – and getting merry. We don’t tend to say “Merry Easter” or “Merry Birthday”. What part of the story of Jesus’s birth lends itself to that kind of merrymaking, often to the point of drunkenness I’m sure it rarely snows anywhere near Bethlehem: why is snow/wintry cold weather such a central theme in so many Christmas cards, scenes etc? Like that Christmas carol which I rarely hear these days; “In the bleak midwinter….snow was falling snow on snow”…I think that the reason that no-one really sings it anymore because it is now clearly known to be inaccurate in that Jesus could not have been born in the bleak midwinter, because there is no bleak midwinter in that part of the world…snow was definitely not snowing snow on snow. Obviously the emphasis on snow is because Christmas is celebrated in what happens to be winter in the Northern hemisphere – and yet that snow is not in any way related to the actual birth of Christ, is it?! So why is it so often made synonymous with Christmas? Furthermore, why on earth does the decoration of a tree have anything to do with celebrating the birth of Christ? If a tree was in any way prominent in the story of the birth of Christ, then that would be understandable. But no trees are mentioned whatsoever in the story…but somehow the “Christmas Tree” has become central to the celebration of Christmas. In fact, the Christmas tree has achieved such a level of cultural penetration that I remember some observant Jewish friends telling me that at Hanukkah/around the festive season they also put up a tree, presumably decorated, and to avoid the idea of importing a tradition from non-Jewish origin, merely called it a “Rabbi tree”. This is a true story, in that someone actually truly told me that. At the time I laughed heartily…

On reflection, the “Christmas Tree” tradition would probably be my biggest quibble about the celebration of Christmas. Coming second would be the tradition of eating turkey at Christmas. Seriously. Turkeys are not even mentioned in the Bible, which is unsurprising considering that they are native to South America! If there is to be a definitive meat for Christmas, then same as at Easter, or indeed any Christian festival derivative from Judaism – it should be lamb, or goat (these two animals are often used interchangeably in the Bible, even though they are always recognised as different animals).

I was thinking that even the “obsession” with light at Christmas – the lights on the tree, candles etc – was probably ultimately derived from pre-Christian tradition to bring in light/fires in the literal darkness of winter. However light is also a huge and legitimate part of Christmas, in that Jesus is described as light in the darkness, and then there was the nativity star, and indeed the whole Christian gospel is about light coming into the darkness. So this one tradition safely translates. In fact, it is probably because of the concept of light versus darkness that Christmas was considered appropriate to remodel as a winter festival, to place it in the literal darkness of winter, just like the pagan rituals described above. I recently caught in passing a headline from a source I cannot now remember – the Independent? that suggested that Jesus may actually have been born in the Spring. But as Christians we’ve already got a very prominent Spring festival! Thankfully Easter is specifically tied to Jewish Passover, in the Bible, so no chance of placing it at the wrong time of year. However, to truly be accurate, surely it should be made to coincide with Jewish Passover every year?! But I discovered a few years ago that the Christian church use a different calculation to that which Jewish people use to calculate Passover (new moons). This absolutely horrified me. As Christians we must not forget that our faith stems from Judaism. By using a different calculation it is like the powers that be in Christianity as organised religion are trying to sever the Jewish roots and thereby possibly incurring wrath from the true Power that is, and always has been, that would be God Almighty of course, who still recognises the Jewish people as His special people – and always will.

Humorous sidenote: An hour or so ago, after I had written up this note, my Mum was watching another one of those Christmas videos that people create and share on social media. And she was saying how much she loved Christmas. Christmas is so amazing etc. And I was nodding along and agreeing. And then she said “And can you believe some people claim Christmas is a pagan festival?!” And then I hesitantly said said “Erm, well it kinda is, because of Christmas trees etc.” And then she laughed and said “Well we’ve taken it over!” And yes, that would be the same Mother who just yesterday was oohing and aahing over the video above just as much as I was. So maybe that is the conclusive end of it all: much of all that we celebrate is not remotely Christian or Biblical in origin, and we all know it, but we have happily appropriated it and we’re not going to give up any of it willingly, least of all the Christmas tree!!! On a more serious note, perhaps this is why Christmas can be such a time of contradictions, because it ?encapsulates? so many contradictory ?forces? (for wanting better words). So there is the peace and joy of the Biblical story, the promise of peace on earth – versus the rancour and human misery and environmental destruction caused by our own human greed due to the commercialisation of Christmas. Like for instance when people fight over items in stores on Boxing Day – not a very Christian sentiment at all. Or when retail workers are overstretched at Christmas for the sake of corporate profits. Or the people who are exploited to make these items in the first place, much of which can only be described as tat, and headed shortly for environmentally destructive landfill after the festivities. Or the debt that far too many people take on, out of pressure to give their families a “good Christmas”. Also, Christmas should be a time of looking outward to other people, and yet it is famously a very lonely time for many people who so easily fall through the cracks as the rest of us focus on our own families.