Sick of Christmas

I could have written this post more than two months ago, when I actually started to feel this way. And I write it even as I sit next to my lit Christmas Tree. I am sick of Christmas.

Christmas is largely an empty holiday. On one side, there is Commercial Christmas, which exists solely to provide profits to companies. It is a Christmas founded on greed that attempts to use morality to justify itself: “Be good, and you’ll get lots of stuff!” “Be good, and get stuff for others!” Then there is Secular Christmas, focused on being happy and making others feel happy. And then there is Christian Christmas, which is too busy screaming, “CHRIST IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON” that it has largely forgot anything else associated with it.

Everywhere I look, Christmas is being used as an excuse to push an agenda. Whether that agenda is profit, religion or something else, Christmas is a means to an end.Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy much of what Christmas has to offer. The night I finally put up my Christmas decorations (the third Sunday in Advent… I know, awfully late), I turned down all other lights, lit candles, made hot chocolate, and put a Mannheim Steamroller CD in the player, enjoying the quiet and soft music. On Christmas Eve, I adhered to my family’s tradition of watching the original TV special “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. I love opening gifts, and giving them (when I can afford to give “good” ones). Christmas Eve service is one of my favorites.

But even as I tire of the constant mantra of “Buy, buy, buy!”, I am equally tired of the need Christians have to “defend” “their” holiday. What are we afraid of? Do we really need to be validated by everyone? Is Christmas any less important or meaningful if there is a Holiday Tree, if we share the time of year with other festivals, or if a grossly historically inaccurate Nativity scene is not erected in front of every state house?

These are petty attitudes that ruin Christmas for everyone. Maybe next year, we can let it all go.