I made it out of clay.

[kleenexwoman]

This made me laugh. I didn't know James Morrow was working for The Onion.

Question for people on my flist: If you do not identify as Christian, do you celebrate Christmas or do Christmas-y type things, like putting up a fir-tree-like-object in your house and slapping glitter and baubles all over it? If so, why?

This stems from my mom getting into a fight with one of her friends over whether Christmas trees were "holiday trees" or explicit symbols of the birth of the baby Jesus. Which leads to the question of whether the Christmas trappings--the tinsel, peppermint, stockings, nutcracker toys, polar bears drinking Coke, and all that other stuff--is really a layer of encrusted tradition around a core of pure Christianity, or whether it's a lot of beginning-of-winter cultural and religious traditions that just gravitated around each other and ended up sticking to the "Christmas" label because it was the one with the most glue.

And I have been considering this, because on one hand, it's all stuff that is identified very strongly with Christmas specifically, and celebrating Christmas specifically seems to imply that you buy the premise of the holiday, which is that it was exactly the day when baby Jesus was born and that this is something that is personally meaningful enough for you to make a big deal out of it. On the other hand, Christmas is not so much strictly a religious holiday--it's a pagan holiday that had Christianity painted on, and then gathered different observances and traditions and meanings over the centuries. Very little in the archetypical celebration of the holiday is strictly tied to religious observances (unlike Chanukah, I have to point out, which is tied to a specific historical event and has really specific traditions tied to very concrete things. Seriously, the most variation seems to be whether you eat latkes or sufganiyot.

On that tack, my favorite holiday movie, besides Nightmare Before Christmas and the Grinch cartoon, is "The Hebrew Hammer." Why? Because it's a Chanukah movie and it kicks ass, and because it really does put its finger on what Chanukah is about, despite the protagonists admitting at the end of the movie that they have no idea what the "true meaning of Chanukah" is. The whole movie is about Santa Claus's evil son trying to make sure that Christmas has a monopoly on winter holidays, and a chunk of the movie is devoted to the Hebrew Hammer and his friends exposing Jewish kids to media that shows them positive images of Jews. This is a distinctly different message from most happy Christmas movies. The message is clear--Chanukah is about resisting assimilation, whether it's forced by the Syrian king or subtly pushed by endless showings of "It's a Wonderful Life.")

Shit, where was I going with this? Anyway, what I've been thinking about is how weird it is that Christmas seems to simultaneously be a universal holiday and a Christian holiday at the same time. Easter isn't like this, even though all the sugary holidaycruft around Easter is even more clearly pagan than glittery trees and presents are--nobody just assumes that you celebrate Easter, even if you're atheist. I know self-identified pagans and atheists who do Christmas. I've known Jews who do Christmas, and it's not because they've got Christians in the family, it's because the kids like the big tree or that's when the big bonus for presents comes or everyone else does, why not?

And I'm thinking of years past when I told my mom I didn't believe in Jesus, I was Jewish, don't make me to go church, and she got mad and decided I didn't need to get presents if I didn't believe in Christmas. (I got the presents anyway. And Mom eventually calmed down and got a lot more okay about my humanist-Jewish-thing religious identification.) And I'm wondering whether making Christmas into such a universal holiday means that it just really isn't strictly a religious holiday at its core, and it'll stay as a time of lights in the darkness and presents and feasting no matter which religion latches onto it, or whether it's another way that default Christianity shapes and transforms the culture I live in.

Comments

[mcpreacher.livejournal.com]

christmas has basically nothing to do with christianity and you're ignorant or stupid to deny this. it was basically a revival in popularity of a christmas carol plus fear of communism that pushed it into this hugely christian artificially traditional gestalt, essentially in order to display a united cultural front. it would be generous to say it's been celebrated this way for more than, say, 70 years.

that said i like christmas trees. they're pretty.

[nextian.livejournal.com]

Well, default Christmas makes me exhausted even though it's largely secular these days because I get tired of American commercialism almost as much as I get tired of American Christian defaults! But.

I do celebrate Christmas, actually, because my grandmother's atheist Christian. We have a tree and everything. My cousins get stockings, but my parents were always very adamant that we were not going to get the full Santa experience, because we were Jews. Most years of my life I've gotten very into the Christmas spirit; the last three or four, less so. But I miss not feeling conflicted about it. I'd probably go whole hog if there was snow and damn the consequences, tbh.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Christmas is odd, definitely. I'm a card-carrying atheist, but all the things I love about Christmas are absolutely tied into the Christmas story, which I don't actually believe in. Without the Baby Jesus in the manger, and the angel sent by God, and the peace-on-earth-goodwill-to-all, the candles wouldn't shine as brightly and the tree wouldn't smell as pine-y and the hair wouldn't stand up on the back of my neck when the descant goes soaring up into the rafters in the Christmas carols. Without the religious aspect, it would just be one big tasteless capitalist explosion of conspicuous consumption; and yet I don't actually believe in the religious element. It's pretty much the definition of sentiment - wallowing in feelings that don't actually mean anything - but it only happens once a year, so I just shrug my shoulders and live with the contradiction.

[woodburner.livejournal.com]

Yep! Because I grew up Christian, and because it's fun. :3

[anivad.livejournal.com]

I thought that Christmas trees had a completely pagan origin? :\

But yeah, why not? You don't need to adhere to a religion to enjoy its holidays. Here we kind of celebrate everything regardless of personal beliefs, because holidays are fun, and most of the time there's good food involved. And with Christmas in particular it started out as a winter solstice festival, so there were non-Christians already celebrating it to begin with, and then the Christians just decided to join in on the celebrations. So it's more of an all-purpose time of holidaying, and people can celebrate it for religious or non-religious reasons.

[rhiannonhero.livejournal.com]

A Jewish friend of mine sent an email out about this just the other day. She was complaining about her SIL, also a Jew, bitching about how my friend's family does celebrate Christmas, while still considering themselves very Jewish. :P Anyway, my friend said that her great-grandparents had begun celebrating the tradition of tree and gifts and a big meal on Christmas day in order to feel more American, and not because they wanted to feel less Jewish. So, to her family, Christmas is part of feeling American and participating in American holidays, and very little to do with Christianity.

[beetle-breath.livejournal.com]

because it's either we put up the tree or have to listen to my uncle bitch & moan about it

he's like a 5 year old throwing a tantrum. I'll take my pre-lit fake tree over him any day

[ironychan.livejournal.com]

Io Satvrnalia!

[nice-girls-play.livejournal.com]

I was raised Roman Catholic and grew up to be a Buddhist Neopagan, so my relationship with Christmas is complicated. I still exchange presents with family and friends, send out cards that say "Seasons Greetings" and "Happy Holidays." For me, Xmas has become a holiday where we do what we should do year round: be nice, eat good food, drink good wine and be happy most of us are alive to suck another year.

We did buy a little tree this year and decorate it with some silver baubles because 1) it fits within our respective religous frameworks, and 2) I've been trained to the point where I can't imagine a Christmas (or Yule, or Saturnalia) without one.

[cobaltnine.livejournal.com]

I like pine trees. I really like the way pine trees smell. This is an excuse to put a tree in my living quarters.

I have learned, however, that in several years of pine trees + non-ground-floor apartments, that those motherfuckers like to leave trails behind them for years.

So now I have the kitschiest white tree possible. It does not have shit from when I was a kid on it. It has retro stuff on it. I can play designer on it and it eliminates the 'what the hell is this giant decoration in your house' sense that it would have if I put up giant sculptures at other times of year. It is socially acceptable sculpture.

Lights are awesome because it is dark. I don't entirely see the point of this stuff in more equatorial regions, but here, where I'm going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark, it is fun to see what ridiculous light-based public art is on display.

I am considering erecting something else in the house in the week around my birthday. A sort of me-mas tree. I will have to consider this more strongly in the light of recent acceptance of ridiculous art and its importance in my life.

[ladybugandbee.livejournal.com]

I have a tree, hang up ornaments(not crappy multicolored colored balls. i have ornaments of brian griffin, spider man, a munchkin holding the wicked witch's death certificate, and bugs bunny in drag to name a few.), eat candy canes, buy people presents/send cards if i can afford it, and have a big dinner on Christmas.. Because it's fun. But I don't believe in God, or identify with any religion. Celebrating Christmas is a kitschy celebration of my Catholic family's tradition, like how watching cartoons is a celebration of my Saturday morning tradition. Mostly I'm big on nostalgia and getting presents. Soooo...

[neverreal.livejournal.com]

We celebrate Christmas because it's just a tradition. And I like presents.