Whose Christmas is it?

Christmas belongs to Christians. Even “Xmas” is of Christian origins; “X” is the first letter of the word “Christ” in Greek.

There is an awful lot of fuss this year about whether or not it is Christmas time or the Holiday Season. According to some, there is a huge movement to secularize, or make unreligious, the whole time of year.

Some of the debate seems fair to me; it is a bit extreme to try to sterilize from public discourse all reference to the generally Christian heritage of the United States. It is clearly unfair to public school students to attempt to deny them the freedom of religious expression.

What concerns me, though, is the great indignation many seem to have brewing over stores and corporations that have chosen to “de-Christianize” this time of year. Some preachers are calling for boycotts of such businesses.

In American society Christmas has increasingly meant more about shopping and gathering for parties than it has meant the birth of Jesus. This is sadly almost as true in the church as outside it. Since Christmas in our society is mostly about commerce and sales, it seems to me that Christians don’t have much ground on which to criticize or condemn businesses for doing what they think will most help their sales. If that means calling it “Holiday” instead of “Christmas,” so be it.

On the other hand, perhaps the trend toward the secular has crossed a line for Christians. Perhaps we are indeed tired of the commercialization of Christmas. Perhaps we have finally collectively come to the point of saying “ENOUGH!”

Or perhaps we really aren’t upset that Christmas has become all about spending money. Since the outcry is about buying from certain stores rather than buying as a whole, I think we are more concerned about cultural clout than keeping the holiday about Jesus