Personal Essay: Christmas: An American Holiday

Of course Christmas is an international holiday, and so it is.  At one time the Puritans did try to turn Christmas festivities into a dour fast.  We think of the Puritans as those pilgrims who celebrated Thanksgiving with the Indians, but festivities were not the Puritans strong suit.  Once they took power in in 17^th century England, they closed down the theaters and probably sent William Shakespeare into an early retirement.  H.L. Mencken wrote, “There is only one honest impulse at the bottom of Puritanism, and that is the impulse to punish the man with a superior capacity for happiness.”  Christmas under Puritan control was probably not too different than one under the Soviet Union.  From an article by Clayton F. Bower Jr, “Have Yourself a Sad and Lifeless Christmas,” 

 

In 1644, the English Parliament, under Puritan control, declared Christmas a day of fasting. The English people were not to rejoice and celebrate, but were to use Christmas as a day to ponder their sins and the sins of their fathers. Troops were ordered to enforce Parliament’s order, and they patrolled London’s streets and made the rounds of houses.

So Christmas in the English speaking world was quite a bit different up to the Victorian era, where mercifully if took on some of the characteristics of the other Christian traditions such as the Catholics and Lutherans.  And thank God for that. 

Certainly it’s too commercialized today in the United States of America to the point we sometimes don’t even realize the “reason for the season” as they say.  But I’m going to propose that even though it has been secularized, the secularization itself has had a beneficial effect on the nature of the country.  Don Feder, Jewish, writing in the Washington Times, “Mazel Tov to the season to be jolly,” sees the unifying nature of such a national holiday.   (Reprinted here at Catholic League) Feder as a conservative sees that “Christmas is something that brings us closer as a people,” despite he not celebrating the holiday or believing in the theology of it. 

 

This era is marked by relentless assaults on our institutions and traditions. Statues of historical figures as diverse as Stonewall Jackson and Theodore Roosevelt are removed from public display. At sports events, it’s become routine for players to refuse to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. Students are taught to hate America through critical race theory and other educational indoctrination. The Supreme Court is under attack by partisans who fear it will overturn Roe v. Wade.

 

As a Jew, I have no problem with Christmas trees in parks or nativity scenes in front of city hall, whether or not they’re camouflaged with Santas and snowmen. They are reminders of our religious heritage.

 

America was founded on the Judeo-Christian ethic. A majority of Americans are Christians, to one degree or another. Our institutions are based on an ethos derived from Sinai and Bethlehem. The Founding Fathers spoke of rights endowed by our Creator and dated the Constitution Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord) 1776.

But why would such a holiday be unifying across religions?  Could a secular holiday do the same?  None of the American historical holidays do so, not even Fourth of July.  Thanksgiving comes close, but even Thanksgiving really has a theological underpinning.  We are ultimately thankful to God.  But Thanksgiving still comes up short as a national integrating phenomena.  Thanksgiving is celebrated mostly within families, isolated across ethnic groups.  So why would Christmas be different?  Why does it have this integrating factor? I think Feder touches on it:

 

Although the custom of the gaily festooned tree only goes back to the 19th century, the gift-giving tradition is said to be inspired by the wise men who journeyed to Bethlehem. I give not because I want something in return but as an expression of love.

The gift giving aspect of Christmas I think integrates the nation.  We give gifts, effusively, perhaps too much but we give and it stimulates the economy.  We celebrate.  We rejoice as a nation.  From the end of November to Christmas Day and then beyond we have gifts in mind.  We think on our loved ones and ponder for weeks on what to give, shopping out of love, perhaps sometimes out of obligation, but nonetheless going about in a nationally communal way to find a gift to make someone else happy.  And we all do it, some three hundred and thirty million of us.   Not just Christians and Jews (for Chanukah) but even others who don’t have a holiday to justify the festivity.  I’ve known Muslims and Hindus and even atheists who participate in the season in their own way. 

But it’s not just the gift giving.  It’s the beauty of the public decorations, singing of carols, the tipping of those who provide service, the sending out of Christmas/holiday cards, the ebullient celebrations, enough for the Puritans to roll over in their graves, and much more.  When you think about how much activity goes into the holiday by the entire nation, then you realize how big an integrating a force it is to the country.

So how did a religious holiday sneak into the Federal list of holidays when there isn’t supposed to be a national religion?  This little five minute film clip from Edify, a conservative Catholic public education group, explains how President Ulysses S. Grant established the holiday back in 1870.

President Grant sometimes has a negative reputation as president, but the more I learn about him the more I believe he is underrated.  The legacy of establishing Christmas as a national holiday is not a minor achievement when you consider what it has accomplished.  Christmas may be too commercialized, but the spirit of the holiday unites us as Americans, perhaps because of its commercialization, but, more so, because of its goodwill.

Merry Christmas.