Holidays

Yes, ’tis the season, and what so many complain about is all the periphery: Black Friday, football Thanksgiving, decorations up right after Halloween, Cyber-Monday, Santa Claus, and so on. I recently saw a headline that read: The War on Christmas Has Started Early this Year. Okay. I have a different “take” on all of the hype.

People, especially pundits, who are scandalized by all of the holiday sub-plots (since I’m a writer, I thought that term ought to have acceptable use) misunderstand or misinterpret the signs they see. I’m not denying the signs, the “holiday trees” (and what is a “holiday” but an elision for “holy day?”) the gift buying, the car commercials (with Santa driving a red Mercedes behind eight silver ones), or even the jewelry commercials which blend Christmas lights, romantic love, and some perfect diamond. As this paragraph shows; it’s all parentheses.

The point is that for anyone who is Christian, Jewish, Zulu, or any other culture that celebrates this season, all of the things I would put in parentheses, including the Mercedes, the perfect diamond, and even the newest iPad, are merely additional layers that make the holiday more fun, but do not replace it. Someone who is a pagan and doesn’t believe in the original meaning of Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, at least participates in some way, and for the rest of us, it’s more icing on the original cake.

Keep in mind, the original holidays were made up by us anyway. Anyone who has studied some theology has probably learned that Christmas is celebrated on the wrong day because early Christians adopted a pagan holiday, and they probably also had the year wrong. At least that’s what the Pope says in his Christmas book just out. That doesn’t bother me. We all decide on what anything means, and it doesn’t have to be a collective decision. I decide (and so do you).

The Christmas of Charles Dickens is not the same as the Christmas of Charlie Brown, or the Christmas of White Christmas (such a wonderful song writen by Jewish Irving Berlin while living in California and sung by Bing Crosby, a Catholic), or the Christmas of It’s a Wonderful Life, and yet, I believe each version enriches our celebration. The Christmas of Luke isn’t even the same as the Christmas of Matthew in the New Testament.

Of course there are people who go crazy; some who light up their house with computer-driven sequenced eruptions; some who knock others down at Toys R Us sales while trying to get the latest “hot” toy to celebrate the holiday of peace and love; some who celebrate by going to Disneyworld. These are outliers, though, not the majority, and that’s why they are newsworthy. Even then, they cannot escape the continuous re-runs of It’s a Wonderful Life, the manger scenes on lawns and in front of churches, the stars, angels and other subliminals on top of Christmas trees, or the menorahs. These are good things. No action, no celebration, no tradition, will ever be celebrated by one-hundred percent of the people in perfect “kosher” style. That’s okay. Their laxity does not affect my celebration and its meaning to me unless I let it.

I greatly admire and believe in the Jewish principle of zikharon, memory or remembrance, a practice once explained to me by a Bible scholar lecturing on Passover. The belief is that time is merely a construction by us, that eternity is “all at once” to God, and therefore, for a family celebrating Pesach, reading the prayers and being part of the ritual, they participate in the actual event as if they were there. That’s my Christmas, and as a Christian, I celebrate the birth of Christ the Lord. You may celebrate however you wish and it won’t affect me.

I don’t need the Mercedes to celebrate or Disneyworld or a new giant flat-screen TV. Smaller things, some egg nog with German chocolate cake or chocolate anything, a hug and kiss from a family member, a card or two, some beautiful carols, a tree, a Cabela’s gift certificate, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, and a few battery-powered candles in the windows – those are just extra layers in a wonderful celebration, icing and candles on the cake.

Happy holy-days, everyone, however you celebrate, and may there soon be peace on Earth.