We all hear it year after year. There’s a war on Christmas! Jesus is the reason for the season! Keep Saturn in the Saturnalia! Happy Holidays is politically correct! I know it gets emotionally charged for some, while others just wish the entire conversation could be had far away from them.

In October, children dress up and go Trick-or-Treating. Some non-Pagans would say those children are celebrating an ancient Pagan holiday, but truth is they are not. Some aspects of what we do when we celebrate Halloween may resemble some Pagan traditions, but Halloween itself is not the Pagan holiday; Samhain and/or Pomonalia is. Many fundamental Christian groups will bash Halloween, but most Pagans I know just laugh about it, since Halloween is not their actual holiday.

What if we all approached Christmas in a similar fashion? What if the traditions of Santa Claus and caroling and gifts and the tree were all part of a secular holiday that anyone could participate in, and the nativity and celebrating the birth of Jesus was a different holiday that Christians celebrated? Most of us are doing that already, but we’re fighting over the name of the holiday: Christmas. What if the Christians kept the name Christmas, and the seculars come up with a different name for their December celebrations?

I see this happening with Easter already. Christians who get up for the sunrise service and are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus are calling their holiday Resurrection Sunday. Easter has come to be the secular term for those who want to do egg hunts and have the Easter Bunny come visit, etc.

We live in a nation of many religions and many traditions. Christmas is not the only holiday in December; many groups are celebrating holidays, including Christians celebrating Christmas and the secular celebration of Christmas. No matter what you celebrate this season, perhaps we could all be more reasonable this season and not make any group feel their lesser than or that their traditions are being trampled on.

 

FOLLOW-UP (added (12/7/14)”

Sometimes, as a writer, we don’t get our point across in the way we meant to. Comments I’ve been receiving on this blog via social media tell me this is one of those times for me.

I understand there are many religions that celebrate a holiday in December. To name a few, there is Christmas as in Christ’s Mass, Christmas as in Xmas, Saturnalia, Yule, Winter Solstice, Chalicka, Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Festivus, sometimes Hanuka, sometimes Ramadan, etc. I understand why this is why we say Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings. My point, though, specifically addressed Christmas itself from a Christian and non-Christian point of view. Would Christians feel there was a “war on Christmas” if the holiday were considered two different holidays? Would seculars feel Christians were shoving their religion down one’s throat if Christmas were considered to be two different holidays?

My point isn’t to look into the origins of any holiday. I don’t want to be condescending or self-righteous to either group. I’m just curious how things would play out if Christians celebrated “The Immaculate Birth” and seculars celebrated “Kris Kringle Day.”