Whatever Happened to Christmas?

 

If you had asked me, when I was a child, what my favourite time of year was, "Christmas" would be the immediate answer.  The name itself was imbued with magic.  The slightest mention of Christmas would have me and my sibs literally jumping for joy.  

It would have been absolutely inconceivable to me at that time that society in a few short decades would virtually banish the very name of this most beloved holiday from the public square.  

But fifty years later, this is exactly where we are.

 

Before I launch this rant...and it'll be a doozy, trust me...this isn't coming from a place of religiosity.  As most everyone who knows me knows, I'm an avowed non-believer.  So it's not a lamentation about a "War on Christmas" from a religious perspective because indeed, much of Christmas is secular, even pagan in nature.  My Christian neighbours are even more ticked than I, with good reason. 

Nor is this a trivial issue.  It's emblematic of a larger problem...of a western world so driven by guilt over past transgressions, that it is engaging in a self-censorship of all that we are, in a fit of performative virtue that apparently will atone for sins past.  The road to Hell is indeed paved with good intentions. 

So what are we left with?  Watch any ad, look through any flyer, walk through the stores...save for a tiny minority of hold-out retailers, the word "Christmas" is virtually gone.  It's been replaced...by the generic, un-magical, functional, but most importantly...inoffensive term "Holiday".

We have Holiday Parties, Holiday Lights, Holiday Decor, Holiday Movies, Holiday Music, Holiday Sales.  Wow.  Stop the magic already, I'm gonna puke.  

The "Holiday Colours" happen to be red and green.  What a coincidence!

 

The insincerity of these new terms is obvious because people don't speak in generics like this. I don't 'Holiday shop' in the same way that I don't refer to my travels to Paris as a trip to a "foreign capital".  How ridiculous would our world be if someone of Jewish faith felt obligated to refer to their Menorah as a "Holiday Candle Holder"?   

I'm not sure who declared that calling things by their actual names was offensive.  Obviously it's been done in a bid to be 'inclusive'.  But when you stamp out one entire culture, you in fact become LESS multi-cultural by a count of one.  That's a thought that surely would have escaped the hand-wringing, patronizing cultural saviours at City Hall as they watched the Christmas trees and wreaths exit the lobby to the dumpster bin.  Exclusion of what was will deliver inclusion and safety for all the proletariat going forward.  Orwell's vision is upon us.  

And I'll guarantee it's not new citizens to western nations that are asking for this cultural suppression.  If I were to find myself suddenly transported to India, I would fully embrace being drawn into and surrounded by Diwali celebrations.  And even if I didn't want to partake myself, the last very last thing I'd do is insist the name Diwali be erased from my sight (possible replacement name: Light Festival Time).  No, this to my mind is a creation of the usual suspects...the social engineers who, filled with the racism of low expectations,  have pretentiously appointed themselves protectors of the sensibilities of the newcomers.  

CP's famous train, overflowing with Christmas imagery created from Christmas Lights, 

has been renamed...and not a moment too soon...to the "Holiday Train".

I save a particular contempt though, for the retailers.  The word Christmas has been expunged from all but a few of their ads...this from the businesses that routinely count on their fiscal year being saved 11th hour by the very "holiday that shall remain nameless".  If you profit so obscenely from it, at least have the fortitude to name it. 

I know there's other holidays at this time of year, but none of them come close to the scale and societal impact of Christmas.  We need to stop kidding ourselves that Kwanza has such a level of cultural equivalence that it warrants the removal of Christmas to make things 'fair'.   And weirdly, all the "Holiday" blather seems to brew up in mid-November and come to a halt shortly after December 25th, an exact mirror of the Christmas time frame.  Odd, that.  

I would have no issue with the idea of using the term Holiday if indeed many different holidays were on display in the store windows of our lives.  But that's not what's happening.  Instead, Christmas is actively, dare I say, religiously removed and swapped out for Holiday, even when everything that falls under that banner is Christmas-related.  Can somebody please explain to me how we're better off as a society now that this is essentially a fete accompli?  

The imagery, the colour scheme, and ALL of the shows listed are Christmas related,

but somehow this is your "Holiday Movie" guide

Before I get the inevitable refrain of "Oh Dave, it's not that big a deal...people still know it's Christmas", let me close by re-litigating why I think this matters.  When cultures don't protect themselves, don't cherish and hold onto their sacred traditions, then important things fade away, often forever.  Christmas matters (mattered?) so much to us, that it was the only day on the calendar when everything but essential services came to a halt in order for us to appreciate one another and share some peace and love.  If this sacred day is expendable, then no element of our culture is safe.  

Christmas dinner with the cousins.  17 kids between 3 families.

I once read a story of a man who was fighting a losing battle to have the river near his town, long polluted, restored to its original pristine state.  When he was a boy he used to swim in that river.  It was this memory that motivated him on his mission.  His biggest concern...that the subsequent generations who never had the privilege to swim there and had never known those joys would also never appreciate why a clean river was so important to fight for.

I hope one day my grandkids will be surrounded by as much Christmas (and indeed whatever other holidays new Canadians bring to our shores) as I loved and cherished as a child.  

And so I say without reservation...Merry Christmas to one and all!