Santa Day?

I was thinking of that Reeses Peanut Butter Cup commercial the other day, the one where two people are arguing: "You get your peanut butter out of my chocolate!" "No! You get your chocolate out of my peanut butter." I was thinking of this because of the big struggle going on nationwide. "You get your Christ out of my Christmas." "No! You remember that Jesus is the reason for the season!"

Maybe it is time to separate the two. Christmas is Big Business. Jewish people, atheists, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists all want to celebrate the glorious excesses of Christmas. But Christians are upset that Jesus is increasingly being left out. Here in Raleigh, there is a big brouhaha over an full page ad taken out in the Raleigh News & Observer by The Upper Room Church of God in Christ. The ad complains that religious carols are seldom played by Muzak anymore and stores prefer to wish people "Season's Greetings" rather than "Merry Christmas." The ad went on to cite statistics that show only 5 % of the nation celebrates Hanukkah and only 2 % of the nation celebrates Kwanzaa. So the church is urging Christians to boycott stores that don't wish their patrons a Merry Christmas. But what exactly does Christmas mean to people? Everyone has his or her own idea of how much religion to include in this holiday.

It is time to realize that December 25th is really two holidays. First there is the religious day which celebrates Christ's birth. This is the one when you dress nicely and go to church with your family, perhaps even candlelight service. You sing O Little Town of Bethlehem and Silent Night as you hand out blankets to the homeless. You arrange the creche, perhaps daily, waiting until Christmas morning to put the baby Jesus in his bed of straw. Your Christmas cards have a famous painting of the Virgin Mother holding her son in her arms. And the littlest member of the family is tucked into bed with the story of Jesus' birth.

Then there is the other holiday.

This holiday is all about being jolly and spending money. You spend too much on gifts and decorate your house inside and out. You wear your silly Santa pin and your sweater with raindeer wearing pajamas to the office. Your cards wish everybody "Happy Holidays" and show a funny picture of a snowman. You dress up in your glitzy clothes to attend the office party where you drink too much and kiss your co-workers under the mistletoe. And in the back round, Gene Autry is singing about that crazy Rudolph character The littlest member of the household is tucked into bed with stories of Santa Claus.

Maybe it is time to separate the two. After all, the family celebration that we think of as Christmas has only been around for about 100 years. This book explains the origins. Christmas started out as a celebration of Solstice which the early Christian Church appropriated in order to help civilize the pagans. But Christmas remained a drinking holiday, a chance to chase the winter blues away. In fact, it was such a raucous holiday that American Puritans actually banned it. Christmas celebrations were outlawed in most states until the mid-Nineteenth century. What changed? For one thing, the elevation of the family by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Not only did they promote a family celebration over the drunken orgy, they helped popularize the German idea of a Christmas tree. With this idea of a family celebration in mind, Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol" which crossed the Atlantic, and thus the American ideal of Christmas Day was born.

Some people believe we should make Christmas more inclusive. www.Christmukkah.com is promoting a holiday that combines Christmas with Hanukkah. But I think a better idea is to return Christmas back into a purely religious holiday. Make Christmas a celebration of Christ's birth by getting rid of all the commercialism, the gift-giving, and the decorating. Then, those who want to celebrate Santa Day: Christians, Muslims, atheists, and Jews, can do so without any guilt.

Change will be difficult. First there's the problem of which Holiday should fall on which date. I propose Christ's birth to be celebrated on the next to the last Sunday of the year and Santa Day to be held sometime in February when we really need to chase the winter blues away. (Besides, this will give us so many more shopping days after Thanksgiving.) The division of the spoils will be tricky though. Christmas retains angels, stars, and candles. Santa Day gets exclusive use of mistletoe, snowflakes, and Santa Day Trees. Perhaps we will need a coin toss to decide who gets custody of the colors Red and Green. But the easiest method to expedite all this would be to elect me Queen of The Universe.