Christmas Conspiracy
My rules for exterior Christmas lighting:
- No Blow-ups. The giant Santa who gently bobs in the wind as if he has a slight egg-nog buzz is not cute. It proves you can plug something in, and that you can afford to not have taste. It does not prove that you can decorate.
- No blinking or moving lights. Especially if you have multiple blinking lights all going in different directions at different times. Pretty? No. Seizures? Yes.
- No pop culture references. Except Snoopy. Snoopy is always cool. Your favorite NASCAR stock car being driven by Rudolph is not cool. And it’s a double-whammy if it’s a blow-up.
Christmas season officially began the day after Halloween this year. The jack-o-lanterns hadn’t even started to sour before we started seeing the jewelry commercials. I know this is supposed to offend me, but even if they didn’t have the fake tree up at Wal-Mart, I would still be thinking about Christmas. Christmas is my favorite holiday. I know Thanksgiving doesn’t get any love anymore, and every year I act offended by how early the decorations come out at the mini-mall. I am a liar. I know it is all driven by commercialism and money. Even if it was still fashionable to give apples and homemade dolls, I would still be thinking about Christmas.
Christians have a rocky relationship with Christmas, especially among the more conservative elements. Jesus is the reason for the season, so do we recognize Santa’s partial claim to the holiday? What about the fact that Jesus wasn’t really born on December 25, and it has more to do with a pagan Roman celebration? And what about all those pagan symbols associated with the holiday, including the beloved tree? Should we celebrate it at all? Or, if we do, what parts do we keep and what do we toss?
Recently a different sort of Christian objection has arisen from a very different place than the typical evangelical arguments. Less a theological argument than a call to social action, the Advent Conspiracy was created to encourage Christians to give one less gift, or to make donations to charitable organizations instead of gifts, in an effort to combat the idea that Christmas is a consumer holiday and not a celebration of the advent season.
But I can’t stop thinking about Christmas in all it’s materialistic, pagan glory. I love the decorations, the lights, the presents, and the cheesy music. And I admit my exterior Christmas lighting is up and running. Hundreds of bulbs proclaim to the neighborhood that I have officially begun my personal Christmas celebration, and we are still two days away from Thanksgiving. In the past, I could wait until the Saturday after Thanksgiving, about the time the tryptophan wore off. But this year I gave up on shame. I have none left. Christmas is here.
I wish I could justify it. I wish I had a good excuse to spend money on twinkle lights and garland. The only excuse I can give you is beauty. There are few things that are more appealing to me than a house decked with thousands of tiny bulbs, and a Christmas Tree in the window wrapped in crimson with a chronicle of family history written by fragile glass ornaments. When I was a boy I used to spend the night under the tree in a sleeping bag, bathed in a shower of light breaking through the branches as I slept. When I think of Christmas I think of warmth in the midst of cold, and sacred family traditions. I think of family, which always means I think of my family, and rich memories. Puppies, surprises, and magic.
It is a season of hope. For days you wait. At times it is agony. I remember trying to sleep as long as I could each morning, for the less time I was awake the less time I had to be patient. I could make the argument that it is a season of blissful waiting in much the way that the world waited for Christ, but Christmas needs no allegory. Christmas is as much allegory as it is legend as it is fact as it is story as it is fantasy. I think it is all true. The truth is in the love. And through the stress of shopping, travel, difficult relationships, expectations, and an uncertain world, if for just a moment you can enjoy the hot chocolate and remember that one moment of that one Christmas long ago where you were surprised by love and beauty, then maybe it is all worth it.
That’s my excuse.
November 25th, 2008 at 9:32 am
I think Christians can stop agonizing over Christmas. It’s just a part of our culture - as Christians and Westerners and there’s nothing that can be done about it.
Thousands of people will go to church on Christmas Eve for the second time this year - the first being Easter. Does their presence in church lessen the significance of the night for us? No! If we want to celebrate our holiday in ways that pagans also enjoy, fine! Why should I stop enjoying my holiday because a bunch of pagans ‘ruined’ the whole thing? Pagans drink eggnog, and so do I!
That said, a Christian family can make the holiday distinctly God focused and honoring. Giving to others, telling the children the Nativity story and so forth.
The gospel is not ‘anti-culture.’ It is in fact at home in every culture and redeems every culture, but it does not require that a culture stop being itself (some parts may change as the Spirit leads). We’re not a couple of Jehovah’s Witnesses, obviously, so let’s use what our culture has given us - be it Christmas, Halloween, or Easter to honor God and stop worrying about it.
That being said, blow up snow globes on the lawn are completely unacceptable, and no Christian should be caught with something that tacky on his yard.
November 25th, 2008 at 11:37 am
I agree completely. I love celebrating all of our holidays in their full, Americanized glory. I even like Halloween. I know a few people who would cringe if they heard I hung bats on my porch, carved a jack-o-lantern, and greeted kids with a dry-ice mist. Don’t I know what that holiday is all about? Yes, I know what it USED to be about, but now I recognize that it is maybe the only day in the year when the neighborhood gets outside and shares their families with each other. I could have turned off my lights and hid inside, but now I feel like I know my neighbors.
I am glad we agree on blow-up Santas. I think they are reason enough to break fellowship.