Ask a Theologian: Christmas
Dear Theologian,
I will be getting again a lot of greeting cards that say “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.” What happened to “Merry Christmas”? As a matter of fact, why do we still call this holiday season “Christmas”? What does it have to do with Christ?
Old-fashioned Christian
Dear Christian,
The familiar word “Christmas” comes down to us from an earlier age, when people lived by the liturgical calendar and every great feast was observed by attending Mass (the Holy Eucharist). Certain days of the year were designated by “whose” Mass was being celebrated. In such a world of faith, the day of Christ’s nativity was naturally called “Christ-Mass” (Old English Cristes maesse).
But why do we still use such an explicitly Christian word to designate our secularized winter holiday season? Has the word perhaps lost its original meaning? Does our present-day “Christmas” actually still have anything to do with Christ?
It’s a question worth asking, as we experience each year the relentless pressure of Christmas shopping and listen endlessly to Christmas music from Thanksgiving Day until December 25.
Let’s begin with some history. In the earliest period of Christianity, there was no firm tradition about the date of Jesus’ birth. It was only in the fourth century that the Church began to celebrate the birth of Christ in late December, perhaps in order to counteract the license and debauchery of the pagan festival of Saturnalia, held at the time of the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year). Some have also speculated that the date of December 25 was chosen as a Christian rival to the pagan festival of “the unconquered sun” (sol invictus) celebrated on that date.
When missionaries later brought the good news of Christ to the Germanic tribes, they had to adapt the Church’s life to a culture very different from the Greco-Roman world in which Christianity had begun.
People in the northern lands traditionally responded to the change of season by celebrating a kind of “winter festival.” Evergreens and mistletoe brought life and color into their homes, and a blazing fire (the Yule log) kept away the darkness and bitter cold. It was a time when people gathered to eat and drink, sing and dance, exchange gifts and experience the joy and security of being together. Hence the December celebration of Christ’s birth gradually became interwoven with the old Germanic customs, and the folklore of Christmas as we know it began to develop.
Keeping this in mind, we might be able to appreciate better the kind of Christmas celebration that has gradually taken shape here in the United States. In colonial days the observance of Christmas was often raucous and disorderly, marked by carousing and drunkenness. The Puritans wanted to ban it altogether. In the nineteenth century, an effort was made to calm things down by introducing the custom of exchanging cards and gifts and celebrating the warmth and closeness of the family. Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol was influential.
Later in the nineteenth century, the myth of Santa Claus and his reindeer became prominent through the influence of a poem, “‘Twas the Night before Christmas,” and a series of vivid illustrations in magazines. Few Americans today are aware of how recently these now omnipresent themes were introduced.
What has resulted is a peculiar mixture of a more or less secular “winter festival” with images of the baby Jesus (with accompanying angels, shepherds, Joseph and Mary, and the wise men from the East). Some of the special music is devoutly Christian, with beloved carols dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. But much of it simply expresses the various aspects of the winter festival, which now includes the Santa Claus myth.
How is all this to be regarded from the viewpoint of Christian faith? How can some of us still find Christ in the American “Christmas”?
Despite the commercialism and materialism, there are some positive values in our December festival, even when Christian faith is totally absent from it.
People decorate their homes with outdoor lights and set up richly decorated evergreen trees in their living rooms. It’s a time to prepare for the gathering of families – by sending greeting cards, buying gifts, laying in a good supply of holiday food and drink, making travel arrangements. “Home for the holidays!” It’s a time of special delight for the children in our homes. The tree, the toys, the colored lights, the music, the special food, and the excitement all combine to create a feeling of the magical.
This ”winter festival” could be viewed as our human spirit’s response to the challenge of cold and darkness. It could be seen as an affirmation of life and warmth and joy, despite the harsh conditions, as people gather out of separate, busy lives in order to be together in a festive spirit, to eat and drink, exchange gifts, and feel the warmth of family.
None of this need be denied or minimized when we add the dimension of Christian faith. For Christ elevates and transforms human nature without destroying it. If we confess Jesus to be the Lord of all things, there is a magnificent depth of meaning to the winter festival, and a reason for joy in the midst of the darkness of human suffering and sin. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (Jn 1:5)
Our human effort to affirm life against the forces of death, to create a warm, cheerful, well-lighted place against the cold and darkness, to celebrate the bonds of family and friendship despite our conflicts and wounds — all this is now undergirded and validated and filled with transcendent power by the everlasting Love which has taken on an earthly, human presence.
In Christ, and because of Him, our celebration of the winter festival can become radiant with the light of God. And our sound human impulses to be of good cheer and to be good to one another are affirmed and empowered by the Grace that has manifested itself in our midst.
Merry Christmas!
The Theologian
The Rev. Dr. Wayne L. Fehr wrote a column for a previous version of the diocesan newsletter called Ask a Theologian. He answered questions from ordinary Christians trying to make sense of their faith. Now he's back with a monthly column once again. You can find and purchase his book on Tracing the Contours of Faith: Christian Theology for Questioners here.