The Problem with Christmas

Every Christmas, people talk about the problem with Christmas. It's too stressful, obviously, and far too commercial. It's too religious for some, and not religious enough for others. The reason for the season locks horns with happy holiday banality, the ultimate Santa vs. Jesus pay-per-view. On top of that, the shadow of December 25 extends too far in both directions, from Thanksgiving well into the New Year. How long before we're putting up Holiday Trees in August and taking them down around Easter (that is, the vernal equinox)? Everybody's got a problem with Christmas these days.

But not me.

Here I am in nostalgia's thrall, giddy with anticipation. I'm not lamenting the packed shopping malls or the traffic, or the inordinate (and no doubt unhealthy) material expectations of the young. I'm not railing against the cabal of marketing ghouls who transformed St. Nick into an end-of-year Sugar Daddy, the masses living beyond their means, or the secular puritans who insist on bowdlerizing the holiday soundtrack. Strangely enough, in spite of my reflexive cynicism, the only thing I resent is the de rigueur condemnations that go hand-in-hand with the celebrations these days, all the apologies we feel we have to make for enjoying ourselves.

I refuse to sit through the human comedy without cracking a smile. I refuse to define myself not by what I love, but by what I condemn. There's such a gravitational pull on our holiday rhetoric, forcing us to qualify our joy. I want peace on earth, good will to men, and forget about all the rest. Like those brow-beaten, shell-shocked soldiers of Christmas 1914, I want to abandon the trenches for a spell and sing a hymn in no man's land. And if that pure impulse has to be commodified, if the Christmas Truce dumbs down to "Snoopy and the Red Baron," so be it. I'll take my pleasures where I find them. Merry Christmas, my friend.

The pressure on artists to think correctly is enormous. We want to have right opinions, so our work gets the nod from the right people. I suspect sometimes the problem with Christmas is the problem of sophistication itself. We can't experience things in their simplicity for fear of opening ourselves up to criticism. So we hang our lights and wrap our gifts while issuing solemn declarations against consumerism, greed, and the North Pole. We signal our awareness of things we don't really fathom and can't possibly change, as if pinning a rhetorical ribbon on the lapel serves as a Tetzel-like indulgence, covering our backsides in the event of holiday cheer.

And now I'm doing it, criticizing the critics, being cynical about cynicism. Enough of that. I have presents to wrap. And to open, for that matter. I'm in nostalgia's thrall, giddy with anticipation. There's something under the tree with my name on it, and I don't have to invoke a pious gloss about the the ultimate Christmas gift to feel happy about that. (Except I just did.) Enough of that, too. Have a Merry Christmas. I'll sign off with my favorite holiday hymn:

J. Mark Bertrand is the author of Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World (Crossway Books). He blogs at his own site jmarkbertrand.com, The Rethinking Worldview Blog, and The Bible Design and Binding Blog. You can also catch him at his new blog about the literary life -- Write About Now.

Comments

[Heather]

Yay!
I'm a complete child when it comes to Christmas. I consider myself a fairly cultured person, but when it comes to December 25th, I'll watch every sentimental movie and listen to every saccharine song.

[Nicole]

Merry Christmas, Mark. Absolutely love Christmas. Love buying gifts, and they're all wrapped. I love the Christmas carols of old and know most every word and don't care if they start playing them in October--it doesn't detract from their meaning.

Yes, all the things you mentioned are in place for cynicism if we so choose, but we, of all people, are to celebrate! Hallelujah and pass the egg nog. Praise the Lord for giving us such joy and an actual reason to celebrate. May His love overflow in your heart this Christmas and increase those smiles and even foster true laughter. Joy to the World! The Lord is Come!

[Jeanne Damoff]

I'm glad you're giddy, Mark. I love Christmas, too. The lights and decorations. Parties and presents. We're all musicians in my extended family, so spontaneous carols erupt with regularity, quickly expanding to four-part harmony. Stereophonic joy.

We're in Colorado right now, where we'll spend the next ten days with nineteen family members. I suppose I could bemoan the materialism of ski-resort-ville, but I'd rather ooh and aah over the twinkle lights on the village evergreens and the beauty of the gently falling snow. Mountains always fill me with a sense of awe. God is big--so much bigger than any attempt of man to hide Him behind holiday hoo-hah.

Merry Christmas! I hope you love your present. :)

[Amy]

Thanks so much for that. It seems this year I've been completely oblivious to the criticisms--I want nothing to do with negativity and criticism, because that spoils Jesus' birthday more than anything. I think he just wants us to enjoy it. There is too much dirtiness and pain and struggle on this earth--it's inevitable. So why not celebrate when we can?

[David Wayne]

Merry Christmas Mark - thanks for the reminder that it's really ok to really, really enjoy Christmas!

[Jeff Baldwin]

Decidedly populist! I think you've been hanging out with the wrong people.

Merry Christmas!!

[Karen Miedrich-Luo]

Here! Here! Here! (or is that Ho! Ho! Ho!) I think I'll print this one out and save it for future years, just like I do with all my favorite Christmas "stuff". And the U-Tube gift was perfect. I was a huge fan of Snoopy and the Red Baron when I was twelve and sadly forgot why. Thanks for reminding me.
Karen