Our last blogs this year focus on the politics of Christmas, and the continuing role of religion in contemporary democratic societies. Our first provocative blog comes from Tara Moore at Penn State University. Tara argues that despite its associations with peace and good will, Christmas will continue to be an ongoing site of political dispute, ideological rhetoric and controversy.
Certain linguistic elements have grown up around Christmas since the late twentieth century, attesting to an ideological split. While this is less of an issue in the United Kingdom, some American celebrants heartily wish friends and neighbors ‘Happy Holidays’. Others see this congratulatory phrase as an attack on the Christian heart of Christmas or, on the emotional level, at the Christmas of their childhood when it was perfectly acceptable to claim Christmas publically. The ‘Happy Holidays’ sentiment incorporates all late December events, leveling each to an uninspiring, vague blip.
Of course, proponents of the phrase embrace it because it allows them to be culturally relative, graciously encouraging their audience in whatever December party plans he or she has in mind. What one atheist blogger has called a ‘crazy Orwellian avoidance of the term “Christmas”’ does raise hackles in certain quarters. Some listen carefully to public figures, noticing which ones have the courage to identify Christmas. They blog furiously when entities like Google run a ‘Happy Holidays’ banner on their site on Christmas Day. Others bristle when Christmas, which highlights one faith tradition only, receives extra attention.
By Kim Hansen (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons
While there is no going back, it seems dull to lump Christmas together with Kwanza, and those two together with the pagan Yule, and all three with the Jewish Hanukah, especially if the speaker is throwing in the New Year for good measure. Each of these holidays has a history and story of its own that deserve to be honored by recognizing their existence.
Despite the best efforts of PC censors, it will probably be impossible for Christmas to retain a connection with its antecedents and also become an entirely politically neutral holiday. Perhaps if a future political state were able to cut off the historical root of Christmas and censor the holiday’s multifaceted nature, the tradition might then be controllable, but it would no longer be Christmas. The history of Christmas—the sense of tradition in which it is steeped—is integral to the holiday’s value and meaning. While Christmas-keepers cannot all know that history entirely, they do relish the sense of durability that comes with Christmas.
No matter what phrase is used to greet it, the future of Christmas is as bright as a city’s worth of LED decorations, but only because the holiday continues to evolve to meet the needs of those who celebrate it. The sacred aura of Christmas depends on its seeming timelessness; however, one hundred years from now, the holiday will have changed enormously. As informed Christmas-keepers know, the holiday refuses to be held by any bounds. Cultural and personal needs drive the ongoing evolution of Christmas. It belongs to all.
For some, Christmas is ‘Happy Holidays,’ and all the diversity that the phrase entails. For others it is ‘Merry Christmas’—all or nothing—to the core. The dichotomy of Christmas wishes is perfectly in keeping with the warring identities of Christmas itself. Since the ancient church first debated the idea of celebrating the Feast of the Nativity, the holiday has been fraught with conflicting ideologies. Early bishops thought the idea was new-fangled and overly whimsical. Centuries later, public displays of Christmas cheer became a point of contention between the Puritans of Plymouth Colony and their secular neighbors. In Britain, Puritans in Parliament outlawed even the hanging of the greens in public places during the middle of the seventeenth-century. Nonetheless, in festive acts of civil disobedience, guerilla decorators festooned churches and market squares with holly and mistletoe.
The twentieth-century offers examples of Christmas censorship as well. Goebbels oversaw the Nazi plan to rewrite the songs and rituals of Christmas, and Protestant and Catholic clergy protested. Even more recently, a sixty foot steel Christmas tree has been an emblem of religious expression intended to provoke North Korean repression.
These are just a few of the fascinating stories of Christmas conflict I have found in my research of the holiday’s cultural history. The ironies of Christmas promise an unavoidable future of December disputes. Today Christmas causes more money to be spent than some small countries have at their disposal; it also offers peace. Ironically, it brings about the height of commercialism as well as quiet reflection on a tiny child. In all this contradiction, one thing is certain: Christmas will continue.
Bio
Tara Moore teaches writing courses at Penn State York and is the author of Victorian Christmas in Print (2009). Her most recent book, Christmas: The Sacred to Santa (2014), looks at both the historical origin of Christmas and the evolution of this global phenomenon. She celebrates Christmas in central Pennsylvania where that Pennsylvania Dutch gift-bringer, the Belsnickle, can still be found if you know where to look for him.
Note: this article gives the views of the author, and not the position of the Crick Centre, or the Understanding Politics blog series. For more follow our twitter discussion #understandingpolitics.
