Not the Reason for the Season

If one more person sends me a “reminder” that “Jesus is the reason for the season” I will fire off a snarky diatribe that will hopefully embarrass them and stop their nasty intrusions into my celebration of the holiday.  No, wait, let me just link them here and give them a little dose of “The Truth.”

Let’s begin with the most obvious reason that this is not a celebration of Jesus’ birthday.  Religious scholars all agree that Jesus was born sometime in the Spring.  Every effort to put a real date on this event has been difficult with the counting of calendars, but the fact remains that there was no baby in a manger in December who was the son of God.  Rather, it was the early efforts of the fledgling Catholic Church which struggled to gain members that “created Christmas”, at least in December.  No, the church leaders hijacked the pagan traditions of the Winter Solstice, wove in a few mystic traditions from Egypt, and, voila, Christmas was created.

Now, if you were to come to me with a celebration of religious welcoming, then I might have a different view.  And while I agree that the season has become far too commercial, there is a value in the entire season that cannot be underestimated.  As long as you view this holiday season as a reason to be good, to recognize others, to reach out to those less fortunate, and to celebrate your relationships with others (which, by the way, does include God) then I’m all for you.  But if all you want to do is try to monopolize the month by claiming that Jesus is the “reason for the season” then I will shut you down and tune you out.  It is simply NOT TRUE!  Face facts, your religion co-opted a pagan event in order to draw more followers, not to celebrate an actual event.

However, there is always something special about Christmas.  My Grandmother was the holiday queen and she made sure that the entire season was wonderful, from Thanksgiving through Christmas, the entire extended family (6 kids and spouses/boy-, girlfriends; 12 grandkids and their assorted spouses and friends; and at least a few greatgrandkids before she passed) would get together in some combination to celebrate.  And she always made sure that the grandkids had plenty of presents under the tree.  After college I joined the adults in the gift exchange (cause there were just too many people to buy for!) and even today there is a recognition that the season is special.   My Mom and her brothers and sisters still get together with the many cousins and their spouses and kids.

Last year, I took my partner home with me for Christmas and he got to see what the season is about.  No matter the drama that inevitably played itself out at the event, we are truly a family and this was a chance to celebrate that fact.  It was interesting because, as is usual with my family, he was accepted almost immediately and wasn’t entirely sure how to handle it.  But when he held my hand, no one commented, and we even got to enjoy dinner with one aunt and uncle and their gay associate pastor.  That was pretty cool because he and my partner got into a bit of a debate which was a bit of a highlight for me.

So there you have it.  The season deserves the credit for the feelings that we have, the things that we do, and the relationships that we reinvigorate and cement.  It’s nice that the Christians celebrate the birth of Christ a few months early, but don’t dare try to monopolize this time for your own purposes.  This holiday season is for everyone.

This entry was posted on 16. December 2008 at 13:13 and is filed under Religion, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.