Many who know me know that I have strict rules with regards to the spreading of Christmas related cheer....the biggest being Christmas is in December so any celebrating that occurs before then is a) not Christmas kosher, b) spectacularly annoying and c) will result in a lengthy rant from me which will certainly make much use of the words "bah" and "humbug". However since it is well and truly December now I have some thoughts on the Christmas season.....
Christmas in this day and age of post-modernism secularism can be a bit of a dirty word especially since many people in our western society (whichever one you may live in) are not Christian and so the mass celebrating of Christian festival angers some. Where is the respect for Hanukkah or Ramadan which both occur around at the same time of year? Many places now prefer the term "Happy Holidays!" to "Merry Christmas!", and most people have heard at least one tale of people getting offended by nativity displays in malls. Every year controversy is spun at a rate of knots about these changes and Christian groups (especially in the US but increasingly elsewhere) declare that secular society is killing Christmas! Those on both sides who are up on their history of Christmas quickly point out that the 25 December was co-opted by the Christian church from the pagan winter festivals and that we in fact have no idea at what time of year Christ was born- that doesn't help either argument but why not throw it in for good measure, right, and whilst we're on the topic why is no-one talking about Winter Solstice? All of this aside...what can we in a secular society take from Christmas? What can be the commonality between those like me who attend a church service to commemorate the birth of Christ and those who like a day off to sit on the beach (or maybe to make a snowman depending on where you are)? Can people have a happy holidays in secular sense whilst taking of some on the themes of the Christian Christmas?
Now I'm not suggesting that we take the Christ out of Christmas...because then we'd be left with 'mas' which still sounds vaguely religious so we'd have to get rid of it too and then we'd be left with nothing and we'd all be toddling off to work on 25 December and many great Australian sporting traditions that rely on the Christmas break would have be got rid of (no Boxing Day test and no Sydney to Hobart...WHAT would we do?). I think we keep it all and if you happen not to believe in Christmas just embrace the phrase "Happy Holidays" because that we can agree on even if it sounds hopelessly mid 1990s politically correct.
More to the point, I'm wondering if there is something for all in the Christmas story. Most people (regardless of their religious persuasion or lack thereof) can agree that Jesus existed. They disagree on whether he was the son of God or a prophet or a wise man or just some nice first century Jewish guy and they disagree on whether he rose from the dead and what his death meant BUT they mostly agree that he lived. To live he had to be born (the Bible even agrees on that one) and if we take the story of his birth as recorded in the Bible at face value, leaving aside for a minute the involvement of angels, what are we left with? We are left with an unconventional, poor family pulling together in rough times. We are left with an unwed teenaged (probably no more than 15 year old) girl and her fiancee (probably a man in his 20s or maybe even his 30s) who are faced with her being pregnant before the wedding (an offence that could have lead to the stoning (in the heavy rocks chucked at your head sense) of both of them) and instead of him publicly shaming her for this pregnancy, they stay together and they marry. We are left with this unconventional couple being unable to find a decent place to have a baby and so having to go through the mess and pain of labour in the first century Middle East in a farm shed (the idea of child birth without painkillers in a stinky shed full of animals horrifies me but needs must). There is something that can be taken from this story and it sure ain't let's wait for the creepy fictional fat guy in a red suit to come down the chimney.
What can be taken from this story for all people is the idea of family. Quite the loaded term in today's political climate.... I mean what does family mean and who decides who belongs to one. Well I'm going to leave that to you, my dear blog reading types, as personally I believe family is what you make it- regardless of who your parents are, how many of them there are, what gender they are, whether your family includes children or whether it doesn't, whether there are step/half/adoptive/foster children or parents or siblings involved, whether it is one person and their pet bird or, like my family, over 20 people and many pets, whether it is just made up of friends none of whom are blood related to you....your family is your family and it is up to you what that means, and don't forget Jesus was from one of the most unconventional families you could ask for. I will not dictate what a family is but I will dictate that you use your Christmas season (i.e. until 6 January) to get in touch with them, tell them (good or bad) how your 2011 has been and wish them whatever holiday based sentiment appeals to you. Also if you know someone out there who is, for whatever reason, without a family in any sense of the word or is unavoidably separated from their family, use this holiday period to reach out to them and maybe to bring them into your extended family. Family is a hard word for a lot of people so let's be part of helping people belong in our society even if we don't use the word.
What else can we take from the Christmas story? Well Mary and Joseph weren't the richest of people...if they had been I'm sure they could have greased a few pockets and got into that inn or maybe to somewhere even more upmarket. We in western society are usually pretty dreadful at thinking of those with less than us. We are upwardly mobile types who prefer to think of people whose yards have the cliched greener grass. Maybe we can use Christmas as a reminder each year to think of the less fortunate, even if it is just once a year, and to give some of our wealth to them. Wacky notion I know but in a global sense, most of us in western society are the 1% (or maybe the 5% but you get my meaning) so maybe we should pause and think before the remaining over 90% of the planet decides to "Occupy Earth" and stops making our cheap toys and shoes for next to no wage. Most charities (both of the global thinking and local thinking variety) do drives around Christmas time- some of which are still going- so maybe look into a charity you trust this holiday season....
So that is me signing off on Christmas, I hope you and yours enjoyed this Christmas and continue to do so until 6 January. Finally I leave you with few things, the Queen's Christmas message (I may be a staunch republican but I have a soft spot for the old lady especially as in this message she declares the whole commonwealth is part of her family....may have visit and collect my inheritance), a tune off A Very She and Him Christmas (best Christmas album EVER...seriously go and buy it), and a dalek in a Christmas hat (what! Dr Who isn't part of Christmas tradition in your house! It should be!- I was going to use the Doctor but could only find Matt Smith in a santa hat and much as I like him, a dalek is more entertaining).
*Of course if you work by the calendar of western consumerism, Christmas start around 1 August and run until 25 December (exactly) so that the true holiday of capitalism, the month long orgy of post Christmas sales, can begin and end in plenty of time for Easter eggs to be in the shops on 1 February (at the very latest).
