What do people make of Christmas today?
Recent claims that attempts are being made to "ban" Christmas may have been exaggerated, but there is a very real movement that aims to remove Christianity from Christmas in the name of "political correctness". Other "attacks" are made on Christmas because of the associated drunken parties and over-commercialisation.
From day one Christmas has ben a mix of Christian praise and worship, and drinking and partying! While the church wanted joyful celebrations for Christ's birthday, earlier traditions of rowdy feasting remained popular, and throughout it's history these two ways of observing Christmas have run side by side.
The newest element in Christmas that provokes complaint is the over-commercialisation and the pressure or temptation to over-spend. This is a more recent phenomena as it's only in the last century that the majority of the population has had any disposable income, thereby creating a demand for shops to supply. And in the past few decades easy access to credit has added to this problem.
You can read for yourself various opinions, in people's own words, on these topics by clicking on the following links:
Taking the "Christ" out of "Christmas"
Does Christmas need to be de-Christianised?
The anecdotal evidence suggests that most people -including those of other faiths and those who aren't religious at all- don't have a problem with the name "Christmas", or the more specifically Christian aspects of Christmas such as nativity scenes and carol singing. They may not chose to observe the birthday of Jesus as part of their celebrations, but they are not offended if this is the focus of Christmas for Christians, or if the opportunity is taken to talk about the coming of Jesus.
It appears that only a vocal minority want to de-Christianise Christmas and would be more comfortable if it were re-packaged as the "Winter (Lights) Festival". Do they realise that if they took all the Christian aspects out of Christmas, but still chose that time of year to celebrate and kept the other Christmas traditions, they would in effect be celebrating a festival based on pagan religion? One of the political correctness arguments is that Christmas ought to be religously neutral, but celebrating at the winter solstice, decorating with evergreens and lights, feasting and drinking all come from pagan religious festivals such as Saturnalia and Yule. So they could try to take the Christianity out of Christmas, but they would not be creating a religiously neutral alternative! The Christmas traditions we love all have a history that they cannot be entirely divorced from. However, it's hard to imagine someone from the political correctness lobby saying "We shouldn't have the Winter Festival because it's offensive to people who don't believe in sun gods..." Which implies that it's Christianity they have a problem with, not Christmas.
It
is a shame that for some Christmas doesn't have much meaning beyond time off work, parties, and buying too much stuff. It's not that holidays, parties and presents are bad in themselves, but people are missing out on the greatest thing about Christmas - Jesus! At Richmond Park Church we are excited to be able to celebrate the gift of God's Son to us and we want to share that joy with other people.
