The radio stations around here are already playing Christmas carols, and have been for a week.
The malls, of course, have had Christmas decorations sneaking in since at least Labor Day and in full force since Hallowe'en, with more going up every day.
It's not even Advent. Advent doesn't start until December 2.
Now, I know I have readers who are Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, Wiccan, atheist, and agnostic, so this really won't concern them that much, other than the disruption to their lives that the heavily marketed and hyped Christian holiday has, and their amusement/bemusement in watching the Christians go crazy this time of year. I also have readers who are nominally Christian, but who are totally clueless when it comes to understand the history and traditions of the religion, so they just kind of aimlessly go with the flow, not knowing what or why. It is more for this latter group that I issue this epistle.
Regardless of what pagan, druidic, Saturnalian, Mithraic, Hellenistic, and Zoroastrian customs may have been absorbed, conscripted, and adopted by Christianity in its celebration of the birth of its co-deity, and ignoring the fact that they conveniently moved the birthday party to overshadow a competing religion's god, the fact remains that in the United States and western society, Christmas—with all its traditions—is a Christian holiday.
The Church, in its infinite wisdom, moved the date of the birth of Jesus (who was probably born in September, though some authorities point to April) to December 25 in in the Third Century, but it wasn't until the Fourth Century that it began to be celebrated, though barely, as Epiphany on January 6 (commemorating the arrival of the Magi) was considered the major, more important feast. Once French king Charlemagne was crowned Holy Roman Emperor on Christmas Day 800, the observance began to be celebrated more and more, until by the 12th Century, there was a full Christmastide season—the Twelve Days of Christmas—that lasted from December 25 through January 5 (the night of December 5th, also being the Eve of Epiphany, is celebrated as Twelfth Night, and is the traditional time for bonfires, burning up all the old Christmas trees).
Meanwhile, around the Fourth Century, the Church began observing a period of preparation for Christmas called Advent. Originally, it was forty days, from St. Martin's Day until Christmas, but now it begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Many of our modern day Evangelical and Fundamentalist Protestant denominations do not observe Advent, but it should be noted that until recently—maybe the past 20 or 30 years—they didn't observe Christmas, either. Now, it wasn't an anti-Christmas thing with them as it was with the Puritans (in 1659, Puritans in Massachusetts passed a law banning the celebration of Christmas: "That whosoever shall be found observing any such day as Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labour, feasting, or any other way, upon any such accounts as aforesaid, shall be subjected to a fine of five shillings."), but they simply said they only observed Sundays as the Lord's Day, and, thus, Christmas was not a big deal. Of course, what amuses me is that last year, when Christmas fell on a Sunday, not only are the Baptists and non-denominational megachurches observing Christmas now, they cancelled their Sunday morning services!
Since many of the pagan and druidic religions used holly, mistletoe, and evergreens to celebrate the winter solstice (December 22 this year), plus candles and bonfires to convey the festival of light concept, a certain degree of what we might call Christmas decorating began to occur in Advent. This was basically just the "hanging of the greens," though, as Advent is a quiet, introspective time, and the glamour and glitz of full-blown Christmas decorations waited until Christmas Eve.
The tree, however, did not go up at the beginning of Advent. The tree is a northern European tradition closely tied to Yule and the observance of the winter solstice, and as such, the early Church discouraged their use. The solstice can fall anywhere from December 21 to 23, and it was for the day of the solstice that a tree was decorated. Christians didn't get around to conscripting Yule and solstice trees as Christmas trees until the 16th or 17th centuries, and even then, it was pretty much limited to Scandinavia and Germany. Christmas trees were put up on Christmas Eve, decorated with nuts, fruit, dried or paper flowers, and small gifts that would be claimed by children the next morning.
While people argue about the "first Christmas tree in America," some claiming a German soldier put one up in 1777 and others claiming some towns of German immigrants did them in 1816 or 1821, it really wasn't until the later portions of the reign of Queen Victoria that Christmas trees became popular in America. Up through the World War II era, American trees went up on Christmas Eve, as families gathered for the holiday and to trim the tree, and they came down on the Feast of the Epiphany. Many people thought it bad luck to put up a tree before Christmas Eve or to take it down after Epiphany.
In the post-war years, though, the prosperity of the country was such that the retail merchants aggressively began pushing Christmas, gift giving, and conspicuous consumption, putting up their own decorations earlier and earlier and earlier, and pushing the common people into putting up Christmas trees, "getting into the Christmas spirit," and buying-buying-buying to put all those pretty presents under the tree. That same period coincided with the rise of the Evangelical and Fundamentalist denominations, who, courtesy of the G.I. Bill and newly college-educated members, could finally afford to market themselves and advertise their practices. Well, the Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, never having observed Advent and not really even doing much with Christmas, were easy prey for retail mercantilism, and they quickly bought into the more-is-more and earlier-is-better mindset. Now, they lovingly embrace their "old" Christmas traditions, bringing into their homes the most blatant symbol of druidic paganism they could possibly adopt, the Christmas tree.
So, now we have the abhorrent "tradition" of putting up Christmas trees for Thanksgiving and taking them down on Christmas Day night. Well, dear readers, that is wrong. Just wrong. Period.
Christmas is not a retail holiday. Just because the stores do it doesn't mean it's proper and correct for a Christian home. And remember, when those big department store started all that early Christmas sale stuff, those stores largely were not Christian-owned, they were Jewish-owned, and the Jews had no vested interest in the celebration of a Christian holiday other than as an opportunity for sales.
Of course, it bothers me even more when people are so tired of Christmas by Christmas Day that the family's main activity on Christmas is taking down the tree and putting away the decorations. At least leave them up until New Year's at the very least and preferably until Twelfth Night. When I see people taking down their trees on Christmas, I always want to go talk to them and counsel them about the significance of what they are doing. If you have an important guest coming—take your pick, the Pope, Prince William, Angelina Jolie, Zac Effron, whomever—it's great if you're so excited you decorate and celebrate the coming for a month or two before the arrival, but once your guest arrives, do you immediately take down the decorations and stop celebrating the guest's arrival?
So, here are my ten holiday rules. They're mine. I know some of you will disagree. But I'm correct, of course. ;-)
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