Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Humbug on Christmas exclusivity

Every so often I see people getting a bee in their bonnet that "Jesus is the reason for the season," who are trying to make Christmas the sole preserve of Christianity. So ok, they've got a strong point on first appearances with the name thing, but...

I celebrate Christmas, because I was raised celebrating it. You can't raise someone up their whole life to have an emotional resonance to something, and then suddenly demand they stop celebrating it because they are doing so with the wrong theology in mind. Especially not when you went and appropriated much of its imagery and tradition from other groups anyway to start with (hint, Christmas trees, caroling, feasting, party time with the family, mistletoe, December 25th, are all pagan innovations that Christmas merely appropriated along the way).

In short, I have no sympathy whatsoever for the argument that non-Christians shouldn't celebrate Christmas. In fact, such demands are downright Scrooge-ish, and being as Charles Dickens branded Christmas as the anti-miser holiday (no, that part isn't an ancient Christian tradition either), I say humbug to all who would want me to take my tree down. The irony is satisfying :)

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