Evolution of Christmas

The Wall Street Journal had two very good stories on our modern celebration of Christmas.  The first, "Merry Marketing" by the Jesuit, Fr. James Martin delves into the creative lengths companies go to tap into religious themes (without actually being religious).  These include JC Penney's "Joy of Giving" and Macy's "A million reasons to believe!".   Though I didn't see it, I wish I could have seen that Gap ad:  "Go Christmas!  Go Hannukah!  Go Kwanzaa!  Go Solstice!  You 86 the rules, you do what just feels right.  Happy Whatever-you-wannukah, and to all a cheery night!"

The second by Eric Felten was entitled "Christmas Spirit: It's All in the Cards: A nice tradition has become a do-it-yourself hassle."   Felten writes, "Cards are too secular, proclaiming "Happy Holidays" out of a politically correct fear that "Merry Christmas" might offend; cards are no longer about Christmas at all but just annual vehicles for sending out pictures of the kids or snaps of the family vacation; cards have become impersonal, with pre-fab sentiments replacing the handwritten note."

As long as we call it Christmas, I'm not sure we can compete with the secularization of the holiday.  However, if you were Orthodox (Russians, Armenians and Ukrainians), who celebrate on the Julian calendar, you wouldn't compete with any of it.  This article out of the Pittsburgh Tribune quotes Olga Burik, who has been preparing Christmas Eve meals for 30 years, "this is all about tradition.  Once you lose tradition, you lose your religion."

-LB