Christmas in these United States of America merges the celebration of the birth of Christ with our unique American story. It’s time to remember and glorify this miraculous event in this extraordinary nation.
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7 replies on “An American Christmas: How We’ve Melded the Birth of Christ with Our Unique Story”
Years ago I started a blog to log just very important lessons I’ve learned, wisdom I’ve gained … insights into life … so there aren’t many posts… mostly to help pass these lessons along to our kids and godchildren and grandchildren.
And several years ago I wrote a post on just this. There’s no bigger fan of Christmas, all of it, from the religious to the secular aspects — than I am.
Here is what I had to say about it:
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2010
God and Santa Claus
I had a friend post something on his blog. A little treatise on C.S. Lewis, and a Wall Street Journal story covering the Narnia series being dismissed as “Childrens’ Books”.
It got me thinking. Well, it continued me thinking on something I’ve been thinking about for quite some time, and started thinking more about as I watched “A Christmas Carol” last night. It came back to me when I read this:
It was apparently in the dedication of one of Lewis’ books, to a young lady named Lucy, who was 15 at the time.
It dovetails into another of my favorite quotes — which was brought to mind as I watched the Ghost of Christmas Present show Scrooge what was going on all across the world at Christmas Time. What happened when he sprinkled Christmas Spirit on people as he came across them, wherever they were. And how that translates into real life. I have seen it, and I have felt it. And it is a Good Thing.
Which dovetails with things such as believing in Santa Claus. And why I want my grandson to believe in Santa Claus, if only for a few years. It is good to have believed in magic at one point in your life, if only to go back to for comfort and for strength later on.
The quote is from Hub in “Second Hand Lions”.
And that is an answer I’ve struggled with over the years, I will admit out loud, right here. Is Santa Claus worth believing in? Oh, yes, he is. Is God worth believing in? Yes. Yes indeed. And for lots of reasons.
The biggest of which is, “you ain’t the center of the Universe”. Yup, there’s something bigger and better than you out there. Something you can’t be no matter how hard you try, but something that trying to live up to will make you a better person. Something that, if at worst it isn’t true at all, is the accumulation of thousands of years of human experience, how to produce as healthy societies as you can, and that Jim Bob has no right to tell you how to live your life because he’s bigger, and that Aristotle can’t tell you how to live your life because he’s smarter. From which springs the idea that all men are created equal — not by other men, but by something bigger — and are endowed by that something bigger with basic rights to their lives, liberty to live them to the extent that they begin to bump into other people’s liberty, and to their property. Because mere men aren’t the top of the morality chain.
And therefore other men have no right to take what was given by that something bigger away from you. Not for your own good. Or for anyone else’s.
That something bigger is important, whether you can put your finger on it or not. Because without it, law will eventually become what the strongest say it is. And though might, in a world with a creator, doesn’t make right, if right doesn’t have might, evil men will forcibly banish right from the world and replace it with their own selfish versions. First it will be the egotists who think they know what’s best for all and therefore have the right to enforce their vision. This will be followed by egotists who will use that power merely to persue their own interests with impunity and with rampant disregard for anyone elses.
We must be able to recognize evil. We must be able to recognize dragons. And we must know what to do about them.
A shared framework, a shared reference is handy. This is where culture comes in. And one of the things I know is that “multi-culturalism” amounts in the end “no-culturalism”. A fractious society is a weak society, and this one is becoming more and more fractious every day.
And shared religion, even if it’s only for the references, is cultural glue.
Not everyone may really believe. Many really do. At one time, perhaps most. But at one point, just having one dominant religion in the culture meant that whether or not you did, you ran into the symbols and the rituals and the holidays all the time. At one point, people said “Merry Christmas” to each other without pardoning the expression. There were shared experiences that held us together. No, not everyone had the same ones, but most of us did, and it rubbed off on a good chunk of those who didn’t.
I’m not sure where this goes, really. But I do know one thing.
I think I’m old enough to start reading fairy tales again.
Dear World,: God and Santa Claus (dear_world.blogspot.com)
Great discussion Gents! As parents finding the balance between Santa Claus and the birth of the Christ can be a challenge. But it is is something to be done with thought as they grow and mature.
Bill – I am sure Natasha will do very well, she has an excellent tutor. Just tell her not to correct the test givers 😉
Bill, please wish your wife the best on the 29th! Finishing this dreadful year on such an up note as to become a citizen will be quite uplifting!
Well, we Russian Orthodox celebrate the Nativity on January 7 (December 25 by the old Julian calendar), which lets us celebrate the holiday totally religiously, without the secularism that’s inherent with the December 25 celebration. For us, December 25 is a nice day off, and time to have dinner with friends and family as a celebration of friendship. But the Nativity is celebrated separately,
Whoops, posted too quickly. Here is a description of the Russian Orthodox Nativity services: https://www.pravmir.com/the-services-of-christmas-in-the-orthodox-church/
Putting this here too because it seems topical …
‘Time takes its toll’. As you go through years losses pile up. People are no longer here. They go away. People you don’t like get into positions of power. People you do like are removed. Things you’ve always been fond of change. Good things from the past get farther and farther from you. The losses pile up until the mountain of things you have lost looks overwhelming on the horizon behind you, a weight it is hard to bear.
But bear it you can. There is always good on the other side of the ledger. New friends, new opportunities, old friendships grown stronger and deeper. The opportunity to find again things you thought you had lost and bring them into your life again. Brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, sons, daughters, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, dear friends. As your grip on some things loosens and fades grab on to other things. They too are ‘worth it’.
It may sound corny, but every day brings a new sunrise and sunset. It brings countless interactions with others and countless opportunities to make the day a good one. The past is fixed, the future is what you make of it. Make it well.
May everyone laugh, love, live, cry, sing, dance – do all of those serious and silly things that make us all part of the same human family, yes even those you disagree with – at the core we are all more the same than we are different.
Things may be rough. The world may seem upended. Nothing is stable. All of that may be true. But ‘this too shall pass’. There will be a new dawn. Be ready to greet it.
And have yourself a merry Christmas, y’all.
Thank you for that Ryan, well said, and something I, for one, needed to hear. Merry Christmas to you and yours.