Keeping the Christ in Christmas

            “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” the music proclaims (albeit about a month too early for my liking), and I couldn’t agree more. Christmas is, and has always been, my favorite holiday: the season characterized by people bustling to and fro, shopping for the perfect present, the soft illumination of Christmas lights glowing on a tree decorated with ornaments and memories, the scent of pine, cinnamon, and freshly baked cookies mingling together through the house.

From Halloween on, this is all I look forward to, and it fills me with joy to think about the celebration of the birth of God’s only son, the way that a little newborn baby brought so many people together. I love the feeling of people standing together in communion at midnight mass around the glow of candlelight, the organ blaring “O Come All Ye Faithful,” as everybody leaves with smiles for the anticipation of the following morning.

            In this hustle-and-bustle laden season, I find myself disappointed to see the reason for it all getting lost in the shuffle. This has been a long time coming, beginning with the focus being more on presents than Christ. There is literally no comprehensible reason why Santa Claus was set up at the mall on All Saints Day, yet there he was. People rush around purchasing gifts for family members they see once a year, gritting their teeth at strangers in an effort to make it through the line first or grab the last prized ham off of the shelf. In recent years, though, the pretense of Christ has been taken out of “X-mas” altogether, allowing for political correctness to go entirely too far.

In recent Christmas seasons, I’ve walked around noticing that nearly everything I come in contact with is labeled as “holiday” rather than Christmas. Signs depict advertisements for “holiday trees” and other nondenominational things, such as holiday ornaments to decorate them. Sounds fantastic. I’m not out to offend those who celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or even the non-believers. The greatest part of living in a free country is being allowed to express ourselves freely and without the fear of being inhibited or infringed upon by others.

As it stands, I find myself being infringed upon when Christmas cookies with trees and candy canes and Santa Clauses are holiday cookies, the crackers shaped like trees and bells are holiday treats, and so forth and so on. It’s disappointing to me. These are things that are obviously related only to Christmas.

In grade school, we received ornaments that were emblazoned with golden letters proclaiming “Jesus is the reason for the season!” over a depiction of a manger scene. If that is the reason for the Christians to celebrate Christmas, taking the entire word out altogether is as good as removing a holiday I celebrate from existence. Political correctness is supposed to protect everybody, and yet I’m left feeling sorely discriminated against in its wake. This is one more way of letting it get carried too far.

Don’t give in and wish people happy holidays. Say “Merry Christmas,” not because you’re thrusting your belief on somebody else, but because that’s what you believe in and want to express. I shouldn’t be suppressed because of what’s happening somewhere else. It’s a free country, and freedom of religion is a right I plan on taking part in this Christmas.