Is Christmas obsolete? No, but it's certainly changing. Even the staid old Washington Post recognized, in an editorial a couple of days ago, that "Christmas" has increasingly become an ecumenical, even secular, holiday, one that's observed in some fashion or other by far more Americans than are card-carrying, practicing Christians. According to the Post, we might want to blame or praise Irving Berlin for this trend. His song White Christmas, appearing in 1942, got us all thinking about the holiday in a different way.
More accurately, of course, Berlin simply put into music and feeling that was already a part of our collective consciouslness. At its best, Christmas these days is a spirit of goodwill and giving in which many non-Christians, and even the areligious, get caught up. Christian religions should be pleased to take credit for this aspect. At its worst, the holiday is an exercise in mass-crass commercialism, and orgy of buying each other stuff we often don't need. People of all beliefs get caught up in that, too; and our fundamentally commerce-oriented culture can (and does) take credit for that aspect.
Some time ago, a not-so-famous blogger suggested that we need to redefine and re-calendar some of our official holidays to better adapt them to our changing multicultural society. Specifically on Christmas, he wrote this:
....Christmas. Although it's a Christian holiday, it is commonly observed in various ways by people of many faiths and persuasions. I have known Hindus and Muslims in this country who put up a tree and exchange gifts as a secular tradition of the season. To non-Christians and even many Christians, it has become more about gift-giving than anything else, and of course for retailers, it's lifeblood. The date is arbitrary -- we celebrate Christ's birth at this time of year because it roughly coincided with pagan rites accompanying the winter solstice. My suggestion: December 22, Solstice Day, a time of rejoicing, a festival of cheer and light that chases away winter doldrums; a time, too, of gift-giving and of the all-important end-of-year extravanganza of buying that drives our economy. Maybe the change would also help move some of the commercialism away from the "real" Christmas on December 25.
It's still a great suggestion. The time is nigh.
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