It’s hard not to mourn the extent to which the origin of Christmas is lost in the orgy of holiday shopping. One veteran of the peace movement recently told me that she even hoped a judge would expedite her case and let her serve the month in jail that she is expecting for a previous action now, so that she could escape the madness.
While we must always use this time to remind folks that this holiday is ultimately a celebration of the birth of Jesus – who not only taught the gospel of nonviolence, but perfectly embodied his teaching to “love your enemies” by voluntarily dying on the cross – a fascinating article in The Cowl, Providence College’s student newspaper, recently alerted me of another connection between Christmas and nonviolence that should be highlighted.
The 1970 classic stop motion film, Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, could actually be seen as a story of nonviolent resistance. As Tim Fleming recounts:
…it’s the movie that tells the story of Santa Claus from start to finish. It explains how he chose to enter homes via chimneys and how one man can be named Kris Kringle, Santa Claus, and Saint Nick at the same time. The birth of the Christmas stocking is explained, and Winter Warlock is introduced as the in-charge director of seasonal cold and snow. However, as I watched this film with my eight-year-old sister I couldn’t help but think that we were viewing, for all intents and purposes, different films. For her the movie was about the history of Christmas, but I saw something different. It’s possible that my being a global studies major had influenced this perceived difference but I saw a case study in Yuletide civil disobedience.
Unfortunately for the children of Little Sombertown, toys had been outlawed by the evil Burgermeister Meisterburger. This unjust decree was enacted on the basis that toys do not foster civil productivity, but instead lead to laziness, dependence, and in the worst case scenario, a healthy imagination. Kris Kringle, however, will not stand for such intolerable rules. He is told over and over that his practices of delivering toys on “the holiest day of the year,” Christ’s birthday, are morally, socially, and lawfully wrong, yet he refuses to cease and desist as his orders prescribe. When he no longer can work in the daylight because of the law, he continues under the cover of night. When he can no longer walk freely through the front doors of houses, he resorts to chimneys. He starts stuffing socks with small toys to hide them from the Burgermeister’s guards when they begin searching houses. In my eyes Kris Kringle was one of the original champions of civil disobedience.
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Well…. if we pretend that Santa Claus is real, for the moment, then we can view this is a case of mainstreaming gone horribly wrong. I’m not saying that you’re approaching Santa as though he ever was real, but the Christmas ‘gifts’ obviously are very real.
The documentary “What Would Jesus Buy?” is worth watching, as a much different take on Christmas and civil disobedience.
The religious slant of what Reverend Billy does spoils it all for me, but I still appreciate some of the messaging and tactics. Some people obviously are a lot more receptive what Billy and his entourage do.
Great catch! Despite your comment that christmas is limited to the celebration of the birth of one religion’s originator.
Thanks Jeremy. I’m actually not aware of other interpretations of the meaning or origins of Christmas. Would you mind sharing other takes on it?
Christmas, for many people is indeed the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. And that’s fine. But there has been a major holiday very close to the 25th of December for many (at least Western) cultures before Christianity itself. Obviously – it wasn’t called Christmas, originally. For most, I believe it had to do with the proximity to the Winter solstice.
Romans celebrated “the birthday of the unconquered sun” the night the Sun starts to make a come back from its southern retreat. It’s a celebration of light, and how resolute life is despite the harshness and death of winter. This is why evergreens were used as decorations in Germanic-pagan celebrations – trees that make it through the winter unscathed – which have been adopted by Christians in their celebration of the nativity. Bright lights and stars are also common partly because of this tradition.
It’s from the Scandinavian pagan winter celebrations where we get the name “Yule” which is also a term adopted by modern Christmas celebrations.
Santa Claus himself is a multi-cultural amalgamation with parallel sources and no easily traceable origin. While there are connections to the Christian Saint Nicholas – he is also believed to be derived from the Germanic god, Odin. He was related to the holiday Yule and was believed to lead a great hunting party through the sky. In some cultures, it was believed he rode and eight legged horse. You can see how those may have evolved into the sleigh and 8 reindeer we see today. We can also thank Coca-Cola for most modern-American representations of Santa.
Then there are of course the debates about whether or not early Christians adopted the pagan holiday and whether or not it was used as a tool of conversion. I wont bother going into it too much because it’ll open another can of worms and I’m really uninterested. What is certain is that for the first few hundred years after Jesus’ life – there are no recordings of celebrations of his birth. Nor are there any firm dates of his birthday in the Bible. Contemporary Jewish traditions – which were in all likeliness shared by early Christians – dictated that births were not celebrated, because this was seen as pagan and somewhat deifying the person being celebrated, which is (was?) sinful. Most of the earliest writings about his birth – which can easily be Googled or found in Wikipedia – are by people actively choosing to celebrate it around the winter solstice for varying symbolic purposes.
In the end, I don’t personally believe the origins are what matter. What has passed has passed – but that’s just my opinion. What matters is how it is celebrated today. Christmas is widely celebrated by non-Christians (including myself) and currently has modern, secular and pre-christian themes.
(An alien viewing our planet may see it as a celebration of the successes of capitalism and trade – because of the excessive consumption and how widely celebrated the day is.)
I know Jews who celebrate Christmas. I celebrate it and – while I couldn’t easily label my world view – it is non-Christian and I also celebrate it with my family and friends. There are a number of Muslim refugees in my community and many of the younger ones now celebrate it with their friends. And just because it is called “Christmas” does not mean it is wholly owned by Christians. Language is Open and owned by everyone and no one. At the very least semantics are debatable. (side note: I find a similar parallel with the word “American” and how US citizens treat it compared to other inhabitants of north and south America, but anyways…)
You said Christmas is “ultimately” the celebration of Jesus’ birth. For many people it is – and as I said before that’s fine. But when trying to build a peaceful world, it’s important to highlight similarities between people to foster empathy and recognize strangers as human beings. Which I’d like to add is a very Christian thing to do. I would say the season’s celebrations are “ultimately” the common denominators or rather what people mutually celebrate across most cultures this time of year: peace, joy, generosity, family, community, life and of course candy. ;-D
* I would like to apologize for the length of this post.