The Reason for the Season

Although "Happy Holidays" has become the vogue, P.C. way to greet people this time of year, I harbor no compunction about wishing others a "Merry Christmas". But it's not what you think. I am not a Bill O'Reilly fighting the war against the forces of secularization; it's just that I think the war is over. And we won. Christmas is a secular holiday.

Granted, not for all. Some people still desperately cling to the Christian roots of the holiday. Despite that those roots are planted in pagan dirt - the winter solstice festival that predates Christianity by thousands of years - such people insist that "Jesus is the reason for the season."

They are wrong. Santa Claus is the reason for the season.

Santa has dethroned Jesus. The shopping mall is his church, the elves are his saints, and fruitcake and egg nog are his holy communion.

Only a powerful capacity for denial can allow one to believe that the man who put the Christ in Christmas still matters at this time of year. Whatever the religious history of the holiday may be, look at it now. It is not about God or Jesus or your eternal soul. It is presents. It is Christmas trees. It is food. It is traveling hundreds of miles to see family. It is egg nog and mistletoe, a fire in the fireplace, and Christmas-movie marathons on TV. It is hyperactive children on Christmas morning dragging their bleary-eyed parents out of bed.

It is wonderful.

Not all of it, of course; Christmas as we know it also glorifies consumerism to a perverse extreme and encourages the exchange of material goods as the only valid expression of love. But I contend that even this is an improvement on the old model. Whatever vandalism consumerism commits on the human spirit, it's nothing compared to the epic guilt produced by the idea of sin.

There are many who still go to church on Christmas, but I wager that the percentage of the population who choose to waste an otherwise beautiful morning in this fashion drops every year. And manger scenes are still ubiquitous, but they look more and more quaint next to all the pretty light displays and iPod advertisements.

So atheist though I may be, I see no contradiction in wishing people a Merry Christmas. To my mind it is no more indicative of reverence for the Messiah than yelling his name when I've dropped a hammer on my foot. Christmas is a holiday that celebrates being with friends and family, eating good food, and exchanging presents. It is a lovely tradition in its purely secular form, and the inclusion of the superstitions whence it came contributes nothing of value.

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good, godless night!