There's at least two holidays in our culture going on under the one name of Christmas. There's a winter festival that is symbolized by evergreens, holly, and mistletoe; by our culture's embodiment of generosity in Santa Claus, and related presents; and by wintertime snow and sleighs. There's also a Christian holy day, celebrating the birth of Christ, which, for various historic propagandistic reasons, occurs on the same day.
Christmas, as winter festival, and to a lesser extent, Christian holy day, is a pervasive holiday in our culture. Capitalism has a lot vested in the "presents" aspect of the festival, so it gets remorselessly promoted.
Most Christians don't have any difficulties with this promotion. Yes, sometimes you hear from time to time, phrases like, "He's the Reason for the Season" or "Put the Christ back in Christmas", which decries the materialistic aspects of the holiday. But generally it does them no harm to have their holy day in everyone's faces. It reinforces their viewpoint of themselves as the majority religion, and it underscores their smug superiority.
People who are not practicing Christians but who come from a Christian background still usually have no major problem with Christmas, as they can fully participate in the winter festival and skip the holy day aspects of the holiday.
People from flexible religions like Hinduism or Buddhism have some difficulties, but not major ones. Buddhism has adapted itself repeatedly to local deities and festivals. If Bodhi Day, the celebration of the Buddha's enlightenment, which usually observed on December 8 in Japan (usually later by those using the traditional Chinese calendar) gets moved forward or back to December 25 - what harm is there in that? You can even string lights on your house to symbolize the Buddha's enlightenment, no problem. The local Vedic center has Santa Claus come and greet the children. NBFD for these folks.
Jews are in a different situation. Their 2000-year history of being a minority religion has caused the Jewish tradition to be very strict in non-participation in the majority culture's religious festivals. Generally through that history, Christians did not treat Jews well, so anything associated with Christianity is fraught with suspicion, at best. Because of our own culture's confusion between the winter festival and the Christian holy day, most Jews feel that the winter festival portion of the holiday is off-limits. They will say that "Santa Claus" is a Christian saint, for example, and therefore something Jews can have absolutely nothing to do with. And to some extent they are right - at one time, Santa Claus was the Christian Saint Nicholas, who had a saint-day some time near solstice, and somehow he got mixed up in the big winter festival. These same Jews will point to the Christmas tree, and say, look, it's a *Christmas* tree, for heaven's sake, the word "Christ" is in it, there's no way it can not be a Christian symbol - or, if you point out that it was originally pagan, well, why should it being pagan make it any more off-limits to them as Jews than if it were Christian? So, most Jews feel that they can't participate in any aspect of Christmas.
But the winter festival aspect of Christmas is tremendously appealing. Christmas trees are beautiful. Christmas lights are beautiful. Christmas parties are fun. Getting presents is fun. Sharing in a generous spirit is fun.
Many Jews then respond to Christmas with deep resentment. Many Jews hate, hate, hate Christmas with a passion that I think can only be explained by the fact that they feel like everyone else is having fun when they can't. The Christmas tree can be a lightning rod for this resentment, I think precisely because it is so appealing. I know a Jewish man with a Chinese wife, who, considering all the other cross-cultural issues he could have had at their marriage, made only one requirement -- that they would never have a Christmas tree.
One Jewish response in North America to the pervasiveness and appeal of Christmas is to take what was once a minor wintertime festival, Chanukah, and pump it up. I personally think this is a mistake. Why?
A. Chanukah, because it is a minor festival, can never be as big and wonderful as Christmas. It is always destined to be a junior Christmas. It will never be as fabulous as what everyone else gets to do, and therefore will just make the larger culture's festival seem that much more appealing, and the situation Jews are in feel worse.
B. Having Chanukah around means that Christians can give it a little lip service, and then do their own holiday in a Big Way with a clear conscience. This is the extremely annoying practice of, for example, having 15 Christmas carols at the concert, and a little sop to the Jews with "I had a little dreydel." "Why should you complain, huh? You *get* a damn Chanukah song, so shut up."
Me, I think Jews should revel in Jewish festivals, like Passover and Sukkot, and not engage in an unfair competition. I lit some candles on the Chanukiah, sure; I ate doughnuts sure - but I don't want Chanukah to substitute for Christmas.
I carry a lot of ambivalences about Christmas. I taught many of these ambivalences, for better or worse, to my children. I hate the smug triumphalism of the holiday, but I like the honoring of the evergreen, the marking of the darkest days of the year, and the celebration of the spirit of generosity. That's why I participate in it as a winter festival. I like Santa Claus - even if I like to pretend that all the images of him are really Reb Nachman. I like Christmas trees. I like "Jingle Bells". I'm OK with all of that.
So merry Christmas, and happy Yule, and I hope you had a (c)happy Chanukah, and happy Boddhi Day, too, if you were celebrating. Happy (winter festival) too, to everyone.
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