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In Britain, which is more secular and much less Christian than the US, people still say “Merry Christmas” and movie trailers still say “coming this Christmas” and TV ads still talk about about Christmas. The same is true in Germany. It doesn’t appear to have made much of a cultural difference, and the US is still by far the most religiously Christian of those three countries.
So I’m skeptical that the “war on Christmas” by calling it “the holiday season” in the US makes a particular difference. If anything, Christmas in the US is still, even in its current state, a little more religious than it is in the UK, at least in my impression. British Jews are generally more religiously conservative than American Jews, but seem much more likely (in my experience) to have a Christmas tree or even to open presents on the 25th, precisely because the customs are now essentially fully divorced from religion.
British primary schools/kindergartens still put on (as Love Actually appreciators will know) nativity plays every year, and this too - despite literally being about Jesus - has been essentially divorced from religion. Christians should pick their poison. It might be better to keep their customs as particular ones than to fully secularize even the religious elements the way the Brits have.
The "war on Christmas" narrative flies in the face of the fact that Christmas is the biggest it's ever been in history and is growing every year.
Yeah, I love Christmas, but even I'm tired of seeing it creep ever earlier in the year, swallowing up other holidays like Thanksgiving. I hate that I've had Thanksgiving dinner immediately followed by my mom and sister taking off for a "Black Friday" sale on Thursday that they went to in order to buy presents for Christmas. Frankly, Halloween seems like it is the only thing stopping Christmas from seeping even earlier into the year.
This is such a commonly expressed idea that is so alien to me I would love to get more details on it.
I don't even particularly love Christmas, I have spent more than a couple of them alone, but the only part of Christmas Creep that I find even slightly objectionable is the music. I enjoy Christmas decorations, I think they are cozy and festive, and often well done. It takes a lot of time and effort to put up good Christmas decorations, and it seems crazy to me to go through all that trouble and only put them up a hand full of days in advance and take them down immediately. Enjoy the atmosphere. Light a fire in the fire place. Drink more hot coco and mulled wine.
Thinking about my own preference here, it reminds me of Diamond Age, and the phyles/claves which I absolutely loved. I guess to try and name this nebulous concept I am feeling, it might be something like Aesthetic Intentionality. Anything that pushes against the dead aesthetics of 'universal culture' is at least interesting if not strictly preferable to me.
Then bring Christmas forward into January, not backwards into Autumn.
The traditional pattern was a fast before Christmas, then a 12 day feast encompassing New Years and Theophany, after feast of Theophany, then a break before Lent. This is, of course, less convenient for shopping, so public venues won’t do it, but I do think it’s an overall more satisfying structure.
I agree completely. January is miserable, let Thanksgiving breathe a bit more and keep the pretty lights up into the worst month of the year.
I'm trying to convince my parents (who have decorated their house with huge numbers of lights since I was a kid) to keep the lights up into January. I'm hopeful they'll actually do it this year, that always makes me joyful to go to their house and see the pretty lights.
I hate January.
You lot make me feel so much better. It's not that I'm a lazy bum who can't muster the will power to take down the Christmas decorations, it's that I'm doing a public service to make January less depressing!
Oh, if only my parents were like that. They go on a frenzy to remove Christmas decorations at their house starting December 26, and it's usually gone by New Years'.
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