Is Christ Still In Christmas?

What does Christmas mean to people nowadays? Well, here’s a short list:

• Santa Claus
• Presents
• Stockings
• Decorated trees
• mechanical reindeer on the front lawn 
• A scraggly Charlie Brown Christmas tree
• The “You’ll shoot your eye out” movie
• Figgie pudding (whatever the heck that is)
• I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas (a song written in California during the summer by Irving Berlin, who I’m pretty sure was not Catholic)
• “Baby It’s Cold Outside” (a horrible song that makes light of date rape)
• Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim
• The Ghost of Christmas Past
• Eggnog 
• Rudolph
• Yukon Cornelius
• Christmas cards
• Braggadocious family update letters inside those Christmas cards, saying things such as, “Our son Johnny volunteers at the hospital 3 days each week!” (Well, yeah, because he was sentenced to community service after stealing a car.)
• George Bailey, building and loan manager, and Clarence, angel second class

• Frosty the snowman 
• Mistletoe & holly & ivy & poinsettias & wreaths
• Elves
• Buddy the Elf
• Hermey, the elf who wants to be a dentist
• The North Pole
• The Polar Express
• The Hallmark Channel
• Candles
• Jingle Bells
• Johnny Mathis and Bing Crosby
• Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer
• The Grinch 
• Cindy Lou Who, who was no more than two
• Shopping malls
• Christmas hams
• Candy canes
• Blinking lights
• Tinsel
• The Burgermeister Meisterburger
• Ebenezer Scrooge and Mr. Potter (I like to group together the villains of famous time-travel Christmas stories)
• Christmas cookies
• Sleigh bells
• Burl Ives
• Miracle on 34th Street
• Andy Williams
• Alvin and the Chipmunks
• The Nutcracker
• Twas the Night Before Christmas
• Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus
• National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
• Home Alone
• Die Hard. If you can believe it, some people actually claim this heart-warming film starring Bruce Willis is NOT a Christmas movie. Obviously it is. “Yippee ki yay, figgie pudding!”

This is just a partial list of all the Christmas traditions that exist nowadays. But did you notice anything missing from that list? With all those various Christmas activities, not a single one mentions Jesus.

You remember Jesus, right? The “reason for the season”? We don’t hear much about Him during Christmas anymore, do we?

A person can be immersed in the Christmas season — which for many folks begins around mid-October and doesn’t end until, oh, about March 10th — and not once encounter a reference to Jesus, the Incarnation, Bethlehem, or anything remotely religious. (By “religious,” I don’t mean the way some people religiously max out their credit cards every year buying gifts that no one particularly needs, or the way certain folks plan a trip to the mall with the same religious fervor of someone going on pilgrimage to the Holy Land.)

What I mean is, despite a multitude of popular Christmas traditions in our culture, there’s practically a black-out about the original meaning of the holiday. So, with that in mind, here are some things you can add to your Christmas holiday season, to stem the secular tide just a bit:

• A creché
• An Advent wreath and/or calendar 
• Adding faith-based Christmas carols to your playlists, and purposely playing “O Holy Night” loudly every time the radio plays “Baby It’s Cold Outside,” which will counteract the evil spirits emboldened by that nasty song. 
•  Read the Bible, especially chapters 1 and 2 of both Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels, where you’ll discover the Magi arrived to worship Jesus up to two years after His birth. You’ll also learn the Bible never says how many Magi there were, nor if they were royalty, even though one particular song says there were three of them and they were kings.
• Go to Mass on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day
• Wear a little button that says “Jesus is the reason for the season” or “Keep Christ in Christmas”
• Watch the original “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” especially toward the end, when Linus recites from Luke’s gospel. 

A lot of the things that have become our cultural Christmas traditions are not really all that bad (except for that horrible song and the obsession with going into debt). Much of the holiday activities are harmless fun that inspire many fond childhood memories. It’s just the elimination of Jesus from the festivities that is sad and puzzling.

Therefore, try to keep a little Christ in Christmas this year. Gather with your loved ones and watch the heartwarming Charlie Brown special, and then after the kids are in bed, watch a cheery Christmas movie. I prefer the one starring Bruce Willis.