There Is NO War On Christmas! Jesus Told Me So!

Actually, He said:

"Huh? What War On Christmas?
Are Limbaugh And O'Reilly At It AGAIN?"

I decorated the Christmas tree tonight. Like a cartoon character, I got tangled in lights, needed a new power strip, and had to race to Walgreens to get more white lights. As with most American households, I wanted my Christmas tree to look perfect: it was not going to look as if it had swallowed all the colored lights first. I was organized and resourceful last year, so there were no real surprises when I opened all of the other Christmas Crud boxes. It had me feeling a little gypped, to tell you the truth. What's Christmas like without sifting through bad ornaments to look for good ones? Moreover, what's Christmas like without all of the beautiful, tacky, cheap, glitzy, poignant, crass decorations we've acquired through the years?

Christmas trees and their decorations can be the mirrors of our true selves: we prominently display the best ornaments in the front while we place the crappy ones (or, just not as beautiful) in the back. I remember one particular ornament that never made it to the front: a flat, brown teddy bear dressed as a nurse. And it was sticking its red tongue out. It took a change of partners for me to get rid of the strange thing. But that's the thing about Christmas - the sentiment is so strong that you never throw out even the worst, most threadbare, tarnished, half-broken ornaments. Why?

Because at Christmastime, even the battered and ugly ornaments seem to have souls.

Today I read another article about the "War On Christmas" instigated by the sacred cows of the Christian Right. Is saying "Merry Christmas" so important that today's right-wing talk show bloviators and pulpit pimps have taken to ostracizing those who say "Happy Holidays?" Over the years, the concept of Christmas has transcended the birthday celebration of a religious icon. Perhaps that's why the Christian Right is furious over the inclusion of everyone into the "season of giving": the ideology of "Peace On Earth, Good Will Towards Men" has overshadowed the babe in the manger and they feel slighted. After all, they are a self-righteously arrogant lot that keeps reminding us that they have cornered the market on goodness ("It's the Christian thing to do!").

And they certainly don't want other holidays to be mixed in with theirs! "Why, saying 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas' is downright sacrilegious! It's positively un-American! Christmas is a Christians Only holiday! Exclusivity is our right!

But who knew that such an exclusive holiday would become a worldwide peacekeeper (if only for one day)? Who knew that one day out of the year would garner hosts of goodwill and, most important of all, compassion? Can't the Christian Right be a bit more generous with one of their core philosophies? Then again, they seem to be a people fixated with their own persecution: "War on Christmas" "War against Marriage" "War against the Unborn." But who's going to tell them that there is no "War" except for the one they themselves are waging against inclusion?

Are they the only ones who discard old, unwanted Christmas tree decorations?

Yes, there is a war: on inclusion, on open-mindedness, on universal acceptance. Today's family values include more people in the family than any Christian Right family reunion picnic. "Extended" families are just that: strongly bonded extensions of the core, whatever that core may be. And today's Christmas recognizes the love between individuals more than ever before. That, of course, makes the Christian Right seethe in rage. To them, the meaning of Christmas is only about their ideals and the way they want to see those ideals performed.

So if The Christian Right is involved in a war, the only war it is fighting is the "War on Universal Love."

Thanks for reading.

Dan Vojir

PS:
For all my friends and readers I have a small, homemade Holiday gift created with the help of my late love of gardening. It's a series of photos I pasted together for several of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker melodies. The last one is performed for you by the San Francisco Faerie Portal. It depicts how the faeries magically celebrate Christmas Eve.

All the flowers of our home
and the faeries of the portal wish you all
the Happiest of Holidays!