Keep the "X" in "Xmas!"

The commercialization of Christmas is a problem, but a very old problem. I'd say by the time the first Miracle on 34th Street movie was made the die was socially cast; if commercializing the holiday was going to ruin it, it started over half a century ago. Maybe it did.

Then again, I'm looking out the window at a dreary rainy day in Sonoma County and figuring, as I have ever since I moved to Humboldt County nearly 13 years ago, that the real "reason for the season" has nothing to do with anyone's religion. People who live in the temperate zone and north of there, in the Northern Hemisphere, generally get miserable weather around this time of year and so there is a deep social need for a holiday. If we didn't have a globally agreed upon party time now, we'd probably seek to hoard our food, money, fuel, whatever, until spring definitely had arrived. We'd spend half the year as miserable Scrooges. This way, we blow a lot of our savings, but we have the chance for a lot of socially shared good cheer, and no one will blame us for being sullenly hung over (for any number of reasons, many not chemical) next January. By then the solstice will have come and gone, and the days will be getting longer. The worst weather may still be to come but we only have to hold out till March or in some places May. Without Yuletide to brighten things up, we'd be much worse off.

Now of course a person who happens to believe in some particular model of how the Universe was organized can draw comfort and meaning from the symbolism of the season. They can assume all this came together with a Purpose in mind and it is no accident their organizing myths bless it. Historically speaking of course, the Christians co-opted a pre-existing holy season that was already a party time, and some denominations over the centuries have taken up arms against all the pagan fooling around that clearly doesn't have anything to do with the Scriptures. But if you believe in a kind and loving God or divine order of any kind, you ought to allow that it is no doubt providential that all this merry-making comes under the rubric of your traditions, even if it is clearly wrong from a Puritanical point of view.

The corporatization of the season is just another takeover in a long series of world-views that have adopted the season, then. If capitalism can have a human face, then we could have plenty of good, friendly fun with Xmas. Only if you suppose the cult of property is itself dangerously and inherently and irrevocably inhumane does it appear as an inherently terrible thing--and even then, we can always seek to co-opt the holidays back to a more humane, fun version and undermine capitalism that way.

I for one can't afford to run around buying gifts, but I can wish you all happy holidays, and remind us all to keep the "X" in "Xmas!"