It’s Nicholas’ & Daniel’s First Christmas, and it’s Under Attack… Again

My wife and I have three wonderful sons, our eldest Jack is three and our twins of eight months are Daniel and little Nicholas. Jack is majorly excited about Christmas as our family always makes a big deal about the lights and the tree, cookies & Santa Clause. Since becoming parents my wife and I have made more of an effort also renew my family’s tradition of observing the Advent and teaching our boys the story of the nativity.

Every single year we talk about “The War on Christmas” ad nauseum in every medium. I’ve worked Sales and Retail and now Project Management for years and every year I see and feel the politically correct gravitational pull to refer to the “Holiday Tree” and wish everyone “Happy Holidays” rather than mentioning the “C” word for fear of offending non-Christians.

The current story du jure’ comes to us from Fox 8 in Oregon specifically titled “Oregon school district bans Santa from classrooms, seeks religious tolerance”. I have been a sucker for this kind of click bait for years and you know what? I just…don’t….care anymore. I just can’t possibly give any less of a fornication. I’m a Dad, I have been for three years now and by God I really mean it I just don’t care about the “War on Christmas” we’re supposed to buy into and get indignant about. Every. Damned. Year.

What do I care about? Teaching my little boys that on December 25^th every year we celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ and that the way we celebrate it has been changed and been molded by various cultures through the ages that added and took away aspects as they saw fit. Some kept the message of Christ’s birth intact and others didn’t. Some people have devolved Christmas to simply “The Season of Giving” highlighting the generosity and gift giving associated with it. Some people don’t do Christmas at all, and that’s fine.

Our Jewish friends celebrate Hanukkah as they have through the ages, our Muslim neighbors will observe Ramadan and our Hindi brethren will celebrate Diwali. An African-American academic, Dr. Maulana Karenga came up with Kwanza in 1966 to celebrate African culture, that’s cool. Let them all celebrate what they will, all of them. Everyone: just enjoy it, whatever it is, even if it’s just Netflix and Chill. To quote Firefly’s Shepard Book “I don't care what you believe in, just believe in it.” (May Ron Glass Rest in Peace).

In my home, in my church and in my family we celebrate Christmas, both on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We try to keep up with Advent and teaching our kids the faith behind the holiday. We open Christmas presents here beneath a Christmas tree. That’s what we do. You do yours and we’ll do ours and I’ll wish you a Merry Christmas and you can wish me what you like. I’m done with it, let’s all just grow up and let each other be.

May the Lord bless you and Keep you, may he make his face to shine upon you, lift his countenance unto you and bring you peace, not a war on this holy season.

Photo By Thomas Wolf (Der Wolf im Wald) - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5654073