Christmas lists "Each year I experience pangs of guilt about participating in the national orgy of buying and giving to those who already have so much more than they need And I feel a halfhearted response to those who lament the loss of the real Christmas story to commercialism...."
McCarthy, Abigail
OF SEVERAL MINDS
ABIGAIL MCCARTHY
CHRISTMAS LISTS
Celebrate wildly & in moderation
Shortly before Thanksgiving this year, my eldest daughter began the annual task of canvassing the family for...
...And a rally of citizens met in front of the community center to sing traditional carols and hear the Christmas message in a counter program...
...In this country, it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that Christmas celebrations shook free of Puritan restraints, becoming generally popular and public again, and, alas, according to historians, commercialized...
...So it is, I think, that although increasingly controversial and commercial, our commemorations of the historic birth bring to the hearts of many a joyful noise, a sound still connected in some subterranean, mysterious way, to the good news of that first Christmas.t first Christmas...
...What exactly are we celebrating...
...As Christianity spread, Christians linked such customs to their observance of the birth of Christ...
...Out, too, went carols with any religious wording...
...OF SEVERAL MINDS ABIGAIL MCCARTHY CHRISTMAS LISTS Celebrate wildly & in moderation Shortly before Thanksgiving this year, my eldest daughter began the annual task of canvassing the family for Christmas lists-the suggestions for their preferred Christmas gifts...
...Out went the Nativity scene enacted by preschoolers and the Christmas message from the town's clergy...
...One Virginia town, for instance, trying to respond to the American Civil Liberties Union, removed all religious references from its annual Christmas program...
...Yet, to those who yearn to "put Christ back into Christmas," and to those offended by commercialism, I want to say that all is not entirely awry...
...These lists are traded so that we can pick out at least one gift each family member would really like to have...
...So the things we really needed and had to have-new sweaters, shirts, and socks- appeared under the tree, carefully and colorfully wrapped...
...We children prepared gifts, too, sure that the gifts we made-felt pen-wipers and napkin rings cut from cardboard tubes and covered- were just what our elders wanted and needed...
...Those are not idle questions...
...Even then it was primarily a "baptizing" of the prevailing pagan celebrations of the winter solstice...
...Silent Night" and "Joy to the World" were replaced by "O Christmas Tree" and "Frosty the Snowman...
...he said...
...Although younger family members may not realize it, this family custom goes back at least sixty-five years and has its roots in the Great Depression...
...As for commercialization, it might be well to look at things more historically...
...To the distress of many Christians, the original "Christ-mass," the birthday of Jesus, is waning from public view...
...Its celebration became illegal...
...Year after year, items on these wish lists tend to be severely practical-driving gloves, turtlenecks, handkerchiefs-but sometimes there are surprises that set us off in earnest search of that one perfect thing...
...Pretty, huh...
...The tree in that commercial space had made him happy...
...A season of feasting, fun, and frolic...
...The pleasure, however, was in the unwrapping and the discovery of the gift and the giver...
...The great explosion of consumerism occurred, of course, between the Christ-mases of my childhood and the Christ-mases of my children and grandchildren...
...Class-action suits abound protesting Nativity scenes on public ground and specifically Christmas music in school and community Christmas programs...
...The joy was in the giving and the receiving...
...In reaction, the Puritans banned Christmas entirely...
...We unwrapped carefully and saved the paper, just as we picked the tinsel carefully from the tree and saved it for the next year...
...Old habits die hard, and it was only a few years ago that younger family members firmly took the used wrappings away from those of us now the elders, and convinced us that it was all right to throw them away...
...For most people in those days there was precious little money for Christmas giving, but the elders in our family were determined that the children not be robbed of Christmas expectations and joy...
...The greatest retail quarter of the year...
...So each year I experience pangs of guilt about participating in the national orgy of buying and giving to those who already have so much more than they need...
...And I feel a halfhearted response to those who lament the loss of the real Christmas story to commercialism, and who launch efforts to "put Christ back into Christmas...
...And the things we should have, as well-books, pens, and writing paper...
...I think of the skycap who, as he helped me recently at a New York airport, called my attention to a Christmas tree...
...See, we have Christmas right here...
...Controversy swirls around Christmas and its celebrations...
...Christians began celebrating it only in the fourth century...
...Christians, in fact, became so merry that, in time, the religious aspect was overwhelmed by bouts of carousing and ribaldry, as Shakespeare's plays, among other testimonies, bear witness...
...Christmas was never a purely religious festival...
...In pre-Christian Rome, houses were decorated with greenery and lights, and children and the poor were treated to midwinter presents...
...In response, the choral society refused to take part in the altered program, partly on the grounds that Christmas music is part of our artistic heritage...
...In a pluralistic society, it is clearly difficult to strike a happy medium between the secular and the sacred, between believers and nonbeliev-ers, but we have to try...
...But I argued this out with myself a few years ago as follows, and I think the conclusion I reached then still holds true: All over the country the pre-Christmas rituals go on: sacred music concerts in cathedrals, ballet and pageants, bell-ringing Santas on the streets, shops laden with Christmas gifts...
Vol. 122 • December 1995 • No. 22
