The Commercialization of Christmas

Last Sunday, on my way back to drop Israel, our seminary student, to his apartment, we discussed about my sermon. Israel wanted me to clarify and expand on one of the points I made that in the Christian Church history, from the time of the Romans in the fourth century all the way to the Puritans in the eighteenth hundred, the church first tried to purge Christmas from its secular influence with legends and mythical figures and later wanted to abolish it all together.

In the fourth century, the Christian Church wanted to dissociate itself from the Romans festivities of Saturnalia that celebrated the return of the Sun on Dec 21. It was a long week ceremony with drinking, dancing, and orgies. This was too much for the Christians to bear and they wanted their own festivity. They named it Christ Mass.

In the eighteenth century, The Puritans when they arrived in America wanted to abolish Christmas because they thought it was very secularized with so much drinking, eating, and dancing. To them the focus on the true meaning of Christmas was lost. The Puritans went further to get the Congress to abolish Christmas. They made it illegal in Massachusetts and forced the Congress to open on Christmas Day. But their efforts failed miserably.

In our contemporary time, there are those who are so critical of the commercialization of Christmas and argue that we have lost sight of what it really means. To them, Christmas should be about the love of God and nothing else. According to them, cultural, mythical and legend figures such as Frosty, Rudolf and Santa Claus have made it worse. They believe that Jesus would have not approved on how we have turned his birthday.

I have, however, a different take. I am of the belief that Christmas can’t be dissociated with the culture and norms we live into. Christmas to me is where God comes in the world, in the culture we live into and brings in it the true love of God. It is in the world that God, “Emmanuel “comes to us.

Think of all the goods done at Christmas in the name of God. People do it because they have a sense of what Christmas is all about, the love of God shared into the world. Think about the Christmas music sang in stores. Anyone who goes out and listens to those songs lives out in one way or another the very presence of God in the world.

I won’t be spending much time arguing whether Christmas has been over commercialized. In the commercialization of Christmas, I see rather God in action and reaching out to many. Yes Rudolf, Jingles-bell, Frosty, Santa Claus are legends and mythical figures that we have cultured and incorporating in Christmas. Yet through them we experience the very presence of God in our midst. In the giving of gifts, for example, God shines in the darkness in our world. His presence is vivid and real.

In His Name,
Pastor Will