R: Gatekeep Christmas

Christmas has descended upon Yale University. Lights are strung up in dorm room windows, Harkness Tower echoes glad tidings across campus, and the chill in the air is matched only by the warmth in the heart of every student. Gifts will be swapped, carols will be sung, and hot chocolate will be sipped. There is much to love about Christmas and the traditions that surround it.

There is much to dislike, however, about the way modern society celebrates Christmas. Pandora’s box has been opened and the virtues of Christmas have escaped, unchecked and undirected, to wreak havoc on a hapless world. Charity, kindness, and joy have become so saturated with commercialism that no one remembers where they came from. The beginning of the Christmas season is marked, not by the lighting of the Advent wreath, but by the return of the Starbucks red cup. The secular usurpation of Christmas should disappoint us, even outrage us. It would be blatantly disrespectful, for example, if McDonald’s rolled out seasonal Ash Wednesday-themed milkshakes, or if Toyota had an annual sale based around Ramadan. Similarly, the commercialization surrounding Christmas seems expressly designed to obscure its true meaning. We should not allow the secular to supplant the divine. 

No doubt, Christmas has become increasingly secularized and commercialized. But maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Even as efforts to stifle the true meaning of the season pervade our society, there remains something fundamentally good about Christmas that cannot be hidden by its inane and frivolous trappings. The Christmas Spirit is indomitable. Even amidst the anxiety foisted upon us by the marketers, there is a quiet joy that is kindled within our hearts, a humble generosity, a love for our neighbor. If the crowded storefronts and holiday jingles were meant to distract us from those twin virtues of charity and gratitude, they have only served to remind us of them. Christmas will work its magic, even on unwilling hearts. It does not require a defense against the very people who are most in need of it.

How should we celebrate a sacred holiday in a secular world? Is there value in frivolity? Can anyone stop the carillonneurs from playing Mariah Carey?