Secularization of Christmas

Christmas controversy refers to controversy or disagreement surrounding the celebration or acknowledgement of the Christmas holiday in government, media, advertising and various secular environments. Modern-day controversy occurs mainly in the United States,¹² Canada,³⁴⁵ and to a lesser extent in the United Kingdom,⁶⁷ and usually stems from the holiday's significant annual role in Western economy in conjunction with its potential connotations with Christianity in an increasingly religiously diversifying Western society. The term "War on Christmas" is often used to address recent controversy.⁸

In recent decades, during the annual approach to December 25, it is widely alleged that public, corporate, and government mention of the term "Christmas" is avoided and replaced with a generic term—usually "holiday" or "winter"—and that popular non-religious aspects of Christmas, such as secular Christmas carols and decorated trees are still prominently showcased and recognized, but are vaguely associated with non-specified "holidays", rather than with Christmas.⁹

Supporters of this trend often claim that the goal of this presentation is to be culturally sensitive and more inclusive of the many holidays celebrated during December and January, and to avoid possibly causing unintentional offense to non-Christians by referencing the term "Christmas".¹⁰ Many opponents, however, feel that since approximately 17.5 percent of non-Christian Americans do indeed celebrate Christmas,¹¹¹² an avoidance of the term "Christmas" is merely an effort to avoid a direct reference to Jesus or Christianity rather than an attempt at being sensitive to non-Christians.¹³¹⁴

In the past, Christmas-related controversy was mainly restricted to concerns of a public focus on secular Christmas themes such as Santa Claus and gift giving rather than what is sometimes expressed by Christians as the "reason for the season"—the birth of Jesus. The term "Xmas", the subject of controversy during the mid-to-late 20th century, originated from the use of the Greek letter chi, Χ, as an abbreviation of Christ (Χριστός).¹⁵

Present-day controversy

Although a close variant of the term "War on Christmas" is believed to have first been coined by British American journalist Peter Brimelow in 1999,¹⁶¹⁷ the concept of a "war on Christmas" only entered public consciousness in the United States and Canada during the early-to-mid 2000s decade, often credited to an exposure of the issue by American commentator Bill O`Reilly. It was claimed by Brimelow, O`Reilly, and later a variety of prominent media figures and regular citizens^{citation needed} alike, that any direct mention of the term "Christmas" or its religious aspects were being increasingly censored, avoided, or discouraged by a number of advertisers, retailers, government (prominently schools), and other public and secular organizations.

Rather than referencing "Christmas" directly, it is claimed that certain secular entities and influences often reference more generic terminology such as "holiday(s)", or "winter". Several terms fitting this description have since become neologisms throughout North America, including "holiday tree" (replacing "Christmas tree"), "winter break" (replacing "Christmas break"), and "holiday season" (replacing "Christmas season"). Claims are also made that nativity scenes, religious Christmas carols, and other Christian aspects of Christmas are also being increasingly avoided in favor of the more secular aspects, such as Santa Claus, decorated trees, gift-giving and consumer spending.¹⁸

Opponents of the perceived censorship of Christmas include not only Christians, but a number of individuals and organizations who adhere to a religion or philosophy other than Christianity.⁹¹⁹²⁰²¹ Some claim that this perceived censorship also extends to Easter and Good Friday, where euphemisms such as "Spring Holiday" are sometimes used to avoid a public mention of these holidays.

Government-related controversies

Supreme Court rulings starting with Lynch v. Donnelly in 1984 have permitted religious themes in government-funded Christmas displays in their interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, though the inclusion of such displays is not mandated. Since these rulings have been splintered and have left governments uncertain of their limits, many such displays have included secular elements such as reindeer, snowmen and elves along with the religious elements.²³ Other recent court cases have brought up additional issues such as the inclusion of Christmas carols in public school performances, but none of these cases have reached the US Supreme Court.

A controversy regarding these issues arose in 2002, when the New York City public school system banned the display of nativity scenes, but allowed religious symbols of Hanukkah and Ramadan to be displayed, as well as other less overt Christmas symbols such as the star at the top of a Christmas tree.¹⁸ Such a policy angered many, including commentator Bill O'Reilly, who in 2006 said such a policy was "anti-Christian".²⁴ The school system successfully defended its policy in Skoros v. City of New York (2006).²⁵

In December 2007, a public controversy arose³ when a public school in Ottawa, Canada planned to have the children in its primary choir sing a version of the song "Silver Bells" with the word "Christmas" removed.

Christmas tree controversies

Since the 1980s,²⁶ there have been several instances in both the United States and Canada where official public mentions and references to Christmas trees were renamed to "holiday trees" for various reasons, mostly for an enforcement of separation of church and state or a recognition of cultural and religious diversity. Some have expressed outrage at these renamings,²⁷ while others supported them as being inclusive.^{verification needed}

One of the most prominent Christmas tree controversies came in 2005, when the city of Boston labeled their official decorated tree as a holiday tree, and the subsequent response from the Nova Scotian tree farmer who donated the tree was that he would rather have put the tree in a wood chipper than have it named a "holiday" tree.¹ Donnie Hatt, the donor, was also quoted as saying "Ever since I was born, a tree was put up for Christmas, not for holidays, because if you're going to do that you might as well put a tree up for Easter".²⁸

Another controversy occurred in 2005 with the US hardware retailer Lowe's. Signage for their Christmas trees read "holiday trees" in English, but read árboles de Navidad (Christmas trees) in Spanish rather than árboles de feriados. In 2007, Lowe's started using the term "family tree", sparking protest from the American Family Association, but they have since claimed that this term was only a printing mistake.²⁹

Although the tree that is lit annually at Rockefeller Center in New York City is popularly referred to as the "Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree", it is officially titled "The Tree at Rockefeller Center" as of 2008, and there is no mention of "Christmas" anywhere on the tree's official website.³⁰

Reclamation of the term "Christmas tree"

In recent years, efforts have also been made to rename official public holiday trees back to Christmas trees. In 2002, a bill was introduced in the California Senate to rename the State Holiday Tree the California State Christmas Tree;³¹ while this measure failed, at the official lighting of the tree on December 4, 2007, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger referred to the tree as a Christmas tree in his remarks and in the press release his office issued after the ceremony.³²

The Michigan Senate had a heated debate in 2005 over whether the decorated tree in front of the Michigan Capitol would continue to be called a holiday tree (as it had been since the early 1990s) or named a Christmas tree. The question was revisited in 2006, when the bipartisan Michigan Capitol Committee voted unanimously to use the term Christmas tree.³³ And in 2007, Wisconsin lawmakers considered whether to rename the tree in the Wisconsin Capitol rotunda, a holiday tree since 1985, the Wisconsin State Christmas Tree.³⁴

Retailer controversies

Since c. 2004, many non-profit organizations in the United States have petitioned for boycotts of various large secular organizations, particularly retail giants, demanding that they use the term "Christmas" rather than "holiday" in their print, TV, online, and in-store marketing. Although a great many retailers were criticized for adhering to such policies, there have been quite a few notable instances in which retailers were featured prominently in the mainstream media for their "no `Christmas`" policy.

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Historical controversy

Puritan era

The first documented Christmas controversy was Christian-led, and began during the English Interregnum, when England was ruled by a Puritan Parliament.⁵¹ Puritans (including those who fled to America) sought to remove the remaining pagan elements of Christmas (see Christmas#Pre-Christian origins). During this period, the English Parliament banned the celebration of Christmas entirely, considering it a popish festival with no biblical justification, and a time of wasteful and immoral behavior. The Cromwell Association notes that this ban was not directed at Christianity, but on the pagan traditions that came to be associated with Christianity through the creation of the Christmas holiday. These ancient traditions have no true relation to Christianity, but they were so established in the cultures of northern Europe that they were not abandoned after the introduction of Christianity. Many early Christian leaders were faced with congregations of Christians who were still celebrating these "pagan" traditions. It would not have been possible to ban such celebrations due to their popularity, so early church leaders established this time of year to celebrate the birth of Christ. This marked the true beginning of the conflict over the Christmas holiday.⁵²

Protestantism

Prior to the Victorian era, Christmas in the United States was primarily a religious holiday observed by Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and Lutherans. Its importance was often considered secondary to Epiphany and Easter.

As was the case with other Christian holidays, Christmas borrowed elements from pagan peoples, including yule logs, decorations such as candles, holly, and mistletoe. Christmas trees were sometimes seen as pagan in origin. Cited as proof is Jeremiah, 10:3-4, which states, "For the customs of the peoples are false: a tree from the forest is cut down, and worked with an ax by the hands of an artisan. People deck it with silver and gold they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move." The Advent period (originally a fasting period meant to point to the Second coming of Christ), and gift giving (invented by Martin Luther to counter St. Nicholas Day, 6th of December) were also often seen as pagan in origin.

During the various Protestant reformations, these (real or supposed) paganizing elements were a source of controversy. Some sects, such as the Puritans, rejected Christmas as an entirely pagan holiday. Others rejected certain aspects of Christmas as paganizing, but wanted to retain the "essence" of the holiday as a celebration of the Christ's birth. This tension put in motion an ongoing debate about the proper observance of Christmas.⁵³

19th century

According to historian Ronald Hutton, the current state of observance of Christmas is largely the result of a mid-Victorian revival of the holiday spearheaded by Charles Dickens. In A Christmas Carol, Hutton argues, Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family-centered festival of generosity, in contrast to the community-based and church-centered observations, the observance of which had dwindled during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. ⁵⁴

Historian Stephen Nissenbaum contends that the modern celebration in the United States was developed in New York State from defunct and imagined Dutch and English traditions in order to re-focus the holiday from one where groups of young men went from house to house demanding alcohol and food into one that was focused on the happiness of children. He notes that there was deliberate effort to prevent the children from becoming greedy in response.⁵⁵

Early 20th century

In the early twentieth century, Christian writers such as C. S. Lewis had already noted a distinct split between the religious and secular observance of Christmas. In Xmas and Christmas: A Lost Chapter from Herodotus, Lewis gives a satire of the observance of two simultaneous holidays in "Niatirb" (Britain backwards) from the supposed view of the Greek historian and traveller. One, "Exmas", is observed by a flurry of compulsory commercial activity and expensive indulgence in alcoholic beverages. The other, "Crissmas," is observed in Niatirb's temples. Lewis's narrator asks a priest why they kept Crissmas on the same day as Exmas. He receives the reply:

The December 1957 News and Views published by the Church League of America, an organization co-founded in 1937 by George Washington Robnett⁵⁷ attacked the use of Xmas in an article titled "X=The Unknown Quantity." The claims were picked up later by Gerald L. K. Smith who in December 1966 claimed that Xmas was a "blasphemous omission of the name of Christ" and that "'X' is referred to as being symbolical of the unknown quantity." Smith further argued that Jews introduced Santa Claus to suppress the New Testament accounts of Jesus, and that the United Nations at the behest of "world Jewry" had "outlawed the name of Christ."⁵⁸ Such claims are made in the face of documented centuries-long history of use of Χ (actually a chi) as an abbreviation for "Christ" (Χριστός) and possibly also a symbol of the cross.⁵⁹

Christmas observances (at least the overtly religious kinds) were banned in the Soviet Union and under certain other Communist regimes. Certain Christian religions, such as the Jehovah's Witnesses and some fundamentalist churches, continued to reject the holiday as well, citing its pagan and/or Roman Catholic origins. In the Soviet Union, most customs associated with Christmas (like decorated trees, presents, and Ded Moroz) were later reinstated, but tied to New Year's Day instead; this tradition remains as of the present day. It should however be noted that most Russian christians are of the Orthodox community, whose religious festivals (Christmas, Easter etc.), do not necessarily coincide precisely with those of Protestants and Roman Catholics.

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