We’re hearing a lot this year about the secularization of the holiday season. (See, I just did it – I failed to call it “Christmas.”) Battles are being waged in courts over whether Christian groups can stage nativities on public grounds, in the press on whether children should be able to offer explicitly Christian expressions in public schools, and in the malls over whether Christians should spend their dollars with retailers who refuse to put the word “Christmas” in their windows.

This tension has even entered into my own personal correspondence a time or two, with one of my closest friends, a Christian, lamenting that Christians are being denied a basic right of expression, and a recent acquaintance perhaps imposing a bit too much of his religious worldview on me in an exchange of seasonal greetings (and I trust we hammered that one out to the betterment of us both).

There are probably a million points to be made and perspectives to be articulated on the issue, especially if, in addition to neo-pagan sorts (like me) and the vast array of Christian groups, we start including Jews, Muslims, atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, and confused retailers in the discussion. I can’t begin to speak for everybody, but I would like to take a moment or two to lay out how it all strikes me personally. (If I seem a bit strident here at the top, bear with me – I get more gracious toward the end.)

First, let’s dispense with the uninformed notion that celebrations around this time of year are inherently due to Christ. The Daedalnexus has a brief take on the subject today, but in sum, cultures around the world have marked the Solstice (Dec. 21 this year and most years) as a major religious holiday since well before there was a Jesus Christ. The Roman Catholic Church systematically set about appropriating existing holiday celebrations as a means of spreading their faith (an effective tactic, to be sure), so over time Solstice rites were morphed into “Christmas,” the observance of the birth of Jesus, which most Christian scholars today believe probably happened nowhere near Solstice (I think the consensus is that it was more likely in October, but I’m willing to be corrected on the subject if somebody out there knows more about it than I do).

Does this somehow make the Christian observance of Christmas illegitimate? Of course not. It strikes me as a perfectly valid holiday and I’d never attempt to deprive my Christian friends of the sacredness they attach to the moment. But let’s not get too hung up on “taking the Christ out of Christmas.” The historical truth is that the Catholic Church artificially injected the “Christ” into Solstice.

That said, what about those depictions of the nativity on public land? Well, this is pretty simple for me. I’m all for Christians doing nativities. It’s a critical part of their faith, and hey, Christianity is a major component of American history and culture. However, public lands are lands that I help pay for. I own them as much as does any Christian (or Jew, or Muslim, or Buddhist, or agnostic, etc.), and it’s simply not appropriate to assert the validity of one faith over another in our system of government. (Same thing with school prayer and the Ten Commandments in the courthouse. I have no problem with kids praying in school, but I have a huge problem when that prayer is organized and sanctioned and Christian. There is no way around this – if state employees lead a Christian prayer in a government-supported venue, that is by definition a government endorsement of a religion. Period.)

So here’s how I see the nativity problem. Either they should be celebrated on church or private land (if there’s a nativity in my neighbor’s yard, I’m cool with that), or the governments in question should make sure that all groups can put displays on public lands, just like the Christians. I’m fine with this in principle, but in reality I think we’re all probably smart enough to know how those proposed Wiccan Solstice displays on the courthouse lawns in Lynchburg, VA and Crawford, TX are going to be received. So please, let’s not insult each other’s intelligence, especially during this most sacred of seasons.

All I want is the kind of level playing field the 1st Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees me and all other American citizens. I’m sorry, I take that document seriously and I’m prone to taking it at its word.

Then there’s the personal challenge of wishing somebody a nice holiday in a PC society. Christians wish you a Merry Christmas and sometimes do so under the assumption that this is the only appropriate greeting for the last half of December. Does this bother me?

Not really, Not usually, anyway. See, when people extend you a greeting like that, they’re literally bestowing on you the blessings of that which they hold most dear, their relationship to divinity. It’s hard to wish another human being anything better than that, right? So in most cases, I can graciously accept that for what it is and return the sentiment, hopefully with equal grace.

I said in most cases, though, and the sad fact is that there is a line here and people do cross it. In some situations, “Merry Christmas” comes with all kinds of condescending baggage. Instead of being an honest, good faith wish, it becomes a self-righteous censure – you need Jesus in your life, may you find your way to His truth which is the only legitimate path, and so on. It’s an entire sanctimonious (and half-educated) sermonette distilled down into two words. I read a Christmas letter sent to some family of mine by one of their born-again relations last night. Rarely have I encountered a more spot-on, archetypal case study of this phenomenon that what was contained in that little bright-eyed Stepford Christoholic missive. That documented proved that “Merry Christmas” can also mean “you’re going to Hell, and probably soon.”

Those kinds of well wishes I have minimal patience for. I enthusiastically reciprocate genuine goodwill, but am given to bouts of testiness when the motivation suggests that I somehow can’t be trusted to look after my own soul.

So there it is, in a nutshell, and I can only trust you to make the best use of all this. I’d dearly like us to all find a way to celebrate the season together, in full appreciation of and respect for the sacred paths others have chosen to walk. I know, not everybody in our society sees it that way, so call me a dreamer if you must. But understand, I’m not generally offended if you wish me a Merry Christmas, and if I return the greeting with my own Solstice blessing, I hope you can likewise take it in the spirit it is intended and draw from it a measure of the regard I must have for you if I’m willing to invoke the manifestation of divinity I hold most sacred.

With this in mind, to my Christian friends, family members, and readers, let me wish you a very Merry Christmas.

To those of you who practice a neo-pagan craft, Bright Blessings and Happy Solstice.

To my Jewish friends, this year as always, Happy Hanukkah.

For my Islamic readers, a joyous Ramadan (even though this year’s observance began back on October 15).

If you worship a faith that does not observe a holiday this time of year, or if you consider yourself atheist, humanist, or agnostic, may you nonetheless draw a sense of peace and harmony from the goodwill the rest of us are hopefully displaying in your presence.

And for those embattled retailers, may record profits attend your labors this holiday season. No matter what religion we are, we all benefit from an improving economy, eh? 🙂