Nelson: Merry Christmas to all, even those who don’t celebrate

Ross Nelson is a resident of Casselton, N.D. and InForum opinion columnist.

Christmas is nigh upon us again. It has become an increasingly awkward and publicly bowdlerized event as befits an increasingly post-Christian culture in the West. It’s showing the same signs of political correctness as is the rest of our culture, thus we now have woke Santas and woke celebrations. Excessive consumerism is no longer the sole criticism of the season, a charge that goes back at least as far as Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” Now the problem is that Christmas isn’t inclusive enough.

The change has been rapid. The transition in America from a general Christianity to a squabbling diversity has come in just the lifetime of my generation. In the 1960s, we elementary school students were routinely enlisted in Christmas plays and sang endless Christmas hymns. (Of course the best part was the bag of peanuts and chocolate drops we each got from the school.) Pronouncing “in excelsis Deo,” much less understanding what the phrase meant, was always a problem for us little kids. When President John F. Kennedy was shot the school principal asked us over the public address system to pray for his recovery. The Supreme Court put an end to that sort of public religiosity, a first step to the diminution of Christmas in government functions.

It was a different time with a more united country than now. Diversity has indeed been divisive. Although the culture of that day likely offended some, that offense didn’t immediately sap the vigor of the prevailing spirit. There was little problem then of people swooning with anxiety and trembling with fear when just walking by the Ten Commandments engraved on a tablet on public property. That atheists lived in or passed through Fargo didn’t cause the populace to hang its head in shame and halt any public recognition of Christmas.

Even those of us who sympathize with Thomas Hood’s adult lament that he was “farther off from heaven than when he was a boy” may certainly recognize the tradition, cultural significance, and importance of Christianity and Christmas to western civilization. The arts have benefited as well: even as a Top 40 pop rock philistine I was awestruck the first time I heard Handel’s “Messiah.” That such a glorious thing existed never entered my horizon before.

“A Charlie Brown Christmas” is an example of a simple medium making an extraordinary impact. In it, Charlie Brown grows exasperated with the flippant tomfoolery and commercialism all around him and is made aware of what Christmas is all about. Even the sternest cynic can see the point of the cartoon. The classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” openly shows divine intervention at Christmas. Surprisingly, the movies that are more Santa Clausist than strictly religious, such as “A Christmas Carol” and “The Polar Express,” are not only entertaining holiday fare but also make moral points about faith, morality and redemption.

A now-family favorite movie is “Joyeux Noel,” a drama about the real-life 1914 Christmas truce between the warring armies of World War I, an outbreak of Christianity in an evil war fought by alleged Christian countries.

Nineteenth century’s Phillips Brooks poem “Christmas Everywhere” ends with the couplet “For the Christ-child who comes is the Master of all,/No palace too great, no cottage too small.” To believers and skeptics alike, Merry Christmas.

Nelson lives in Casselton, N.D., and is a regular contributor to The Forum’s opinion page. Email him at dualquad413@gmail.com .

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Forum’s editorial board nor Forum ownership.

November 26, 2022 07:21 AM

November 12, 2022 06:30 AM

October 29, 2022 07:01 AM

Nelson lives in Casselton, N.D., and is a regular contributor to The Forum’s opinion pages.