Christmas is for Christians, only

Let me start off with a disclaimer: I am not Ebenezer Scrooge, and I am not the Grinch. I have no intention of stealing Christmas, and I’m not trying to discourage anyone from getting into the Christmas spirit. However,  I don’t think it makes sense for everyone to celebrate Christmas.Christmas time is among us. With overly sweetened Starbucks drinks and potentially upsetting family get-togethers, the cheery spirit really is everywhere you go. On TV, you are bombarded with flashy images of a fat man drinking Coca-Cola, and every one of your favorite sitcoms is airing its annual Christmas specials. Whenever the topic is brought up, I seem to always face the same conversation. “Have you put up your Christmas tree yet?” my overly-spirited peer asks. “Oh no, I’m actually Jewish,” I reply. “Oh… But everyone celebrates Christmas!”Christmas as America sees it today ascended to its central place on the national calendar as a result of a marriage between sentiment and commerce, an example of healthy, if uneasy, codependency. By codependency, I mean the fact that the emotions surrounding Christmas are directly fueled by money — the more the merrier is referring to gifts, not human company. The money we spend is a result of America’s urge to feel the “Christmas cheer” that retail therapy never fails to provide. But this codependency wasn’t always a part of Christmas.In the 1800s, the American home became a sacred space for families to create traditions — far away from the scary immigration happening outside their front doors! This idea of “domesticated religion” was soon enhanced into something much less intimate through a little something called commercialization — that’s when the codependency came into play. Big name corporations like Coca-Cola reshaped and redefined the image of what Christmas really means by having the Jolly Giant sipping on a bottle of Coke instead of milk, and with this, an idea arose in the minds of many American citizens: Christmas is for everyone.In its simplest and purest form, Christmas is the annual celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The decision to celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 was made sometime during the fourth century by church bishops in Rome. The tradition of giving and receiving presents came from the story of the three wise men giving their gifts to Jesus. America, the land of Big Gulps and quarter-pounders, took this tradition of giving small gifts and blew it out of proportion. In Italy, there is a large emphasis on the different nativity scenes. In Australia, they focus on the Advent Wreath; a Christian tradition that symbolizes the passage of the four weeks of Advent in the liturgical calendar of the Western church.  In Zimbabwe, the meaning of Christmas centers around the church and the services provided. But in America, we focus on seasonal peppermint coffee creamer and ugly Christmas sweaters (half off, of course). We are no longer simply celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. We are celebrating the birth of modern consumerism.America has an obsession with stuff. We have our cars, clothes, toys, iPhones, iPads, iPods and pretty much anything with an ‘i’ in front of it. Christmas has become a means of further forcing the consumerist ideals onto American citizens. The little conformist inside all of us comes out every holiday season and tells us that we have to go out and buy gifts in bulk, that we have to decorate our house a certain way and that we have to tell our children the story of Santa Claus and his reindeer.Just a reminder: I am not saying that you shouldn’t celebrate Christmas if you are of the appropriate faith. Go for it! Celebrate away! But addressing the people of the non-Christian faith: you have to remember what you’re really celebrating and honoring when you put up that tree in your living room. Since you’re not necessarily celebrating the religious aspect of the holiday, all you’re celebrating is materialism. When you take away the religious background of the holiday, that tree in your living room simply represents the brainwashing influence of money-grabbing corporate America and the burgeoning world of commerce.But then again, if it makes you happy, that’s all that really matters, right?