I love Christmas. It has always been my favorite holiday. When I was younger, I used to spend months deciding on the perfect gifts to give everyone in my family, and now my husband and I spend the week before Christmas making homemade cookies and candy to give to everyone we know. I love getting out the Christmas decorations and putting the ornaments on the tree (even though the one I have right now is only a foot tall) and I love listening and singing along to all my favorite Christmas carols. Christmas is a chance to spend time with family, and an opportunity to show the people I love just how much they mean to me. But for the last couple of years, I've felt really uneasy about Christmas, and I think it has something to do with the fact that my favorite Christmas song is "Do You Hear What I Hear."
It is not that I have any problem with the religious overtones of Christmas, because it has evolved into a holiday that everyone can enjoy, no matter what their religious beliefs. I have not met anyone, religious, non-religious, or atheist who does not love to celebrate *something* during the holiday season. As the image above indicates, there are many parallels that can be drawn between the religious figure of Jesus, whose birth is celebrated at Christmas, and the secular figure of Santa. And therein lies the difficulty that I have been struggling with for the last several years, ever since I became an atheist. You see, I was raised to believe that one of those Christmas figures was just a nice myth that inspired people to be good and kind to one another, and that the other Christmas figure was a real person whose story was absolutely 100% true. And I bet you can guess which one was which.
It comes as no surprise to me that I am having a hard time demoting the story of Jesus from fact to myth. After all, it took me many years of suspecting that Santa Claus was actually my parents before I finally had to admit that he wasn't real, and it has taken me many years of study and personal reflection to come to the conclusion that God isn't real either. But every year at Christmas, when I hear my favorite Christmas song, I remember how much it meant to me to believe that there was a supernatural being who would "bring us goodness and light." Santa never brought anything but toys, which really paled in comparison to peace on Earth and goodwill to all men. It hasn't been easy to demote something that wonderful from reality to fantasy.
Of course, every year it gets a little easier to see the story of Jesus as just another myth, and Christmas as just a wonderful holiday that inspires people to give of themselves to one another, so I'm not about to dismiss the Jesus part of the holiday altogether. Trying to ignore the Christian element of Christmas would cut out so many of the things that I love about it, and so many of the icons that make Christmas what it is. But it is also a constant reminder that letting go of long-held beliefs is not an easy thing to do. So now, when I listen to my favorite Christmas song, I remember that there is nothing wrong with the ideas that the story of Jesus inspires - that we should be kind to one another, give to the less fortunate, and do our best to make the world a better place. But there is one word that I substitute in the last verse of the song, because I would rather *work* for peace.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and have a Joyous New Year!
Lyrics to "Do You Hear What I Hear"
Said the night wind to the little lamb
Do you see what I see
Way up in the sky little lamb
Do you see what I see
A star, a star
Dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite
Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy
Do you hear what I hear
Ringing through the sky shepherd boy
Do you hear what I hear
A song, a song
High above the tree
With a voice as big as the sea
With a voice as big as the sea
Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king
Do you know what I know
In your palace wall mighty king
Do you know what I know
A child, a child
Shivers in the cold
Let us bring him silver and gold
Let us bring him silver and gold
Said the king to the people everywhere
Listen to what I say
Pray for peace people everywhere
Listen to what I say
The child, the child
Sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light
He will bring us goodness and light
