Christmas season is for people of all beliefs

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The Christmas season is certainly one of the more joyous parts of the calendar year.

The decorations, the gifts, the baked goods and the binge-watching of movies—like my all-time favorite, “Christmas Vacation”—are all part of one of my favorite holidays. Those of you who read my column regularly, know that Christmas falls second to Halloween on my favorite holiday list.

That said, I’m certainly no Scrooge, as Christmas holds a special place in my heart. But of all the festivities and traditions that I love about Christmas, there is one thing about the season that I utterly cannot stand.

It is the inevitable, ubiquitous social media posts that say, “Don’t forget the reason for the season,” or, my favorite, “Don’t forget the ‘Christ’ in Christmas.”

This sort of pretentious arrogance that surrounds what is supposed to be a holiday of peace and love needs to end. The claim that you know the reason for which other people will be celebrating a holiday that is both religious and secular is ridiculous to assume. Christianity seems to think it owns the season surrounding Dec. 25, maintaining that the celebration of the birth of Jesus is the real “reason for the season.”

While I have complete respect for Christians and their desire to celebrate the birth of their savior, they must understand that we all have different reasons for taking part in the Christmas season.

I take part in the Christmas season because I believe in the principle of good will to all men, and I appreciate the value that the Christmas season places on family—the most important thing in life in my humble opinion.

Besides, to say that this December holiday season belongs to Christianity would be a blatant misrepresentation of history—especially since historians don’t know the exact birthdate of Jesus of Nazareth.

The holiday celebrating the birthdate of Jesus wasn’t adopted by the Church until the fourth century, when church officials chose Dec. 25 so they could absorb the customs of pagan celebrations of the winter solstice that had been going on for centuries. If one wanted to get nit-picky, the real reason for the season of celebration is the winter solstice, not the birth of Christ.

Most of the customs we observe today have absolutely nothing to do with Jesus or his birth. According to historians, the Christmas tree is a German custom invented in the 17th century, but it is clearly taken from the pagan custom of bringing greenery into the home for decoration during the winter season.

The modern Santa Claus is a culmination of influences from Dutch, German and British characters, all of which were influenced by pagan ideas of spirits who traveled the sky during the winter season.

So to the people who will be posting these sorts of statuses on social media, I submit to you this: all year long we battle over our religious, political and philosophical differences.

Can’t this be the one time of year where we come together and celebrate something special that we can all enjoy? Like it or not, the Christmas holiday has become about as secularized as a holiday can become and it is open to celebration by everyone, not just Christians.

Let us stop telling people why they should be celebrating the season and just be happy that they’re doing it.

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