What is Christmas?

Why does it matter? Why it should.

Before I share these (hopefully short) thoughts, watch this video from one Christmas ago. It’s a live event that played out on the streets of NYC. I remember being so struck by it at the time…

It’s a beautiful moment of… well, humanity. It’s a truly human moment. You can see the light of joy and wonder and happiness burst onto so many faces and then begin to emanate. This energy filled those streets of Manhattan! Organically (well, once propelled by those Big Tech screens). And what was this energy? What filled those streets? What touched those people? What did I refer to as “emanating”?

I’m not sure there are any correct answers to those questions. They are rather subjective - I think. Because that could also be described as a very Christian moment, no? I mean, the whole point of the video is that. It’s a Christian film. If we ran a catchy short film of Michael Jordan in Times Square and filled those streets with gorgeous multi-story banners of Mike, that would be a “Jordan moment”, right? Of course. So return to the title of this piece: What is Christmas?

It’s not a complex question. But man, have we made it oh-so-complex! Christmas is a cherished moment of the calendar for those who believe in the birth of Jesus. The day celebrates the birth of a boy in a manger. Everything else is just window-dressing… and remember, the manger didn’t have any windows. Fifth Avenue is where you find all the gorgeous windows, and they rarely ever harken Jesus.

It’s all very cool. It’s undeniably magnificent in its own way. I don’t want my energy here misconstrued. I went to Rockefeller Center for Christmas as a younger man, and look forward to taking my own children one year soon. But nothing about the above has anything to do with “Christmas” unless we’re making it all about the “mas” and none about the “Christ”. Modern American’s version of this holiday is much more appropriately titled “Christless”. Of course, this isn’t the inherent evil you may think I’m painting here. It fits in quite well with our cultural dynamics. With everything that’s been going on, really…

I won’t get off-track here (it’s ultimately The Same track though) as I’ve been covering the political application of this all more than enough, but this is inherent to “Critical Christ Theory”. Or, if you want to remove a personal bias/negative taint all together, inherent to American’s civil rights and liberal movements. Think of America’s level of being interwoven with Christianity as a spectrum or dial that can go from 0 to 100. At our Founding, we were near 100 because we were founded by theists who were largely Christians. “In God We Trust” remains on our currency today. Now, I wouldn’t set it exactly at 100 because a core premise to this incredible and unique American project is that we don’t allow a central hand (a monarchal hand) to force ideology or worldview or religion onto the masses. In the great United States of America, you can be a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, an atheist, or an outright Satan worshipper. We don’t have to like you, but the government doesn’t come and shut you down. I exaggerated that for a reason because the logic under it applies everywhere. We began this intense push to remove all forms of Christianity from the public domain as “separation of church and state”. That’s that crank being dialed down. Back in the day, a lot of public schools taught the Bible. As in, you were required by the American infrastructure to believe in God; ergo, your entire family was too, because that education apparatus trails with the children into the door. Sound familiar to some modern echoes? Mmhmm. Go back to what I named this movement. But we blew by the sweet-spot I believe exists in the middle of that spectrum for our American soil. It got to the point we couldn’t say Merry Christmas anymore culturally. We had to say “Happy Holidays”, in a majority Christian nation. We had to remove every form of symbolism of Christianity from public view, stripping the Ten Commandments out of courthouses only to then erect demons on the roof. Seriously; that happened. Could there be a greater in-our-face example of this cultural “dismantling” attack?

Going back to Christmas, it’s easy to see a similar progression with how our populace engages and embraces and celebrates and champions and therefore preserves this holiday. What began based around nativity and the birth of baby Jesus is now almost entirely based around non-religious tokens such as Christmas trees, snowmen, Santa Claus, presents, gifts, and presents some more. It’s all about commercialism and materialism and nothing about the actual theme at all. It’s a Jordan film that now has nothing to do with basketball. How can that be? Well, I’d submit it’s a result of the same cultural usurpation by a radicalized fringe-sect we have been under our entire lives. Check out how Manhattan looked on Easter Sunday in 1956…

It’s almost hard to imagine now, isn’t it? That wasn’t centuries ago. My own mother and father would have been young kids waking up excitedly that morning. A morning where, yes, they were almost surely bouncing out of bed more excited about unwrapping and signs of Santa than the birth of Jesus, but the nation still understood what this is ultimately all about. Fast-forward to our nation’s new public square on Easter Sunday in 2020…

With all the creativity put into that landing page, an entire thing known as “Doodles”, on arguably THE most important day of the entire year for our majority faith which still encompasses a majority of our people, those in charge of Big Techtopia ran no Doodle whatsoever. Any theories on why? Easy; just envision the discussion in those meeting rooms. Picture who fills the ranks of those teams - without exception. Because see, if the point didn’t land, then let me make it…

Ahh, I get it. When the new FrankenFemme religion is to be recognized, then of course we aren’t going to miss that moment. No no, we’re going to tee off! If you know the ackshual story of “Marsha P. Johnson”, you’d grasp just how absurd and infuriating this is on a whole ‘nother level. But this is where we were in 2020. I’m not sure it isn’t where we remain today. Of course they ran a nil page on Easter Sunday. Do you think they were going to celebrate Jesus? Lol what about the people who don’t do Jesus? Wouldn’t they be offended, and harmed, and hate? This is Repressive Tolerance, folks. The very essence. Go back through the architects of these ideologies (Oppressor Ideology, Liberation Theology, Marxism, etc) and you’ll see the blueprints of this tactic. They deployed it to grease The Long March Through The Institutions and it worked brilliantly! There was always a cultural side of that. It’s top-down capture of everything, to be dismantled for Equity revolution. And fealty to God has no place at that state-run table.

What inspired me to write this today was yet another real-world experience I had living these topics out. I attended my daughter’s Christmas function just now and they did it all under a banner of nativity. Baby Jesus was central to everything! It was like Air Time or Come Fly With Me; this was all about Mike with the ball in his hand. There was a statue of Jesus on the wall, the children sung Silent Night.

My children were there because of their parents’ choices. Let us not lose sight of that foundational premise. THE groundfloor. They were there doing their Christmas program because we believe this is the best educational environment available, the best nest to grow and spring from. The one celebrating Christmas instead of Christless, worth noting. And in the case of Florida, they are there on mostly state funds (re-directed education funds mostly from property tax; our money to begin with).

I was once again overwhelmed at the concentration of this all right in front of me. Kid you not, as I’m lost in thought (these thoughts) listening to gorgeous soft strings played by eigth-graders, my eyes drop down and in the middle of a sea of parent heads is my little daughter’s face in an open gap. Like an angel, dressed as a shepherd, sitting right under that Holy scene. She was centered in the frame. Wow! I decided to encapsulate these thoughts here separately, but then I’m weaving them back in as the final pages of “Reflections From St. Augustine”. The last page of that cumulative essay wrote itself at that moment. Everything is starting to make so much sense to me now.

That nativity I used to take out and set up in my bedroom every year as a child? Little bag, little wooden statutes, a small pile of straw. It meant so much to me. In a world of religion, I was within walls largely devoid of it. Those items in that bag carried a different energy to me than everything else around Christmas. Even the GI Joes and the race tracks, or the nutcrackers I so adored and set up as well. That little wood and straw set had this beautifulness to me. I couldn’t really describe it then and am not sure I can now. Sure, I loved the gifts and the glam more, but it’s like I wanted that something else out too. It was almost a blanket I pulled out at Christmas to keep warm. It wasn’t the same without it. I've never told anyone that before. I'm not sure my parents even knew I set that up on my dresser each year. It was small and off to the side. There's no way they know I kept that ziploc bag full of straw in my treasure chest of important things.

I was bringing that specific light into my home. Why? I don’t fully know yet. But I believe it’s the same reason I was so moved by that video above, that human moment that lit aflame when the real story of this day that means so much to our masses rained down on those streets. It caused a very different reaction than the bright lights of those commercialized windows, didn’t it? A lot more smiles, a lot less hustle and wallets. I bet you felt that energy much more on those same streets back in 1956. Why did we make an intentional top-down effort to strip away those energies from our cities?

Ironically, I just posted the question last week “There is so much more Christmas spirit out in the countryside than in our cities. Why?”

Same answers. And I shouldn’t have said ironically, as I am out living the things I write about. More than just living them out values-wise, I’m pacing the land, going down the small streets, and getting a read on these pulses. There is a really important story here. I think I’m touching on The Same story as always. I’ll end this writing on an optimistic note. I am sensing a return to those energies, a return to the understanding of what we really celebrate on December 25th, more than ever before. Is that highlighted by my own connection strengthening? Sure. Much like the fact I live in the epicenter of this all. I’m not naive to how that biases my own lens. But I don’t believe that to be the only explanation. Something special is happening in America right now. You can feel it everywhere! I almost said something new. heh. No, it’s something very very old becoming new again.