Since When Did Christmas Become All About Religion?

By Nathan Jordan

Christmas is my favorite holiday. I love everything about it; the lights, the music, the Christmas cheer. It’s the one time a year the mall has totally awesome deals, and it’s okay to gorge yourself with candy cane.

I suppose it was inevitable that someone would exploit the holiday season in order promote their own agenda. This year it seems like the religious community is trying to take over Christmas.  

For example, the other day I was at the mall buying matching Crocs for my whole family when I noticed that a choir was setting up between the Hot Topic and Nordstrom’s. Being a huge fan of Christmas carols, I sat down and watched, even singing along to “Jingle Bells.” Then the next song came on, and the lyrics kept talking about baby Jesus. Jesus? What does Jesus have to do with Christmas?
 
I seemed to be the only one bothered by this, well me and the Indian guy who was manning the Rosetta Stone cart. Here I was taking part in the upmost sacred ritual of Christmas shopping, and the choir had to go and make some sort of religious statement.  It’s not that I’m against Jesus or Christianity, it’s just that Christmas is no time to be pushing your religion onto someone else. There is a reason for the separation between church and state. I can't believe the Santa Anita Mall would authorize such blatant pandering.
 

The true meaning of Christmas-- shopping.
 
So I stopped watching the choir and went to go find the Sunglass Hut. I asked a man who was incessantly ringing this bell if he knew where the store was. But all he said to me was, “Would you like to donate some money today to help the poor? It’s the Christian thing to do.” I couldn’t believe it. Here I was celebrating Christmas the proper way, by shopping and eating a Wetzel Pretzel, and this guy was using Christmas to raise money for the poor. Not only that, but he was using religion to guilt me into donating.
 
I wasn’t falling for it. “No sir,” I replied. “The Christian thing to do is to point me in the direction of the Sunglass Hut before all of the good sale items are gone.” Now if he was raising money for some sort of moving walkway to help transport shoppers from one side of the mall to the other, I would have gladly given in the name of all that is Christmas.
 

That money should be spent on stocking stuffers!
 
If you really want to make Christmas about religion, then you better find a way to put Santa and the Elves in the Bible. Christmas would be nothing without them. I don’t know much about this Jesus guy, but you don’t see me celebrating Christopher Columbus on President’s Day. Maybe the answer is to give Jesus his own holiday. Maybe celebrate his birthday or something.
 

I don’t remember this from the Bible.
 
It seems to be that we’ve just become too jaded and too involved with ourselves, and we’ve forgotten the true meaning of Christmas: giving gifts and eating large meals. Now Christmas has just become so commercial that everyone is trying to get a piece of the pie. It used to be a holiday to use your credit card and support the economy, now everybody’s trying to take advantage. It makes me a bit sad. Next thing you know, they’ll take Easter away from the Easter Bunny and give that to Jesus too.