More Christmas? No Thanks

This week’s talking point for fundamentalist ideologues seems to be Christmas. Not “Merry”; not “Why did so many people in my neighborhood start putting up lights before Thanksgiving this year?”; not “Could we please do something about the sweaters already?” No, the issue of the moment is that Christmas seems to be disappearing and we apparently need to bring it back.

Excuse me, but I beg to differ. Here in the heartland, it’s been Christmas since the day after Halloween. The crèche is up on the courthouse lawn. In M’s third-grade class in December they read half a dozen Christmas books, did Santa word problems and Christmas tree math worksheets, filled out Christmas word searches, and made math fact and book report ornaments (I thought the Halloween-themed book report was silly, but this was ridiculous). By the time the last day of school holiday sing-along arrived, I’d had it. I picked her up at noon and we went out for lunch and shopping--for gifts for E’s babysitter’s Christmas party. “But who will sing ‘Dreidel Dreidel Dreidel’?” S wondered. “They’ll manage,” I muttered.

My radical blue state mom wanted me to say something, but I couldn’t. I want M to be comfortable and happy in her suburban public school (where, among other differences, she is the only Jewish child--in the whole school), so I pick my battles. And I felt like I’d set myself up on this one. Earlier in the year, her teacher got all excited about doing an integrated curriculum unit on The Polar Express. Leaving the hegemony of consumer capitalism out of it, I gently explained that M doesn’t like to go to movies (more about that some other time) and is not interested in Santa Claus, so I hoped the teacher would let her opt out of any activities she wasn’t comfortable with. I don’t know what happened to that unit--they might have run out of money for field trips, or maybe the bad reviews dimmed her enthusiasm. Still, I felt like I’d set a precedent: it’s ok for you to do whatever you want, so long as you don’t make M do it. But I had no idea she was planning a whole month of Christmas activities. And, sadly, she probably had no idea that a whole month of Christmas activities would be an issue for anyone.

It’s funny how every article and op-ed about the need to bring back Christmas mentions that same school district in New Jersey that banned carols. (Funny, too, how this sudden interest in Christmas has erupted just as things have once again gotten worse in Iraq.) Whatever the occasional incident of overblown political correctness, the basic fact is that Christmas is ubiquitous in this country. And, as M says, “I understand when they make a big deal about the Fourth of July or Halloween or Thanksgiving, because those are AMERICAN holidays. But don’t they understand that not everyone celebrates Christmas?”