Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"Now, personally, I've noticed significantly more uproar about the war on Christmas than actual evidence that that war is being waged. Some people seem very eager for there to be a war on Christmas so they can leap to Christmas'€™s defence. Though Christmas has achieved cultural dominance way beyond religious lines, to cast it as an underdog provides a cover for taking a pop at other cultures. And to create and maintain divisions in society.

"Christmas is a pagan-Roman-Christian festival, celebrated by people from all sorts of cultures with all sorts of beliefs, including me, an ethnically Jewish atheist.

"Christmas is not threatened by multiculturalism. It is multicultural."

-- Helen Zaltzman, The Allusionist, "Winterval", 2016-12-09 ( transcript)

[To me it feels as if there are two holidays with the same name on the same date -- the religious one and the cultural-and-commercial one -- and the interaction between the two is complicated ... but there is no "war" against either (except maybe a defensive action by Hallowe'en and American Thanksgiving to resist encroachment by Christmas into their parts of the calendar). I don't think we Christians get to use "It's multicultural now!" as an excuse to push our religion and its symbols and holidays into places where religious favouritism does not belong, nor to demand that others celebrate -- or even acknowledge -- our holiday (insisting others say "Merry Christmas" is stupid). At the same time, I don't think we quite "own" the day any more, and should acknowledge that a lot of non-Christians and Don't-Care-ists are celebrating something different with (sometimes!) the same name -- and many of us are really celebrating both holidays at once in a split-brained way. It's complicated.]