It’s Christmas Eve Day and a happy holiday to friends and family. For Christians, tomorrow celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ and is one of the holiest of holidays. A little better than 70% of Americans identify themselves as Christian. About 6% are of a different faith. Some 23% do not claim a religion. Christians can rest easy that at less than 1% of the U.S. population, Muslims are unlikely to install Shira Law anytime soon. Nor is it likely that the PC world will be banning the word Christmas from our year end holidays. (stats from Pew Research).
When you dig a bit deeper into the numbers only about 25% of those who identify as “Christian” say they are “practicing Christians”. Something various churches are very concerned about. However, the number of people who say they read the Bible weekly has remained fairly stable, while church attendance has declined. Analysts see this as the impact of a busy society that has gone digital and depressed church going. The struggle by Christian Churches to maintain active parishioners, has another competitor to who owns Christmas. Yep, it’s money.
Americans are on schedule to each spend about $900 on Christmas gifts this year. We’re going to spend over $6 million on Christmas Trees. While Church attendance is down, the average woman spends 20 hours doing Christmas shopping (guys spend a still robust 10 hours). What’s also interesting is that the poorest States tend to have the highest Christmas spending. Don’t have the money? Not to worry, 46% of us put it on a credit card. (https://capitalcounselor.com/christmas-spending-statistics/). Good old capitalism is hogging up a lot of time for what is supposed to be a religious observance.
What has Christmas become in America. A time to celebrate the birth of a religious and historic leader? A time for families to revisit the moral underpinnings of much of our citizenry? Or is it a time of materialistic splurging, food and drink excess and listening as our precious ones whisper their fervent gift desires to the red-suited guy at the Mall? While TV and online preachers are doing pretty well these days, you don’t see too many ads for Jesus. Hard to tell who’s winning the “persuader” contests in our new-age media. Judging by the Hallmark Channel, it’s trees, idyllic love, gifts and glitter, with a stop at the town church for a photo op. Has our religion actually shifted to “stuff”?
For me, the swirl of Christmas shopping, the house decorating and the religious undertones pale in comparison to the opportunity to have family gather an enjoy each other. Ann says I’m a Grinch, and that’s partially true. I’m cynical about the huge marketing of the holidays. But I like a well-thought out gift as much as the next guy and I’m in awe of those folks who put up awesome light displays around their homes. I’m not a religious person, but I do honor those who try to live their beliefs and have a firm moral and ethical base. That’s not about showing up at church on Christmas. That’s about how they live their lives every day. What I do look forward to during the holiday season is a general uplifting of spirits, a sense that daily troubles should be put aside for a few days and the nation takes a break from its normal mutual abuse. Not everyone can have that kind of holiday season, so I’m grateful that I and my family can. Here’s to the holidays, no matter your beliefs or lack thereof. Let’s try yet again to kick-start a better year to come.
ihg 12-24-2021 If you like these commentaries, join my blog for free at: https://ikegittlen.substack.com/ and share. Let’s see what we can build together.
Very well said. The commercialization of Christmas has always bothered me. Now that we have no young children in the house we have shifted the focus to enjoying one another and a good meal.