Christmas is Christmas

The Christmas season, a time for happiness and wonder. A time for celebration and joy. A time for children to sit with wide eyed splendor and listen to Christmas bedtime stories.
I’ve heard lately that this is changing, shifting right under our own noses. Christmas carols have been banned from being sung, decorations have not been put up, and wishing someone a “Merry Christmas” raises eyebrows. Even signs with the words “Merry Christmas” have been taken down or not displayed.
What’s happening? What’s so wrong with Christmas that all of this has started to emerge? Nothing.
It’s the political way of stopping a very joyous thing from happening. It’s the big honchos saying, “Oh, we don’t want to offend anyone.” It’s the big department stores saying, “Oh, it brings us big profits, but we don’t want to offend anyone with the real reason for our profits.” It’s the bigots and the hypocrites saying, “Let’s not offend anyone, so we’ll ban Christmas.”
Well, let me say something here. You just have offended someone! Me! And the 82% of other Americans who believe that Christmas is a celebration of the baby Jesus’ birth. Christmas is not about the presents, or the profits, or the million other things society has made Christmas into. Christmas is about the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ. It’s about the journey that his mother, Mary, and Joseph took to Bethlehem. It’s about the little barn and manger. It’s about the star in Heaven and the angel that came to the shepherds who watched their flocks. It’s about the wise men who first visited the little baby Jesus. Most importantly of all it’s about the one act that God did for us. He gave us his only son.
Now, some of you may not agree with what I’m saying here. Some of you may not even celebrate Christmas because it’s not your religion. That’s ok. You’re in America, you have that right. And I have the right to celebrate Christmas. I also have the right to celebrate Christmas without persecution or restraint of freedom.
I was raised Catholic and I was taught to believe that God sees everything I do. Jesus died on the cross for me and God forgave our sins in his place. Mary was a sacred name to be repeated in prayer. The word God was not to be taken in vain. The story of the journey to Bethlehem was repeated over and over, until I could repeat it to everyone around me. The names of Jesus’ apostles were repeated until I had them memorized. But the most important thing that I had ever learned was that I was one of God’s children and Jesus loves me.
You may not have been raised Catholic, or Christian, or Buddhist, or whatever other religion there is out there. You may not even have a religion, and that’s ok. I have a right to celebrate Christmas. You have the right to celebrate and practice whatever religion is native to you.
That phrase keeps coming back to me from Catechism, “God sees everything you do.” I wonder, how much will He take before enough is enough? We’re already trying to take Him out of our schools, out of our Pledge, out of our public places. How much will He take? How much until He turns a shoulder on us, like we have on Him? And now we’re trying to take away the birthday of His only son? How much until He says, “Ok, I wash my hands of you.”? How much?
All I’m asking for is my Christmas. My chance to celebrate the birth of the man who saved me from my sins. To celebrate the mother who brought him into this world. To sing the songs for him. To remember him.