Christmas without Stress by J. F. Kelly, Jr.

A commentary by J. F. Kelly, Jr.

Christmas, coming as it does at the end of the year, is a good time for reflection on, among other things, the reason we celebrate it. It may come as a surprise to some, but the real reason is not the annual visit of Santa Claus with his bag of stuff, as jolly as that occasion may be. Nor is it primarily about parties, presents, Rudolph, Frosty or even Tiny Tim. The name itself gives us a clue. My heaviest dictionary, which has yet to be censored by the political correctness police, defines Christmas as “the annual festival of the Christian church commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, celebrated on December 25 and now generally observed as a legal holiday and an occasion for exchanging gifts.”

This Christmas season finds many families coping with the effects of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. I happen to be a child of the Great Depression and I can tell you there was nothing great about it. Over one fifth of the workforce was unemployed and many more were among the underemployed and working poor. It was a struggle for many families just to put food on the table, let alone exchange anything but the simplest of gifts.

Yet, I recall those Christmases as joyous occasions. Life was simpler then and expectations more modest. So were the gifts and the celebrations. People didn’t have credit cards and credit wasn’t easy to obtain so they didn’t run up enormous bills at Christmas buying things they couldn’t afford. Even though the end of the depression wasn’t in sight and it would finally take a world war to end it, I don’t recall people acting depressed or stressed out at Christmas. It was a joyous time and a time for hope and optimism over what the coming year might bring.

Things seem quite different today. Life is more hectic and expectations are higher. Many people complain of the stress associated with preparing for Christmas. They count the days until Christmas, not with eager anticipation, but rather with a sort of foreboding because they don’t have enough time to get everything done that they have decided needs to be done.

The stress is, for the most part, self-imposed. The world won’t end if everything doesn’t get done. And stress only makes things worse, contributing to fatigue and perhaps depression, which hardly seems a proper way to prepare for what should be a joyous holiday. What has happened to Christmas in America?

For one thing, it has become grossly commercialized and in the process, many of us have forgotten the meaning of Christmas. Those of us who haven’t forgotten are sometimes intimidated by political correctness and the national obsession with inclusiveness to the degree that we dare not wish people a merry Christmas anymore for fear of offending someone. We hesitate even to call it Christmas, lest we be considered insensitive to someone or not inclusive enough. Hence, the Christmas season is now the holiday season and Christmas parties are winter holiday parties. Santa, Frosty and Rudolph are welcome in public displays but the Holy Family and nativity scenes are not. There have been many victims of political correctness in this country and Christmas is surely one of them.

Gift giving is a grand tradition and Santa Claus, Rudolph and the rest of the reindeer team are always welcome at our house as long as they stay off our clay tile roof but let’s keep in mind the real reason for Christmas and why it should be joyous and peaceful rather than frantic and extravagant. The real reason is to celebrate the birth of Christ. All the rest is incidental. Without Him, there is no Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all and may your Christmas be stress-free.

Copyright 2009 by J. F. Kelly, Jr.