December Without Christmas

 Traditions must stretch and change to respond to the interests and needs of people or they get put on the museum shelf. One might ask, if the church took over the pagan winter solstice celebration in the fourth century, making it Christmas, why shouldn't we be content to let concerns about cultural sensitivity take over Christmas and make it "Holiday"? If that's really what people want, maybe it's inevitable.
Every cultural shift is different from the one that came before, and has a different dynamic.This time around it's not a matter of one distinct entity, like paganism, being influenced or taken over by another distinct entity, like Christianity. Instead we're seeing Christmas, an exceptionally rich tradition being taken over by an exceptionally sterile, pseudo-holiday imposter. This imposter is without character, without a story and without a name. Something is becoming nothing. Nothing is gained.

Remember the Gap ad "Holiday is here"? When we celebrate holidays without names, advocates of holidayization can rest assured we will no longer have a concept of what specific holidays are in the public arena.

The next step would be forgetting about holidays altogether. What happens to Christmas depends upon how we respond to pressures and manipulations that are undermining it now. But history shows us that Christmas is a survivor. 
We shouldn't forget that the red and green, the lit up trees, the seasonal pop tunes and carols, the fantasies popular with children, the depictions of winter wonderlands and Dickens' time, the values of peace, good will, cheer, generosity and self-sacrifice in tales of Scrooge and more recently, the Grinch (in other words all the sights, sounds and ideas commonly associated with December's popular culture) come to us by way of Christmas. Removing these symbols of the season and the name of the observance responsible for them is starting to leave the month bleak and bland.
As far as our consumer-based, mainstream culture is concerned, entertainment and art is mostly controlled by big business, not a spontaneous expression of communal folk life. There are still myths and legends being written today. Some of them end up as films. But our modern society won't be creating new stories that can replace the ones that have become December traditions by way of Christmas. Times are different and the reasons for creating these stories, some of them re-workings of ancient archetypes, are no longer a part of our lives.
We're no longer associated with agriculture as a society, or the forces of nature. It's doubtful we will strike out on some new religious quest either; the world's great religions are well known. The information age gives us a vague notion of security, by having so many facts at our fingertips we think we will be more enlightened and our lives will somehow be changed and improved, but something is missing.

In our world that is full of war and feelings of loss, there is peace and reassurance in observing the old traditions, and in being reminded that these kinds of things are still good and unchanging.

With the weight of the old year we need a sense of renewal to face the new one. Subconsciously we still feel a need to come together to symbolically mark the time of year when we wish to bring light and life to the dark and dead of winter. So we take a break from our reality-based cynicism and look to the past when times were simpler and people were more connected to myths and cycles.
Christmas  in particular has merged with symbols of thanks and renewal throughout history and has become the most widely acknowledged winter holiday archetype. The spirit of "Silent Night", it's message of hope and peace, is said to speak to people of many faiths.In our times, when marketable personalities and attitudes are more important than classic song writing that has substance and artistry, it's hard to imagine a seasonal body of music that could resonate more deeply with more people than the Christmas repertory, compiled over so many centuries. Some favorites were written more recently, but nevertheless the age of great song writing has faded.
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