FACES AND PLACES: Christmas: past, present, future (12/25/05)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

Christmas: past, present, future

When I was growing up in Chicago during the '30s and '40s, I was considered the luckiest kid on the block. I enjoyed two Christmases.

My family celebrated commercial "American" Christmas on December 25. In our public school, we sang Christmas carols, wished everyone "Merry Christmas" and were visited by Santa Claus. Even though we were in the throes of the Depression, I was the beneficiary of candy canes, chocolates and, of course, presents, in school and at home.

My family celebrated a spiritual "Ukrainian" Christmas in January. On the 6th, we had the traditional 12 course dairy-less, meatless, Sviat Vechir which began when the youngest child spotted the first star of the night. Occasionally, we were visited by carolers. The following day we attended liturgy at St. Nicholas Church. No candy canes, chocolates or presents. Kneeling before the creche of Baby Jesus reminded us of the reason for the season.

I enjoyed the best of my two worlds. "Two Christmases" confirmed both sides of my Ukrainian American identity. The tradition ended soon after Chicago became an eparchy and the bishop, a spiritual and good man, was misled by advisors and reluctantly declared the formal adoption of the Gregorian calendar for St. Nicholas Cathedral. We were down to one Christmas.

Later, when I was an elementary public school teacher, we studied "Christmas Around the World," had Christmas trees and Christmas decorations, sang Christmas carols, wished each other "Merry Christmas," exchanged Christmas cards and had a school-wide Christmas program.

I enjoyed our faculty parties, especially those held in the home of a teacher who played the piano and led us in singing traditional Christmas carols. She was Jewish. She once explained that she loved the carols when she was growing up, and that singing them was a cultural experience. It didn't make her less Jewish.

By the end of my elementary school career, things were beginning to change. We still had a Christmas tree and Santa Claus, but Christmas carols were a no-no. The Christmas program was replaced by a "Holiday Program" during which children sang "Frosty the Snow Man," "Jingle Bells" and certain proscribed Hannukah songs. Santa Claus was still OK and we could still wish others a "Merry Christmas," but "Happy Holidays" was preferred.

Today we have come full circle. As Fox News commentator John Gibson points out in his book "The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christmas Holiday is Worse Than You Thought": "Liberals' attacks now focus on symbols regarded by most Americans - and even by the Supreme Court ... to be secular symbols of the federal holiday that is Christmas. Wannabe constitutional lawyers in local government offices all over the country are declaring unconstitutional normal and traditional Christmas representations such as Christmas trees, Santa Claus, treetop stars, wreaths, the singing and listening to Christmas carols or Christmas instrumental music, attending a performance of Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol,' the publication of the word 'Christmas' itself, and even the colors red and green."

Mr. Gibson offers eight case studies: Covington, Ga., where the ACLU demanded that the word "Christmas" be deleted from the school calendar; Mustang, Okla., where the school superintendent ordered the elimination of a nativity scene from the Christmas pageant but approved references to Hannukah and Kwanzaa; Baldwin City, Kan., where the ACLU demanded that references to Santa Claus be stricken; Plano, Texas, where J-shaped candy canes were ordered kept out of children's goodie bags because the "J" could be construed to represent Jesus; Eugene, Ore., where Christmas trees were banned from public property; Indianapolis, Ind., where a Christmas tree was banned from a law school atrium because "it was a symbol of Christianity"; and Maplewood, N.J., where grade school field trips to see Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and instrumental Christmas music were banned for reasons of "religious content."

In the forefront of the battle to diminish Christmas is the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a shadowy, extremist organization whose lawyers bully and badger misinformed school boards, school superintendents and municipal authorities into submission simply by threatening a lawsuit. Resistance is expensive. Capitulation costs nothing.

Fortunately, the tide is turning in favor of Christians and the future looks brighter for Americans who resist having their constitutionally guaranteed religious right of "free exercise thereof" prohibited. A number of organizations are standing up to the ACLU, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and People for the American Way, listed by Mr. Gibson as "backers of the war on Christmas." Fighting back are organizations such as The Rutherford Institute, the American Center for Law and Justice, the Thomas More Law Center, the Alliance Defense Fund, the Liberty Legal Institute, the American Family Association, and the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly is also pro-Christmas, as are Jewish radio show hosts Michael Medved, Dennis Prager and Ben Stein. An organization called "Jews Against Anti-Christian Defamation," was recently established by Don Feder, a former Boston Herald columnist.

"Those who would ban Christmas and Christians should not mistake the signs on the horizon," concludes John Gibson. "The Christians are coming to retake their place in the public square, and the most natural battleground is this war on Christmas." A December 17 article in World, a Christian weekly, confirms the comeback by describing recent developments and proclaiming that: "Around the country, the American 'Scroogocracy' shows signs of warming up to the traditional Christian holiday."

And it's all very legal. As a December 19 issue of USA Today explained, "the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that municipalities could display manger scenes and menorahs in public places alongside secular symbols of the holidays ..." A sure sign that the tide is turning is the recent ACLU denial that there ever was a "war on Christmas."

The United States is not a nation of atheists. It was founded by Christians and continues to be a nation where 84 percent of those polled call themselves Christian and 96 percent say they celebrate Christmas. Ukrainians take heart. We are not alone.

Myron Kuropas's e-mail address is: [email protected].

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