httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU&
Watch this video to get some perspective on what Christmas should be about.
Another holiday season rolls around and again here in Canada everyone gets antsy about how to acknowledge the fact that most of us will be getting some time off work and school and will likely eat a big dinner or two with family and other loved ones. Yes, “Happy Holidays” is the safest phrase to use if you’re a clerk at a retail store (although I haven’t recently seen a clerk friendly enough to give me any greeting aside from “Is that everything?”), but this week’s debate in Quebec’s National Assembly about whether or not to call the tree on the Assembly’s grounds a Christmas tree illustrates that Canada has really lost its way in trying to please everyone all the time.
True, in Canada we have a separation of church and state, so why have a tree at all? Because holidays are supposed to be times of peace, happiness, worship and/or reflection, a time to step back from the quotidian and enjoy the better things in life, and the tree is a central symbol of just one of those holidays. As much as I hate Christmas music blaring at me in stores the first day after Halloween, I have to admit that seeing little lights at night adorning trees and houses warms my heart and helps me recall how I felt celebrating Christmas as a child; the aversion to the former is rooted more with my disdain for excessive consumerism than any problem with the concept of Christmas itself. I no longer identify myself as Christian and don’t put a tree up in my home, but I am not offended by other people celebrating this holiday or calling a Christmas tree a Christmas tree, just as I am not offended by anyone practicing their religion in peace and happiness. To be offended by a Christmas tree is the height of un-Canadian, intolerant thinking. In our quest to accept everyone, are we so determined to erase all the customs of the people who founded this nation that we can’t even speak the names of those customs, let alone consider what those customs are supposed to be about?
A completely legitimate argument in this debate surrounds inclusion: why should the lawn of the Assembly only display symbols of Christian traditions? I fully support the diversification of holiday symbols on the lawns of government building if that’s what it would take to call a Christmas tree what it is. A Menorah isn’t a “Festive Candle-holder,” Ramadan isn’t a “Seasonal Fast,” and a Christmas tree isn’t a “Holiday Tree.” To assign one religion’s symbol status to represent other holidays erases not just the goodwill supposedly central to Christmas; it also violates the meaning of holidays enjoyed by people of all religions.