Our First Secular Christmas?

A recent Guardian article questions the future of Christmas, now we have reached the point of less than 50% Christianity in the UK.

It points out that “the religious aspects of Christmas have long been subsumed by, or at least dressed up with, its consumerist trimmings”!

In the article, we hear from the Reverend Richard Coles, who tells us that “For most people, Santa and the Virgin Mary are equal members of the cast of Christmas.”

Other interesting survey findings tell us that 46% of young people have never sung a traditional Christmas carol, and 47% think that midnight mass has had its day.

However, the article goes on to point out that Christmas has always been “a fusion of the pious and pagan, the sacred and profane, and most of its traditions are either borrowed or relatively recent”, demonstrating that the pre-Christian, pre-monotheistic religions are arguably at the roots of our Christmas traditions in the UK.

Particularly interesting is that Christians celebrating December 25th officially began as late as the 4th century, and this didn’t become a significant Christian event until the 9th century, with the author suggesting that nowadays we might now call this a case of cultural appropriation.

The Roman celebration of the winter solstice Sol Invictus, arguably the original Christmas, was gradually rebranded to commemorate Christ’s birth.

Other traditions we may take for granted today came along later: turkey became associated with Christmas in the UK in the 17th century; kissing under the mistletoe in the 18th century and Christmas carols and Santa Claus not until the 19th century! Would Lyon perhaps argue that we have been consuming Christmas for many years, before Disneyland was even thought of!

The article suggests that Christmas may be in danger of disappearing, nevertheless it goes on to cite many examples of people coming together at Christmas, suggesting that (regardless of diminishing Christian faith in the UK) Christmas still plays vital functions for society, and promotes social solidarity and cohesion. Of course, we can balance this with the consumerism and ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ that Marxists would point to (the article uses the Sainsbury’s advert as a contemporary version of the cereal packet family!) and no doubt Marx himself would argue that Christmas is yet another dose of an opiate for the masses, keeping the proletariat in their place!

A fantastic read for anyone currently embarking on the secularisation sub-topic, which of course runs throughout the Beliefs topic.