October 11, 2024: Contested Holidays: “The War on Christmas”

[Ahead of Columbus/IndigenousPeoples’ Day, I wanted to dedicate a series to exploring such contestedAmerican holidays and what they can help us think about. Leading up to aspecial post on that most conflicted of all our federal holidays!]

Threevoices who can together help us see through the “Waron Christmas” canard (which as of this writing DonaldTrump has recently resuscitated).

1)     StevenNissenbaum: That excellent hyperlinked book of Nissenbaum’s, The Battlefor Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Our Most Cherished Holiday (1996),does a great deal of the work I was originally planning to do in this post,specifically in framing the fact that Christmas in America has always beencontested and even attacked, and indeed in places like Puritan New England was farmore so both of those things than it is in any aspect of our 21stcentury society. Moreover, Nissenbaum helps us understand that many of the elementsof the holiday we now too often take for granted (like the “fact” that it celebratesChrist and/or his birth) were likewise entirely contested throughout much ofAmerican history, indeed for far longer than they have been seen as settledparts of the holiday. Bottom line, if there’s any truth to the idea of a “Waron Christmas,” it’s a historical truth, not a contemporary one; feel free toshare that with your Fox News-watching relatives, and you’re welcome (fromNissenbaum and me).

2)     VaughnJoy: Among the many aspects of Joy’s excellent Film- and AmericanStudyingwork that I highlighted in that post, one of them in particular, her ComparativeAmerican Studies article on Miracle on34th Street, illustrates the ways in which she uses bothChristmas and cultural representations of it to make a number of thoughtful andsignificant analytical points. She does so precisely because, as she argues in thatarticle and a greatdeal of her other work as well, Christmas has always been one of the most contestedand evolving symbols of (among other things) American identity and ideals, ratherthan some fixed or consistent celebration that could reasonably come underattack. And as Joy’s work particularly exemplifies, those shifting andcompeting meanings have been frequently (if not indeed always) constructed andreconstructed through cultural works, adding one more layer to the fundamental sillinessof some overarching “Christmas” that could be warred upon.

3)     My Mom: That’s how a couple of the bestscholars of Christmas histories and culture can help us challenge the “War onChristmas” canard. But I’m not sure any challenge is more telling than areminder of what the holiday season meant in America just a few decades ago. MyMom has shared quite a bit with me about the experience of growing up Jewish in1950s and 60s America, and specifically about how openly and single-mindedlypublic schools celebrated Christmas, with nary the slightest reference tohanukkah or any other holiday or tradition (despite, again, the presence ofJewish kids like my Mom in those schools and classes). In those schools anderas, as I would argue for virtually all of our history (or at the very least allof our 20th century history), it was Christmas that waged war on fartoo many Americans—and if we’ve gotten slightly better at defending thoseindividuals and communities during the holiday season, that’s simply aninclusive way to live up to our ideals.

Specialpost this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think?