A Christmas Carol

Today we went with Sydney's friend Andrew to see the Scottish Rite Theater's A Christmas Carol. As with all of their productions, this one was excellent. They even dealt well with the ghosts by having Scrooge's sister explain to the audience that they needed to help old Scrooge find his Christmas spirit, and so three of them would dress up as ghosts to help him out.

The parents enjoyed some great redone musical numbers like Scrooge and his old flame singing "Money Can't buy You Love."

All in all, a good experience that Sydney and Andrew thoroughly enjoyed and Jack actually sat mostly quiet during.


But one thing about the show has not set well with me. During A Christmas Carol, they talked a lot about Scrooge needing to find his "Christmas spirit" and at the end talked about what "Christmas spirit" is. I was right there with them as they talked about it not being something you can touch or feel, that it's not about your age or race, and then as I'm nodding along, they actually said the words, "[Christmas spirit]'s not about religion...."

Wait. It's not? They then went on to say that it's about "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you."

I would agree that the Christmas spirit and the golden rule do go hand in hand -- mostly because it was Jesus, born on Christmas Day, who gave us the golden rule to begin with.

Listening to that, made me think: I don't want to create a holiday bubble in which the kids can only do things that directly pertain to the true reason for the season, but I understand how others have come to that.

I think about Christ's birth being hijacked not only by a commercial craze, but also by a more insidious competitor: the notion of do-gooderness. That this season, the season of our Lord's birth could be used by the well-intentioned to promote goodwill towards men in spite of Him seems wrong somehow.

On the other hand, how could it be any other way? Of course the season of His birth would make everyone want to do better, to be better. Even those who don't believe in Him.

I don't like the notion of a "Christmas spirit" void of religion, but I can see how it came to be. It doesn't make me want to avoid plays like A Christmas Carol; it makes me want to really process it all now, so that next year or the year after, I can have that discussion with a slightly older Sydney about how they were wrong in the play. They just don't know any better, but Christmas is about Christ and while Christ would want everyone at His birthday party, He really takes joy in those who know why they've come (and that those who don't know may not be invited to that final party).

The secular world has hijacked Christmas. Just like we Christians hijacked it from the pagans. There's no denying it and no taking it back. So we enjoy those traditions that go with the month of December, like drinking hot chocolate, the myth of Santa Claus, watching A Christmas Carol and even The Nutcracker and other good family experiences. We enjoy them for the memories they build.

But we make sure that as we celebrate the memory-makers, we aren't lulled into a holiday spirit instead of keeping a true Christmas spirit.