1,427 words

German translation here

Editor’s Note:

In keeping with my policy of regifting, I am reprinting this oldie, because the points it makes are still valid. Merry Christmas!

It was about twenty years ago when I first noticed that the greeting “Merry Christmas” was being replaced by the bland, neutral “Season’s Greetings” and “Happy Holidays.”

I asked a school teacher of my acquaintance, a benighted liberal who is an infallible barometer of the latest currents of political correctness, why this was happening. I was answered with another question: “If you were Jewish, wouldn’t you feel offended if someone wished you a Merry Christmas?” The tone communicated that this was self-evident, that we must avoid giving such offense at all costs, and that I was stupid for even asking. Obviously she had spent too much time talking down to students.

I thought to myself, “I would not be offended if a Jew wished me a Happy Hanukkah. That would be small-minded. So why should a Jew be offended if I wished him a Merry Christmas? What makes Jews different? Why do people cater to such small-mindedness?”

I also thought to myself, “Wouldn’t a pluralistic, liberal attitude imply many different holiday greetings, rather than one bland, characterless, homogeneous one?”

I also began to notice the proliferation of the abbreviation “X-mas,” even in greetings cards, store displays, and advertisements. Abbreviations are perfectly OK in hand-scrawled notes and emails. But they are gauche in more formal contexts, so I wondered what was driving this lapse in taste and style. Why are people literally “X”ing “Christ” out of “Christmas”? Is it merely another symptom of the secularization and commercialization of Christmas? But who is behind that trend? And is there some anti-Christian malice at work here?

Recently, there has been a proliferation of news stories about the destruction of Christmas in England and the US to cater to the tastes of anti-Christian minorities. For instance, in 2002 in Mobile, Alabama, the annual Christmas parade, celebrated since 1945, was to be renamed “The Jolly Holiday” parade. According to the organizers, “They said they wanted a name that was more inclusive, since the parade this year would include Hanukkah and Kwanzaa floats along with the usual Christmas fair [sic].”

Are we losing Christmas to pander to celebrators of Kwanzaa? The answer is no.

Kwanzaa is the ersatz African holiday invented in 1966 by an American Negro who goes by the name of Maulana Ron Karenga. Kwanzaa is supposed to be a Negro alternative to Christmas. It is a seven-day feast, celebrated from December 26 to January 1. Each day of Kwanzaa commemorates a different concept: unity (not diversity; unity is for them, diversity for us), self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

Up to this point, most people will give Kwanzaa a respectful hearing. But wait: To commemorate each day of Kwanzaa, a candle is lit in a seven-branch candelabrum called the “Kinara.” Now “Kinara” is supposed to sound like “Menorah,” but with a “k” for Kwanzaa. Get it? (I know, you thought that the Kinara was a rank in the Ku Klux Klan, somewhere between the Kleagle and the Kligrapp.) The Kinara reveals just how infantile, contrived, and derivative Kwanzaa really is. Even the most patronizing liberals roll their eyes.

But stupidity is no bar to advancement in today’s America, so Kwanzaa is slowly on the rise. In 1997 the US Post Office released a Kwanzaa stamp. Merchandisers see the potential for Kwanzaa profits, and so do politicians. Bill Clinton began issuing annual Kwanzaa proclamations, a practice continued by our conservative president George W. Bush.

But Kwanzaa is not destroying Christmas. Most Americans still have never heard of it, and no White American can think of it without embarrassment. Even White liberals probably prefer not to think of it at all, so it is not likely to be in the back of their minds when they wish you a hearty “Happy Holidays!” Besides, most Blacks who celebrate Kwanzaa probably celebrate Christmas too, so it is unlikely that they would bristle to the defense of Kwanzaa if wished a “Merry Christmas!”

No, it is the Jews who stole Christmas. Kwanzaa merely apes Hanukkah. Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday that celebrates, like most Jewish holidays, the massacre of tribal enemies. It is primarily in the US that Hanukkah has been promoted as a Jewish rival to Christmas.

The motives for this are unclear. One may be crypsis, the desire of some Jews to blend in among their host populations. Crypsis is certainly a motive in Reform Judaism. Reform synagogues have even adopted stained-glass windows and organ music to give the impression that Judaism is just another “Judeo-Christian” denomination.

Another motive may be rivalry: Jews recognize the appeal of Christmas, and want to keep their children busy doing something else during the Christmas season.

Malice probably also plays a role.

First, there is the resentment of the eternal outsider trying to make himself feel comfortable by breaking down the distinction between inside and outside. To do this, he has to efface the host culture’s defining symbols. A Jew feels outside when you say “Merry Christmas,” but he feels comfortable when you say “Happy Holidays.” Indeed, he feels pleased with this concrete token of his cultural and political power.

Then there is the particular resentment that Jews nurse toward Christianity. There are at least three reasons for this. First, Jesus was an apostate Jew, and nobody likes an apostate. Second, Jesus rejected Judaism for its tribalism, inhumanity, and intellectual dishonesty, and the truth hurts, so Jews hate Jesus as a bearer of bad news. Third, although today Islam is the religion most resistant to Jews and Christianity the most embarrassingly apologetic and subservient, this has been the case primarily since the foundation of the state of Israel. Before that, Jews lived securely in Muslim lands while they were being expelled from virtually every Christian country in Europe. Chapter 5 of Israel Shahak’s Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years contains an eye-opening discussion of Jewish attitudes toward non-Jews, including a comparison of Jewish attitudes towards Christians and Muslims.

Jew Philip Roth is the author of dreadful novels that are nonetheless extremely revealing of the operations of the Jewish mind. In Operation Shylock: A Confession, he gloats, “God gave Moses the Ten Commandments and then he gave Irving Berlin ‘Easter Parade’ and ‘White Christmas,” the two holidays that celebrate the divinity of Christ — and what does Irving Berlin do? He de-Christs them both! Easter turns into a fashion show and Christmas into a holiday about snow.”

So how do we take back Christmas? First, let me say something about my motives. I was raised a Christian, but it never took. I would prefer to keep Christianity out of politics, and I would hate to live in an intolerant Christian society. Frankly, I wish that our ancestors had held onto their old pagan religions. Indeed, Christmas incorporates many old European pagan elements, but note that multiculturalists make no attempt to cater to the celebrants of Yule, Saturnalia, and the birthday of Mithras. Nothing White is promoted by the multiculturalists.

But, still, I like Christmas a lot. When the days grow short and the weather gets bad, it is nice to create an environment of cheer and good will. At bottom, my objection is not religious, but cultural. I hate to see the homogenizing, secularizing, leveling forces of modernity at work, even on a religion that I do not profess.

So what is to be done? First, although Jews are the driving force behind the destruction of Christmas, they are a tiny minority, unlovable and unloved, and all the pushiness in the world would not have triumphed if Whites were not such pushovers. Second, the Mobile “Jolly Holiday Parade” incident is instructive. The gentiles pushed back: “citing e-mail and telephone threats from residents opposed to a parade without the word Christmas in its title . . . Mobile Christmas Parade Inc. . . . announced there would be no parade this year. . . . Three hours later, volunteers with Main Street Mobile, a city-staffed organization formed to promote downtown, announced that a parade will roll . . . . It will be called the Mobile Christmas Holiday Parade.”

This year, I have been pushing back in a subtle but steady way. Every chance I get, I wish people a “Merry Christmas,” most pointedly when I am wished “Happy Holidays.” I have even been wishing a “Merry Christmas” to the atheists and Odinists I know.

So, with that long preface in mind: from one infidel to another, “Merry Christmas!”