The War on Christmas: 2020

By Eric Czirr, Resonate Moscow

It is officially after Halloween, which means that Netflix is full of predictable, holiday-themed rom-coms, hot cocoa and eggnog are on prominent display at the grocery store, and Christmas aficionados are asking if it is acceptable to decorate their house already. ‘Tis also the season for in-depth discussions on Starbucks “holiday cups” which no longer say “Merry Christmas,” unhelpful vagaries about secular culture, and (if this year is like others in recent history) many American Christians getting their mistletoe twisted about “the war on Christmas.” Having spent the last three Christmases in a country where it is illegal to celebrate Christmas (a religious holiday), to characterize secular culture’s failure to wholesale embrace an overtly Christian celebration as a “war” seems hyperbolic at best. Regardless, I have a high level of confidence that there will be declarations of “war” this Christmas season, just as there have been in seasons past. So here are some things to keep in mind as the TikToks play and the Facebook feed refreshes. 

Tell the Christmas Story

There is a huge difference between “doing Christmas things” and “celebrating Christmas.” I would argue that our culture has been largely dominated by cultural Christendom for the lifetime of all who are currently living. Many Christmas traditions and celebrations flow from cultural Christendom, not necessarily from the Lordship of Christ. The distinction between cultural Christendom and the Lordship of Christ is significant. Cultural Christendom would highlight tradition, language, behavior, and fourth-quarter sales data. The Lordship of Christ, however, is concerned with worship, celebration, and a felt sense of awe that the God of the universe would willingly choose to empty himself of his power to be born as a human child to a family of poverty, in order that He might live a perfect life and bear the burden of God’s wrath toward sin. 

For some of us, this may be a difficult distinction to make, but I think this distinction can be well seen in the holiday Starbucks cup. A Vox news article from 2018 said, “Since at least 2015, the holiday Starbucks cup has become a battleground in a one-sided fight over American values.” In my mind, this begs the question: what are we actually valuing? In the case of Starbucks, the controversy arose when the company announced their annual holiday cup line-up and went with a solid red cup with no text as opposed to previous years, which included slogans like “Merry Christmas.” Do you want people to say the word “Christmas” or to believe in the God who came and dwelt among us? If your answer is the former, then enjoy your war. I’ll be on the sidelines enjoying a “holiday” beverage. If the answer is the latter, then we have to acknowledge that the “us-versus-them” language of “war” is unhelpful, and not everyone in the world understands the significance of the Christmas story. 

We ought to make Christ, as opposed to what culture is or is not valuing, the center of our thoughts and celebration this season. We have a better story to tell than that of culture— the Christmas story. Let’s tell this better story in a way that is compelling. 

Worship Sincerely 

To me, at face value, Christmas lights are proof that Satan is still at work in the world. There is the wasteful and unnecessary use of limited natural resources and electricity for a frivolous and pointless strand of lights. There is the poor quality and design that makes Christmas lights break after one or two seasons of use. And there is the fact that no matter how carefully you try to store them, they will inevitably come out as a Gordian Knot that you will have to spend hours of your finite earthly existence frustratedly untangling. Also, every year people are seriously injured or die trying to put them on the outside of structures. 

Here is the kicker— I married someone who loves, and I mean loves Christmas decorations. I am convinced that “Christmas decor” is the sixth love language and that it is my wife’s singular love language. For her, decorating for Christmas and going all out with decor is not excessive, but it is the appropriate way one ought to respond when you celebrate the coming of the King and a declaration of  the Kingdom. We still have a lot of discussions in my household about decorating in a socially and environmentally responsible way, but I am convinced that my wife’s limit on the appropriate number of Nativity scenes one can have is infinite. For my spouse, all that goes into Christmas is a frivolous act of worship in the same way Mary pouring expensive perfume on Jesus’s feet (John 12:1-11) was a frivolous act of worship - which is to say, not frivolous at all, but appropriate, beautiful and significant when one realizes the depth of who Jesus is. 

While Christmas decor has been a continual “growth area” for us, I have developed yearly a greater appreciation of my wife’s desire to want to make a big deal out of Christmas - Christmas lights included. Her heart of worship in the season has changed my heart and my perception. While worship is not at all dependent on the amount of Christmas decor one owns, what is important is that Christmas is intended to be a celebration of Jesus’ arrival and the culmination of God’s redemptive plan for humanity in his life and ministry. If my wife’s worship can make me think differently about Christmas lights, perhaps our worship could make culture think differently about Christ. 

Be a Missionary 

Having celebrated Christmas in an environment that was legitimately hostile to my beliefs, I can attest that Christmas is the perfect season to share the Gospel. It is impossible to understand the full significance of the Nativity story without first understanding the story arc of the whole Old Testament and the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Christmas is the inauguration of the Kingdom. For the last few years, instead of rallying against the injustice of people being forced into an irreligious belief system, we used the opportunity we had as cultural outsiders to invite others in to see and hear why we celebrated Christmas and why we thought this Jesus was worth following at great cost and personal sacrifice. We chose to do this whether it was legal or not. 

There is an argument to be made that the ship has sailed on secular culture in “the west,” America included. We now live in a post-modern and increasingly post-Christian culture, which means each of us has a choice. We can seek to hold onto a felt position of cultural dominance, or we can choose to enter into this new environment with grace. Will we seek to be missionaries in this environment that is hostile to Christ, or will we throw festively-decorated, holy hand grenades? As we celebrate a missionary God, who emptied himself of all power to be a missionary to the world, perhaps we ought to think like missionaries as well.