Feliz Navidad

               During a recent meeting with my conversation partner, the topic of Christmas obviously came up.  The thought of the holidays is the only thing getting many of us through the Geneva Convention violation that is Finals Week.  I asked her if she had any big plans, and she said that she was getting together with her family to celebrate.  But then she added something that I found to be a little curious.   She said that in Mexico, the Christmas celebration was a lot more religiously oriented than it is in America.  There was one thing that she said that really stuck out to me.

                “In Mexico, instead of Santa Claus, we have Jesus.”

                To be fair, I think she may have been painting with some broad strokes here.  Many Americans still keep the “Christ” in “Christmas,” one might say, as evidenced by the nativity scene that my roommate insists on putting on top of the living room bookshelf even though I keep knocking it down accidentally, which I’m sure has probably already secured my ticket to hell.  Maybe it was just because I had gone to a Catholic school all my life, but I always heard friends talk about going to midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and their favorite Christmas songs being “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” or “Silent Night.” 

                But I can’t say that I don’t know where she’s coming from.  In the cinematic classic Supersize Me, the guy shows pictures to some schoolchildren and asks them to identify the people in the photos.  They can all name Ronald McDonald.  None of them could identify Jesus Christ.  (In one kid’s defense, he made a valiant effort by guessing “George W. Bush.”)  Childhood obesity epidemic aside, this situation does not bode well for the religiousity of the American populace.  I think it would be safe to say that our holidays have grown increasingly secular as time has progressed, as has the population as a whole.  “Happy holidays” is now the politically correct greeting.  The focus of Christmas has strayed away from a baby in a manger and has gone toward presents under the tree, not to mention a jolly bearded man breaking and entering via chimney.

                None of this is to say that this phenomenon is necessarily bad or good.  It just is.  And honestly, we will probably end up seeing more of it in the future.  It will be interesting to see far down the road if Mexico manages to keep its religion tied so closely to its holidays while the world at large becomes increasingly secular.

                But you know what? Jesus or no Jesus, Santa or no Santa, as long as I’m home with my family during Christmas, that’s all I really care about.