To the editors:
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I was pleased with Patrick Griffin’s reflections on Christmas (“The True Meaning of Xmas,” December 17, 1993). I am a Christian who has despised the holiday for years, though in recent times I have made peace with Yuletide by ignoring it, and allowing my wife to take care of the shopping and decorating. She and the boys like it, and I wouldn’t want to deprive them. But I resent feeling that I am not allowed to hate Christmas or refuse to participate. Thus I was happy to read Mr. Griffin’s article and see that someone else has wondered why we devote so much energy to reminding ourselves about the “real” meaning of Christmas.
There is nothing wrong with spending a lot of money and having a good time. My complaint is with the silly moralizing and posturing. I also become a grouch because of the truckloads of rural romanticism during the holidays (count your Christmas cards, and see how many of them feature little snowbound country churches and sleigh rides in Iowa), and the false nostalgia about the good old days of Christmas during the Depression or some other suitable lost golden age. But I suppose the main reason why I try to skate past the holidays is because Christmas is really for kids, and I have outgrown it. Hence the value of Mr. Griffin’s point about Xmas. Let my two little boys enjoy their grandparents and cousins, their new Legos, the cookies and chocolate, the trip to the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, and I’ll try to stay out of their way. I enjoyed Christmas too, when I was their age, when I didn’t worry about what it was all for, or supposed to be for.
