A reminder: Christmas isn't about being American

This article momentarily made me want to strip down my handful of Christmas decorations and burn them. And then I remembered that while Bill O'Reilly may gather his family around the tree and explain to them that they come together once a year to celebrate that they are Americans, just like Jesus was, and that non-Christians are going to be cast into hell and that is reason for joy, well, that's just not what Christmas is to me. And then I realized that it would piss off O'Reilly and all the rest of the people raising the false alarms about Christmas to know that an atheist like me celebrates Christmas, and I felt the warm glow of Christmas cheer. I nearly wanted to buy a tree. And then a mental picture of Max clinging to the branches, ornaments everywhere popped into my head so I decided to be satisfied with my lights and garland.

I'm not a Christian, but I figure that I can still celebrate Christmas because it's part of my heritage. And, despite my mother's beaten-up Nativity scene shoved up in the corner, my family still kicks it pagan-style with elves everywhere, and not the modern Santa's elves sort. My mother favors the old-fashioned, fairy tale elves that peek out at you from between the branches of the tree or from behind a garland. Without really meaning to, we channel our pre-Christian Welsh ancestors so thoroughly, we might as well call it Yule. There will be more rueful discussions about how we wish it would snow than about how this is the birthday of Our Savior or anything like that. Oh, I have one cousin who was somehow smuggled away in the middle of the night by fundamentalists and then returned to us "born again" with a disapproving look on her face to match who will insist on praying before dinner, and we'll indulge her to be polite. But the dinner table will be weighted in favor of those of us who are trying really hard not to laugh and crack jokes when she thanks Jeebus for the food. (Get back with the people you were kids with, and suddenly you're 12 again.)

Twenty bucks says O'Reilly's pre-Christian ancestors were celebrating the winter solistice around this time of year, albeit on the next island over from my ancestors. That Christmas is a hastily converted pagan holiday makes this whole thing a joke on one hand, but on the other, it's deeply alarming. Because there's little doubt that to most people who celebrate it, the holiday is just as much about their ethnic heritage as it is about their religion. Hell, for most people it's much more about reconnecting with their roots than it is about Jesus.

Tradition, family, and celebrating your heritage--there's a good way to do these things, and a bad way, as we all know. It's one thing for people descended from European Christians to have the holiday and have fun and keep old country traditions alive. It's another thing entirely for people descended from European Christians to turn around and declare that to be a "real" American, you must do the same as them. For the life of me, I cannot see the difference between the people here declaring that you have to be from a certain Euro-Christian heritage to be American and those who declared that Jews couldn't be Germans you-know-when. But I will say this: Snottily refusing to be inclusive is un-American. Bill O'Reilly in particular would do well to remember that his particular ethnic group was treated like they weren't "real" Americans not that long ago.