Watering Down the "Christ" at Christmas

A priest friend remarked in his homily how these days people do not pretend that Christ is no longer the center of Christmas. Many people from all walks of life do not bemoan the fact that Christ has become a sort of extra, a cameo role in what is supposed to be His Story. In trying to be "sensitive" or politically correct, folks don't say Merry Christmas anymore for fear of offending non-Christians or non-practicing Christians. Instead they greet one another "Happy Holidays," or "Enjoy the Yuletide Season!"

Christmas parties have become year-end parties. Christmas exchange gifts are called simply exchange gifts. In a world increasingly becoming secularized, a world caught in the material trappings of a Godless society, what do real Christians ought to do? I say, we insist on emphasizing Christ on Christmas. Let us refuse in reducing the Christ into the abbreviated term X (Xmas for Christmas). Let us continue sending cards with messages of love that speak of the world's first Great Love: that God the Father sent He Son to us and lived amongst us.

Come to think of it, early Christians had to go in hiding when they were celebrating Christmas. Pagans and people of other faiths later on owned the Christmas celebration. Perhaps, it's now time to get back from the secular world the true meaning and spirit of Christmas. It is time that we really have Christ during Christmas.