Christmas season keeps creeping closer

On the morning of Nov. 1, Chicago receives a drastic makeover, swapping the pumpkin and skeleton decorations to fill the streets with Christmas embellishments. Walk into Target or Macy’s for the next two months and you’ll find red and green ornaments dangling in every aisle and Santa hats everywhere. However, is immersing everybody in two months of Christmas too much?

While students treasure holiday spirit, many are confused by why Christmas serves as the focal point for this winter joy. They believe the season’s upbeat air can be achieved without giving an overshadowing importance to a religious holiday that either excludes many people or coerces its celebration. 

Christmas is a sacred religious holiday for Christians that celebrates the birth of Jesus. However, its prominence has made the occasion intertwined in winter festivities worldwide and makes it impossible to miss due to its heavy presence in the commercial world. Students feel that some non-Christmas celebrators or non-Christians are uncomfortable due to the strong correlation people have made between winter holiday spirit and Christmas. 

A survey conducted in 2013 by Pew Research asked people what they liked least about the holidays, and the top response was the commercialism and materialism of Christmas throughout the holidays, which was 33% of the answers.

Furthermore, the discomfort toward Christmas’s heavy dominance over the holidays has increased significantly, as seen in a 2015 Pew Research study that found roughly 30% of those surveyed saying Christmas displays should only be allowed if they are accompanied by other religious symbols, like a menorah for Hanukkah.

Junior Sophia Shahul found that Christmas had expanded beyond the stores or malls and into her schooling as a child.

“I remember as a kid, my parents didn’t think it made sense to raise me with a Christian holiday. We’d still celebrate winter holidays with snowflake and snowman decorations, or by going ice skating as a family,” Sophia said. “But it was impossible to get through the season without people trying to immerse me in more Christmas-y traditions, like teachers pretending to be Santa or being told Christianity-based Christmas tales that I then believed were true.”

According to Sophia, this trend doesn’t make sense, and she feels uncomfortable that a celebration from a religion different from her own had been made the foundation of winter celebrations ever since she was a little girl. She believes that celebrating the holidays should not entail a Christmas celebration as a requirement.

Senior Ben King also believes that the power and long duration of Christmas celebrations during the holiday season can be too much and take away from the authenticity and warmth around the celebration.

“I love Christmas so much. It just brings my family together. But I agree that it goes on for so much longer than it needs to, or starts too early,” Ben said. “It spreads the celebration too thin and makes December 25th less special, because everyone’s already been talking about it for, like, two months. I also just find the way that stores advertise Christmas to seem so unauthentic.”

Other students believe the overpowering presence of Christmas during the season overshadows other cultural and religious holidays.

Senior Lauren Tapper loves winter holiday spirit because it brings light during cold and darker times, but she believes that Christmas’s heavy presence distracts from her and her Jewish peers’ celebration of Hanukkah. 

“I don’t think that Christmas should be the defining holiday for the winter,” Lauren said. “I think the United States has so much diverse cultures within it that celebrate so many different holidays and events during the season, and it would benefit our country to celebrate all of these holidays and have them come to the forefront rather than be overshadowed by Christmas.”

But how should the holidays be celebrated without making the Christmas spirit a necessity for everyone? According to junior Hannah Shubin, winter holiday spirit doesn’t need to entail Christmas at all.

“I think I feel more comfortable hearing ‘Happy holidays’ rather than ‘Merry Christmas,’” Hannah said. “It would be so ideal and easy to celebrate the holidays without having to hear about Christmas. There’s enough traditions like hot chocolate, skating, gift shopping, snow-angel making, snow fights, winter wonderland parks, et cetera, that I think eradicate the need for Christmas emblems to be everywhere altogether.”

Senior Maile Nacu agrees with Hannah.

“I mean, I get how Christmas can make some people uncomfortable. I feel like it’s too assumed that everybody celebrates it, even if they are not Christian, which shouldn’t be the case now that I think about it,” Maile said. “I think we could celebrate the holidays without Christmas by just doing winter-y things and that would be enough.”

Winter weather can be rough, and it’s wonderful to celebrate and engage in activities with family and friends to embrace the holidays. To make sure everyone is able to do this comfortably, though, means not assuming Christmas is on everybody’s winter holiday tradition list or excluding other cultures and traditions.

Additional writing contributed by Amy Ren.