Inclusivity During the Holiday Season

By JOHANNA HILLMAN ‘28

It begins at midnight on Nov. 1 when Mariah Carey posts her annual video, “It’s Time.” For the next two months, small businesses are bedecked with garlands and pine, every ad is set to the melody of softly ringing bells, and Starbucks changes its cups to a red and green holiday scheme. My email inbox and physical post box begin to fill up with advertisements and brochures letting me know that Christmas Is Here! and you can buy Cozy Fits for 20 percent Off.

And every year, I alternate between loving and hating Christmas.

In the first grade, my parents complained to my school when each and every worksheet during the month of December was Christmas themed, but I didn’t mind.

In the third grade, I hated Christmas and wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. I complained about the lights people put up on their houses and repudiated any hint of red or green.

In the seventh grade, I begged my parents to let me put lights on the outside of our house and listened to Ariana Grande’s “Santa Tell Me” on repeat.

This year, I’m somewhere in between. I’ve scoured online to find a pair of festive winter pajamas that aren’t red and green. I’ve drank hot chocolate (no marshmallows, iykyk.) I’m certainly not mad about all of the holiday deals.

But a few weeks ago when I walked into a Target with “All I Want For Christmas Is You” blasting from the speakers and large candy cane-like banners wishing me a Merry Christmas bedecking the ceilings, I groaned internally. When I came back to campus after Thanksgiving break to find the town of Exeter strewn with miscellaneous Nutcrackers and when I saw an image of the White House covered from head to toe in Christmas decorations, I felt it once again—the feeling that the United States of America is a very Christian country—and the feeling that maybe, as a Jew, I don’t belong here.

I don’t celebrate Christmas. Not in any way, shape, or form. I don’t have a favorite Christmas song, and I don’t sometimes wish that I got presents from Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. I’ve never celebrated Christmas, and I don’t think I ever will. 

I’d like to be clear: I don’t dislike Christmas. I do understand that for many Americans, Christmas is the quintessential family tradition, emblematic of light permeating the December darkness. But despite the extra-religious meaning it holds to many, its connection to Christianity is intrinsic, and the assertion that religious minorities have no reason to have any conflicting feelings about celebrating Christmas upholds Christian hegemony in the United States and erases the complicated history of Christmas.

While it is true that Christmas has roots in the pagan holidays of Saturnalia and Yule, its significance today is embedded in Christianity. Today in the United States, many celebrate Christmas in a secular, capitalistic manner rather than a religious one. Their celebration of Christmas looks more like Santa and gift-giving than nativity scenes and going to mass. And while I have no place to say whether or not that is a valid celebration of Christmas, to me and many others, Christmas is inseparable from Christian theology. After all, Christmas in its purest form revolves around the birth of Jesus, a figure that is central in Christian theology but not in the theology of many other religions. While to many Americans this connection can seem irrelevant or unimportant to their celebration of Christmas, to many that connection is central to their reasoning against celebrating Christmas.

Additionally, while for many the Christmas season is synonymous with love, joy, and light, in the past, Christmas has sadly been a day of antisemitic violence. In Europe, Christian holidays have often been days of violence against Jewish communities, to the degree that European Jews developed their own Christmas tradition. Colloquially called Nittel Nacht, Jews in Europe would stay up all night playing cards to make sure that if the nearest Christmas Eve party turned into a violent mob, they would be ready. 

In fact, as recently as 1959, West German synagogues were vandalized with swastikas on Christmas Day. The notoriously racist and antisemitic Ku Klux Klan was founded on Christmas Eve in 1865. In Sicily, Rome, and Poland, pogroms—organized violence against Jewish communities—have occurred on Christmas Day. While these days, Dec. 25 is generally as safe a day for religious minorities in the United States as any other, the Christmas season can still feel exclusionary to many, especially when Christmas seems to defy all notions of the separation of church and state. When municipalities put out not just Christmas trees but also nativity scenes, the message is sent that Christmas is a holiday that is not just Christian, but fundamentally American. 

So this holiday season, in the spirit of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, try to be accepting of the fact that your non-Christian friends may have conflicting feelings surrounding the ubiquity of Christmas celebration. If you have friends that don’t seem to be “in the holiday spirit,” don’t pressure them to engage with Christmas or tell them they’re acting like a Grinch. Chances are, those friends are already overwhelmed by the sheer volume of Christmas cheer—don’t add more pressure to conform during what is already a difficult time for religious minorities. Just the small gesture of researching someone’s religious traditions to properly wish them a happy holiday goes a long way.

So, Merry Christmas, Chanukah Sameach, and Happy Holidays.