Christmas and Xmas
A while ago I was reading Noah’s grumpy post* about Christmas, and it reminded me of something… but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Then while doing some research on joy I came upon a passage about Christmas in a book of essays by C.S. Lewis. With some judicious googling, I found a copy of the essay in question. You should go and read the whole thing, but if you just want a couple of highlights, here you go:
Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn’t go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business too have a “view” on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone’s business.
I mean of course the commercial racket…
[...]
We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don’t know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst comes to the worst I’d sooner give them money for nothing and write if off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than for a nuisance.
[*]I use the adjective grumpy because the person who typed out the C.S. Lewis essay called Lewis’s essay “grumpy”. Think of my usage of the word as a literary (blogerary?) parallel; it should in no way be construed as an editorial comment. :)