Attacks on Christmas originate most often from the secular left but this year journalists have begun highlighting Yuletide criticism from disgruntled commentators on the religious right. These simultaneous assaults from both edges of the philosophical spectrum suggest that the sensible, middle-of-the-road approach to the holiday-- with its emphasis on jolly, joyous and distinctively American traditions-- remains worth cherishing and defending.

   In USA TODAY, religion reporter Cathy Lynn Grossman filed a story under the headline “Where is Christ in Christmas?” and the newspaper illustrated it with a moonlit image of Santa on a rooftop, planting a giant cross in the chimney. The article cites the work of Michael Horton, professor of theology at Westminster Seminary in California, who suggests that “Christmas without the specter of the cross, without awareness that this is a baby born to die for mankind’s sins, is a fancied up fraud.” Professor Horton warns that “Santa becomes a substitute for Christ. He’ll give you presents whether you were good or bad. It’s hard to imagine Santa returning to judge the human race and consign anyone to hell. But that is what Jesus came to save us from.”

  Of course, most Americans prefer to spend their December decorating trees, sipping eggnog and exchanging beautifully wrapped gifts rather than focusing on the particulars of eternal damnation. For some serious Christians, however, all the tinsel-trimmed traditions have begun to obscure the true meaning of the holiday. “The focus on peace and giving gifts allows you to safely focus on nice things instead of the idea that God sent his son Jesus to be Christ, who dies on a cross,” says Ed Stetzer, director of LifeWay Research in Nashville. “It’s human nature to want to take the ‘nice’ without the ‘truth.’”

   These recent denunciations of a “Christless Christmas” (the title of Professor Horton’s book is “Christless Christianity”) echo the concerns of prominent American religious leaders over the course of nearly four hundred years. The Puritans who settled New England frowned on the “pagan” frivolity of the Christmas holiday, particularly on the seventeenth century excesses of eating and drinking as practiced by the Anglican population in the Southern colonies. In more recent years, many pastors have expressed growing concern that the holiday now concentrates on Santa rather than Jesus.  This month, the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kansas (the same charming outfit that chants anti-gay slogans at the funerals of fallen heroes from Iraq) tried to post a Santa-bashing poem at the Washington State Capitol in Olympia. Sung to the tune of “Santa Claus is Coming to Town,” their new offering, “Santa Claus Will Take You to Hell,” featured the lyrics—

   You’d better watch out, get ready to cry
   You better go hide, I’m telling you why
   ‘Cuz Santa Claus will take you to hell.
   He is your favorite idol  
   You worship at his feet
   But when you stand before your God
   He won’t help you take the heat.  

   Even those with less extreme reservations about Kris Kringle worry that the ubiquitous stories about the Jolly Old Elf might ultimately undermine faith in God. According to this argument, children who discover that their parents have lied to them about Santa will naturally begin to wonder whether they’ve been similarly deceived when it comes to lessons about God and Christ. New research, however, from the Universite’ de Montreal and the University of Ottawa (reported by Tony Woodlief in the Wall Street Journal) indicates that most children suffer no serious psychological or emotional damage from their discovery that Santa Claus is a myth, and that kids who once believed in St. Nick are at least as likely to grow up firmly believing in God as their counterparts who never expected chimney drops and magic reindeer.

   By the same token, there’s little reason to suggest that the public, celebratory approach to the season has worked against serious religious commitment in the long run. Many (if not most) of the Christmas traditions now embraced around the world either originated or developed in the United States – including the details of Santa’s yearly visits, the practice of sending out holiday cards, big public lighting displays, lavish department store decorations, and much more. The majority of carols and other holiday favorites sung again and again each December came from the imagination, faith and genius of American composers, producing “Jingle Bells,” “Oh Little Town of Bethlehem,” “White Christmas,” “Sleigh Ride,””The Christmas Song”  and countless others.

  Over the last hundred years, no nation has more enthusiastically indulged in the festive aspects of the Christmas Holiday than the United States and at the same time no Western nation (according to every measure of church attendance and professed belief) remains more fervently, overwhelmingly Christian. In short, the emphasis on Santa above salvation hasn’t destroyed the bedrock faith of the American people and even may have contributed to sustaining it.

  The rituals of the season emphasize family, friends, fellowship, kindness and generosity – attractive if uncontroversial themes that draw more eager participation than posing the stark choice of paradise or perdition. Continued...