Remember that the first War on Christmas was fought when our Puritan ancestors banned Christmas because they saw it as a Catholic accretion that tolerated pagan rituals.
And that the second War on Christmas was fought by corporate America, as detailed in this article, How Corporations Stole Christmas, about the time of the rise of the department store as industrial capitalism began to destroy families and communities, and 1960s Madison Avenue advertisers manufactured our scarcity to find "the gift that really matters".
English author Charles Dickens has a real Jesus-focused Christian message. Dickens' family suffered under the rise of industrial capitalism. At age 12, he had to stop school to work in a shoe-blackening factory, and his father was incarcerated in an infamous prison for failing to pay a debt to the local baker.
His 'A Christmas Carol' novel was written to redeem his childhood; "the plight of those two "abject, frightful, hideous, miserable" children peering out from under the robe worn by the Ghost of Christmas Present.
"This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want," the Ghost tells the quaking Scrooge."
"Dickens intended to make the sufferings of the most vulnerable of the underclass so pungently real to his readers that they could not continue to ignore their need, not so much for charity as for the means to save themselves: education."
Today, where one is born determines what kind of education they get. School funding is tied to property taxes, meaning the rich neighborhoods have better schools. Steph Rivera did a study in New Jersey that showed majority white schools had more electives and more creativity-inducing electives at that, than Black and Brown schools. And DEVCO in New Brunswick, and other developers in NYC, are letting luxury developments not have to pay into the failing city school districts for 30 years! It's called PILOT (payment in liue of taxes) and it's a neoliberal policy Democrats love (though it was created by a Republican).
"Saturnalia took place every year to signify the end of the growing season, a time to enjoy a final taste of fresh fruits, vegetables, and meats before they were dried and stored for the winter. It also marked an annual orgy; a week of drinking, over-indulgence and sinful excess; a remarkable surge in childbirths followed nine months later.
"The Church hoped to end the debauchery by falsely declaring December 25th as the day of Christ's birth. Villagers and peasants throughout Europe subsequently were expected to worship the Virgin Birth at the end of the year, instead of celebrating nature's produce and one another."
" From its roots as an agrarian pagan orgy, followed by the attempt to transform it into a religious holiday for the community, it's now become another kind of orgy, this time a capitalist one. "
Let's focus on the vulnerable and poor this Christmas.
Perhaps by calling your state representatives and senators and asking for school funding to be mandatory in all PILOT deals. Or in your own way.
http://www.towardfreedom.com/31-archives/americas/668-how-the-corporations-stole-christmas
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2008/12/06/arts/06iht-IDLEDE6.1.18330401.html - book review. The Man Who Invented Christmas How Charles Dickens's "A Christmas Carol" Rescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits By Les Standiford
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