Celebrating Christmas; celebrating Yule

I just received my Cauldron & Candle newsletter and was surprised to read a certain teaser about their forums. Apparently someone is accusing the posters of being "closet Christians" b/c there's talk of celebrating Christmas. Gee, I'm a pagan and I celebrate Christmas. Why do I do it? How do I do it? Well, pull a chair up beside the Yule log and I'll tell you.

As I may have mentioned, I was bounced from church to church growing up. We were "generic Protestants." Whichever church was attractive to my mother, that's where we'd go. When someone "acts as if they own the church," we'd go somewhere else. I've attended services ranging from Methodist to Episcopalian, attended schools that were Lutheran and Southern Baptist. I became a member of the Presbyterian church at 14 and taught Sunday school in a Christian Missionary Alliance. So for me, religion was more of a personal interest than a matter of deep faith.

I also should add that my mother hated/s Christmas. Just because. Everything about it, from the cookies to the decor to the carols. Somehow, I emerged as a Christmas lover. If need be, I can abide attending a service or a mass on Christmas Eve. I like decorating and wrapping gifts and shopping and baking and all the trim and spectacle that comes in December. Could be that I'm a Christmas/Yule baby but who knows. My favorite religious holiday used to be Easter so go figure.

So as I began to adopt witchcraft as my expression of faith in the divine, I thought twice about celebrating Christmas. After all, why should I celebrate something I don't believe? This was done more easily with Easter. I don't believe the story of Easter so all that's left for me is the pagan symbolism: rabbits, eggs, rebirth... Very easy to adapt. By the time Easter rolls around, my celebration is finished.

Christmas presented more of a challenge. Christmas permeates everything from about mid-October forward. Hallmark puts ornaments on display in July. Everyone around me celebrates Christmas. I love Christmas. What to do?

Thing is, Yule is a lot like Christmas except that Yule actually fits my belief system. Yule is about the rebirth of God (hrm... getting back a bit of Easter here as well, I suppose). Yule is pure unbridled celebration. Yule is about life, joy and light. Yule is completely religious for me.

Christmas, on the other hand, holds no religious significance for me anymore. Christmas is a time to show others your appreciation, to give to the less fortunate, to put a plastic tree in your house and hang glass balls off of it. It's a time to make different kinds of cookies. It's an excuse to roast a turkey. It's egg nog and special music and It's A Wonderful Life and snow like marshmallow fluff. People are a little nicer and kinder, if just for a few moments here and there. It's taking my daughter to visit Santa and the toy store and having her unwrap presents while I wrap them.

In my holiday decor, I use snowflakes and candles in white, gold, red, green and blue. I use images of Father Christmas. I use angels, as I have a weakness for beautiful things and I collect some angel ornaments as objects of beauty (esp. the porcelain Hallmark breast cancer ones). I have a thick red Yule candle that I surround with bay leaves and evergreens and pine cones. I pick up star-shaped ornaments when possible.

When I celebrate Christmas, I don't celebrate in any religious way. I reserve that for Yule, four days earlier. Yule is a quiet, personal, private day for me. I don't share my religious holiday with a lot of once-a-year-ers. I share my religious celebrations with the new Mother and Child. I have a small celebration ritual and a toast of orange juice and not much more. After all, I know how it is to have gone through childbirth and all I wanted was sleep. Not the time to cast spells and ask favors, I'm sure.

So as far as celebrating Christmas, that's what I do. I celebrate Christmas, which is not the same as celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ in a religious manner. I think it would be easy for a Christian witch to combine these holidays, as they are so similar. I celebrate the birth of God as part of the cycle of life and death that all living things experience, same as I recognize his passing at Samhain. I don't think being a witch excludes me from celebrating a season of peace and light and life, whether I call it "Christmas" or "Yule" or "Hanukkah" or "Festivus." What's important is the celebration itself.

PS: I should get interesting Google hits off this entry ;)

Update: Anna Quindlen article on Christmas as a secular public holiday of giving and kindness.