Killing Christmas

Five hundred years ago Martin Luther dragged an evergreen tree into his living-room with the assistance of his children and set it up standing. He placed candles on branches and lit them to signify the coming of the light into the Dark Ages and the beginning of the Reformation and Age of Enlightenment.

Since then the practice of using evergreens in our homes as part of the Christmas celebration has spread, first throughout Germany and Europe, then globally. It has been an elaborate distraction from the real meaning and purpose of this Christian holiday. In the Bible Jesus is called “the Light of the world.”

In North America millions of trees are slaughtered every winter in what is described as a “Christian” celebration.

In fact these practices have nothing to do with the documents that define “Christian”. In this ecologically conscious age the destruction of so many trees for a folly seems insane. We need those trees alive to ensure the production of oxygen and the filtering of pollutants, as well as for the cooling effects that trees always create.

These are remarkable organisms and we should be protecting them and increasing their numbers until they blanket the Earth, rather than slaughtering them indiscriminately for an empty and self-congratulatory thrill in the mid-winter. But every year we slaughter millions and millions more, the equivalent of a giant forest.

This is an act of hostile destruction against an already compromised natural environment. Christian ethics and doctrine and the texts themselves [The Bible] all suggest that this is a destructive and wasteful and unchristian practice. We should be planting and preserving trees, rather than mindlessly slaughtering them.

But the destruction of trees is only one slap in the face of Mother Earth and the Christian faith every Christmas. We go to the trouble of manufacturing hundreds of millions of plastic-coated glass lights and the copper or glass wire used to carry electricity to these tree ornaments.

Then we put further pressure upon the environment by illuminating all of these lights. We make electricity to drive the lights and make the trees look pretty. And no, we do not use green electrical sources. Our public policy does not support that. We use nuclear power and coal and oil burning to provide the pretty picture so we can drive around our communities, consuming more fossil fuels in the process and hurting ourselves in the process.

Then we begin every year by throwing trees, ornaments, wrappings and more into landfills. Christmas, as we celebrate it is not Earth and Human friendly. God must weep over such a waste and destruction.

We must water these “ornaments” while we have them in our homes.

Here again we are putting pressure on a rare and valuable global resource in an age of scarcity. Water should be preserved, used carefully, even frugally, shared and conserved. There is no water left to waste.

Sometimes we neglect to water our pet trees. These trees can bring sad consequences to families if left unattended. Many lose their lives, families, homes and well-being through fires in the Christmas season.

On top of all of this we feed large amounts of candy and other non-necessary foods to children and add to the national children’s health crisis.

Problems of obesity, diabetes [which rose over 75% in southeastern Ontario in a recent ten year period], and general ill health result for everyone from this practice and have an impact upon national economies in many ways from health care costs to loss of work hours and many other impacting blows against GNP and tax base.

If we add up the impact of these practices upon the Earth and then measure those results against our modern Christian and social ethics [for these practices are not merely for believing and practicing Christians], then we see that we must change how we celebrate Christmas. We must find a way to bring the same joy and generosity into our lives, hearts and homes without destroying the Earth that sustains us.

I’m not sure yet how we can do it. I don’t know which practices will serve our social and religious needs. But I’m convinced that we must bring our collective brains together in order to address this ugly problem quickly. I would like to see a different kind of Christmas in 2007 which does not destroy the Earth under the guise of loving its Creator.

We must kill Christmas as we know it and reinvent it in a way that is fitting for our time and circumstance. We must kill it quickly before it kills us.