Ghost of Christmas Future

Every December, the Culture Wars in America heat up over how Christmas is commemorated in the public square. In fact, this perennial acrimony has acquired its own name: The Battle for Christmas. Focus on the Family has a website that rates retailers by their Christmas-friendliness so that you can avoid the stores that are the most egregious in offering “Holiday sales” and you can reward with your business those retailers that display “Merry Christmas” in their windows.

As the ACLU and self-appointed separation-of-church-and-state killjoys continues to squeeze any semblance of religion from the public square during the yuletide season, it seems possible that in the not-so-distant future, Christmas in America -outside of or our homes and churches- will be reduced to reindeer, snowflakes, shopping, tinsel, and the big guy in the red suit.

Alas, I have seen that future.

If the over-used term east-meets-west ever applied, Hong Kong is it. As a truly international melting pot, Hong Kong has had the luxury of cherry picking from the world’s cultures including Thai food, Pakistani tailors, and double-decker buses.

And cherry picking is exactly what Hong Kong has done with Christmas. When it comes to excessive, year-end consumerism, Hong Kong gives The States a run for its money. Gaudy decorations, Christmas music, and sales, sales, sales are everywhere these days. Christmas has come to Hong Kong.

Well, kind of.

Despite the effort by retailers to pull out all the stops, for the life of me, I cannot find a manger, a stable, a camel, a wise man, or a shepherd in the stores, in the malls, or on the side of a bus. It’s all candy canes and garland and snowflakes.

Outside of our homes and churches, the secularization of Christmas in Hong Kong is complete.

And I am happy to report that we are all a-okay, thank you very much.

I have no idea what the future holds for American culture and the commemoration of Christmas, but here is what I do know. If -worst case scenario- Christmas in the public arena gets stripped of all religious meaning like it has been in Hong Kong, we are all going to be a-okay. The gospel message is alive and well throughout Hong Kong despite the lack of nativity scenes in shopping malls and office building lobbies.

So if the ACLU succeeds in telling your town hall they can’t display a nativity or your local library that they can’t have a star atop their holiday tree, join hands and take a deep breath. We are all going to be just fine.

As Hong Kong has demonstrated, it’s possible to have a completely secularized “Holiday” taking place in the public arena and to still have the gospel message surviving and thriving.

-Jack