Three things go by the name of Christmas.
One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for
Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally
say no more about it here.
The second (it has complex historical
connections with the first, but we needn't go into them) is a popular holiday,
an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business too have a 'view' on
this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody
minding his own business. I see no
reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their
own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice
on such matters as little as I want theirs.
But the third thing called Christmas is
unfortunately everyone's business. I
mean of course the commercial racket. The
interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English
festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with
him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk;
lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but
even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one
another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers.
C. S. Lewis
God in the Dock
(Essays on Theology and Ethics)
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