The first controversy is whether or not December 25th is the birthday of Jesus Christ. Clearly, it is not. The date of December 25 was chosen because it corresponded to the approximate date of the celebrations of the Winter Solstice in ancient times. It also was around the time of the celebration of Saturnalia, the celebration of the god Saturn, as well as festival of Mithra, the Iranian god of the Sun and who was eventually considered as the patron deity of Roman emperors.
The early Christian Church was having trouble weaning pagans from their celebrations. The new religion of Christianity seemed awfully boring, devoid of celebrations and festivals so early Church leaders set about coopting pagan festivals for Christian purposes. The early Christian Church was all about the ministry of Christ, his death and resurrection, so his birth was irrelevant. Why not place his birthday on top of pagan holidays and coopt those festivals for a divine purpose? That’s what the Church did, and Christmas was born.
The second controversy is whether or not Jesus of Nazareth was an actual person. Obviously, he was. That’s not based on faith, that’s a statement of fact based on historical records, not counting the Bible. For example, Jesus and his crucifixion figure in the works of a Jewish historian named Josephus. Josephus doesn’t weigh in on the divinity of Christ, but he does comment on the uproar that Christ’s teachings caused in Judea and the Romans’ response to it.
If one takes the Bible literally, shepherds watching their flocks by night etc. then Jesus was clearly born in the spring, probably in April. Shepherds “watch their flocks by night” only when ewes are lambing in the spring. If one believes the “slaughter of the innocents” story of Herod seeking to maintain his kingly throne by killing all the male children who might have been the proclaimed King, as told to him by the wise men when they met with Herod, then Christ had to be born during Herod’s reign. Since Herod died in 4 BCE (Before the Common Era which is used now instead of BC – Before Christ) and the slaughter of the innocents involved children under two years old, then Jesus was probably born in 6 BCE. (Before the Common Era runs backwards counting down to the year 0 and then the Common Era starts at 0 and counts upwards, soon to 2025, so someone born in 6 BCE is younger than someone born in 4 BCE) Some astronomers argue for 5 BCE as the birth year of Christ, pointing out that there was a comet, known as a “Broom Star”, visible for 78 days during the year 5 BCE that could have been taken as the Star of Bethlehem.
Michael Molnar, of the Physics and Astronomy Department of Rutgers University, has identified a promising celestial event that might also have been the Star of Bethlehem. An ancient coin exists commemorating this cosmic manifestation. It has a picture of the god Zeus on the front and Aries the Ram on the back, gazing at a star. Zeus was a god but also represented the planet Jupiter. Ancient kingdoms had zodiac signs associated with them. Aries was associated with the ancient state of Israel. Using those facts, as well as the astronomical conjunction of Jupiter, Saturn and the moon which the ancient coin commemorates and which occurred on April 17, 6 BCE, Molnar places that as the birth date of Christ.
In 1223, St. Francis of Assisi began the practice of depicting the manger tableau with the stable, appropriate animals, the Holy Family and the wise men. At Epiphany in 1300, King Edward I of England gave the Church a gift of gold, frankincense and myrrh which became a tradition that lasted for six centuries.
The third controversy is, what makes a movie a Christmas movie? Clearly, the release date doesn’t matter. A Miracle on 34th Street, the quintessential Christmas movie, was released in June of 1947. The Lord of the Rings movies generally came out on Christmas, but that doesn’t make them Christmas movies. It’s A Wonderful Life plays all the time around the holidays and is considered a Christmas classic. However, Christmas is never really mentioned in that film. While there is a Christmas tree in the background at the end of the movie and has Clarence, the angel, as a major character but yet there are no overt Christmas themes per se. Actually, at the end of the movie the people gathered in George Bailey’s home sing “Auld Lang Syne”, which is a song associated with New Year’s Eve and not Christmas. People might argue that It’s A Wonderful Life is a movie about redemption and thereby qualifies on that score, but movies like Seven Pounds, A Man Called Otto and perhaps even Unforgiven also have redemption as a premise, but none of those could be considered as “Christmas” movies despite the theme of redemption present in their plot lines.
A subset of controversy number three, is Die Hard a Christmas movie? Die Hard is absolutely a Christmas movie. I don’t know why that statement is controversial. An estranged husband, NYC Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis), is flying out west to Los Angeles to spend the Christmas holidays with his children and the wife he is separated from. The corporate building is empty, in part because it is still under construction and also because of the impending Christmas holiday with the company Christmas party as the setting for the terrorist takeover. There are Christmas carols that play in the background and other yuletide references, like the Christmas hat on the dead terrorist in the elevator with the phrase “Ho, Ho, Ho” scrawled across his sweatshirt. McClane’s wife is even named “Holly”, a nod towards the Christmas theme. Clearly McClane would not be in Los Angeles if it were not Christmas time. None of the conditions, empty building/holiday party etc., would exist except for Christmas. Die Hard is definitely a Christmas movie, the same way Violent Night is a Christmas movie, get over it and accept it.
When I was 13 years old, my folks my sister and I went to the Sears Roebuck catalog store to pick up some Christmas orders. This was back before the time of delivery services like UPS and Amazon bringing packages right to your door. My Mom and Dad stood in two separate lines in order to try and maximize the chances of getting out of the store a little quicker. I wandered around, killing time.
I saw a young man, not much older than myself, interviewing for a job. He was doing very well. There was a lot of smiling, head nodding, hand shaking and other genuine signs of connection that made it plain the young man was hitting it out of the park in this interview. At the end of their conversation, the manager said something like, “You are a very strong candidate, leave me your phone number and I’ll definitely give you a call.” The young man’s face fell. He said, “We don’t have a phone.” That statement was like a bucket of ice water in the manager’s face. It was crystal clear to me (and to the young man) that he wasn’t going to get the job. He left dejected, depressed and clearly defeated. The injustice of it has been seared into my memory. Here this young man was trying to do what we want people to do, lift themselves up by their own bootstraps only to be thwarted by the very circumstances he was trying to rise above.
I’ve often thought of that young man over the last fifty years or so and wonder what became of him. He was probably trying to get a job to provide some Christmas for younger siblings or to help out with expenses at home. Over my years of teaching at Mitchell High School, I had several students who were in the same situation and who contributed their work incomes for their family’s survival. This Christmas season remember it is not just about you and yours. Do what you can, with what you have, where you are to make life a little better and happier for others, especially at this time of year.