How the Movies Invented Christmas

How the Movies Invented Christmas

A thought provoking essay on the impact that popular culture has had on how we view & celebrate Christmas.

Though some like to argue about the “War on Christmas”, the fact is that it was not a widely celebrated holiday prior to the mid 19th century. The early American progeny of today’s most conservative Christians actually forbid the celebration of the holiday.

As the author points out - it was a secular story that reintroduced the idea of celebrating Christmas to the masses.

“It is a well-at­tested his­tor­i­cal fact that the pub­li­ca­tion of “A Christ­mas Carol,” the best-loved book by the best-sell­ing Eng­lish-lan­guage nov­el­ist of the 19th cen­tury, had the un­in­tended con­sequence of rein­tro­duc­ing Christ­mas to count­less Britons and Amer­i­cans who had stopped ob­serv­ing the hol­i­day. And its in­flu­ence con­tin­ues to be felt.“

The author also points out the subtle religious themes in this classic “gospel-like” parable, offering skep­tics a non­re­li­gious route to spir­i­tual re­newal. In particular, that Scrooge is “converted” by the simple premise that the faithful should take proper care of the poor. A key observation is that “no one in “A Christ­mas Carol,” not even the re­formed Scrooge, is ac­tu­ally shown go­ing to church, just as none of the hol­i­day fes­tiv­i­ties de­scribed in the book has any ex­plic­itly re­li­gious con­tent. To the ex­tent that the birth of Christ fig­ures at all in Dick­ens’ por­trayal of Christ­mas in Lon­don, it is as mere pi­ous win­dow-dress­ing.”

Fast forward to the 20th century and you see the same application of secular storytelling in the films that Hollywood was producing (many by non-Christians). Like “A Christmas Carol” with its dozens of film adaptations, “It’s a Wonderful Life” became another secular parable that entered our hearts and minds with minimal religious reference. Like Scrooge, George Bailey is taken on a journey of spiritual awareness also with no reference to the birth of Christ.

The reality is that despite the underlying purpose of the Church in creating this religious holiday, Christmas was and always has been both a joyous celebration of the birth of Christ and a seasonal secular festival that encourages us all to take pause and reflect on our own spiritual renewal - whatever that may be.

Merry Christmas