Dear God,
Last weekend, I attended a performance of the Nutcracker ballet with my children. I thought You would surely be O.K. with that, since it’s a Christmas ballet, and Christmas has everything to do with Jesus’s birthday and nothing at all to do with a midwinter pagan festival of lights.
But as I was watching the Nutcracker, I started to wonder what, if anything, the plot of the ballet had to do with Jesus. There’s this weird uncle in a cape who gives a nutcracker to a little girl. Then at night the Christmas tree grows up through the roof, the nutcracker comes alive and fights with mice, then the toys all come alive and dance around, and snowflakes in little white tutus prance all over the place, and there are some not at all wholesome intimations of a young girl’s romance with a cylindrical wooden object. Is Jesus there in any of this? Did I miss Him?
I know that some children’s magic stories, like The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, are good. Some, like Harry Potter, will land you straight in Hell if you so much as brush your hand across the dust jacket. But what about Christmas magic?
Then it occurred to me that some of the carols we sing around this time of year don’t have Jesus in them either. Should I be singing Frosty the Snowman with my kids? It’s about this magic hat that makes a snowman come alive and disobey a direct order from a peace officer. It sounds kind of like a medieval alchemist creating a golem or something, which is about as blasphemous as you can get. But then again, Frosty comes back again after he melts away, so he might be a symbol for Jesus.
I’m confused, God. Please set me back on the straight and narrow.
-Barry
Barry,
It’s a good thing you figured this out when you did. About half of the carols people who call themselves good Christians traipse around singing this time of year will win you an eternal dream date with the Prince of Darkness.
Frosty and the Nutcracker are good examples.
Jingle Bells is right out. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleigh and ignore Jesus tonight. Oh what less fun it is to endure an eternity of wailing and gnashing of teeth.
And that song about the holly and the ivy? Pagan and Christian symbols joined together in cheerful holiday harmony. Very politically correct, which is bad.
Deck the Halls. Go ahead and sing it. Then you’ll have eternity to tell all your friends in Hell how you just didn’t realize that there’s nothing Biblical about boughs of holly.
I’m not too hot about that wassail song, but it eventually gets around to asking Me to bless you send you a happy New Year.
I let What Child is This slide, despite the pagan tune, because it’s all about Jesus. As a rule of thumb, if it focuses primarily on Jesus, God or angels, you’re on safe ground. Godless winter merrymaking or pagan symbolism will get you in hot water.
-God
