I once heard one student ask another, “How can you be both Christian and Jewish? You believe in Santa and you don’t believe in Santa?” As a Catholic who wants to “keep Christ in Christmas,” I was naturally alarmed by this naïve remark. However, what caused me greater concern was the notion that many other Americans may hold similar views of the Christmas season.

Over the past few decades, our society has placed a greater emphasis on being politically correct. What once was known as the “Christmas season” has been reduced to the “Holiday season.” This is done, of course, to ensure that non-Christians don’t feel excluded during the December festivities. Our society has taken this a step further by attempting to secularize all aspects of this religious holiday, the meaning of which is to commemorate the birth of Jesus, whose name we no longer hear too often during the Christmas season. Rather, it seems he has been replaced by his more rotund cohort, Santa. Traditional Christmas carols are on their way out as well. They’ve been replaced by the more generic, winter-themed tunes that you often hear on the radio. On the whole, the media has commercialized and secularized Christmas to such an extent that its true meaning has been obscured.

“Society is always changing and sometimes it’s not a positive change,” senior Nicole Mehr said. “In today’s society, the media is now more widespread and children are being advertised to at a younger age. Around Christmas time, children are practically brainwashed by all the toy commercials they watch every day.”

Mr. Brian Merges, an English teacher at MHS, feels that Christmas has simply “become a crass race to see who can get the best gifts.” Christmas, however, is not the only holiday that has undergone this type of transformation, as exemplified by the fact that Hanukkah’s true meaning has also been lost among the general public. For many, hearing of this holiday simply evokes images of menorahs and dreidels. Very few know that Hanukkah celebrates the miraculous occasion during which the light in the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was sustained for eight days by an oil supply that should only have lasted one day.

Though these changes in tradition may seem cute and harmless on the surface, we must ask ourselves if the mass media has any business interfering with what were designed to be purely religious holidays. Speaking from a strictly cultural viewpoint, it is concerning that the true meanings of these holidays can be diluted by profit seekers. Is it really too much to ask that a spirit of charity, familial togetherness, and religious observance take precedence over incessant consumerism? It will all depend on our willingness to return to what truly matters.