I admit that when it comes to Christmas, I do what playwright Arthur Miller said audiences had to do to enjoy a great play – “suspend their disbelief.”
There is so much about the joy, beauty, and sacredness of Christmas that cannot stand up under historical scrutiny. After all, we have no real idea when Jesus was actually born.
But the power of tradition at this time of the year is worth “suspending” one’s disbelief in order to enjoy it all.
It’s like telling family stories around the dinner table. Who cares if they are true or accurate in every detail. They make us laugh and cry and hold in our heart the people who once sat with us.
So this time of year I believe in Santa and reindeer and the magic of mistletoe as well as singing old time carols whose theology no longer reflects the content of my faith.
It’s all about the season as a whole, the spirit that cannot be grasped, but is as real as love or the wind. The power of Christmas is something no one can explain.
How could anyone explain the Christmas truce of 1914?
After Pope Benedict XV called for a “truce” at Christmas that year, no official cease fire was declared by either side, yet on various battlefields spread across Europe German and Allied troops spontaneously started singing Christmas Carols to each other on Christmas eve.
Then at dawn on Christmas morning soldiers on both sides dared to leave their trenches and walk across no-man’s-land toward one another, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their native language. These sworn enemies shook hands, laughed, sang Carols, and even exchanged presents of cigarettes. Some stories say that in a few instances soldiers from opposing sides played a game of soccer with a make shift ball.
Why such a moment could happen on Christmas is anybody’s guess, but it did and it does over and again. There is, indeed, something special about Christmas time.
We know, of course, that the Christmas truce of 1941 did not last, but it was one of the seminal events of the entire war, a moment when soldiers on different sides chose on their own to put down their guns and affirm one another as human beings.
I possess no wisdom about why Christmas holds such power, but I have come to believe it may lie in the fact that Christmas is not just about the birth of Jesus, though it is that, too. It has become a universally recognized holy season when Christians and non-Christians alike dare to believe love is the greatest power on earth because they have seen it melt the coldest heart and even inspire soldiers to put down their guns.
Yes, it may last for only a day, but that day makes all the others days of the year bearable.
Which is why this year all I want for Christmas is, well, Christmas, for me and for you.
