Since the annual flood of Christmas-flavored consumerism appears in stores and online as early as September, it’s no secret that Christmas is becoming a more superficial holiday by the year.

You see it in stores as Christmas decorations favor gingerbread houses and candy canes over nativity scenes. You hear it on the radio when “Silent Night” is played once for every 10 renditions of “All I Want for Christmas Is You.” You see it on social media when every other post promotes consumerism as a replacement for the religious or even social fulfillment that Christmas brings to many.

In 2017, Pew Research Center published a study indicating the decline in American interest in the religious aspects of Christmas. Although 90% of Americans still celebrate Christmas, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that one-third of Americans regard it as “more of a cultural holiday.”

With this decline comes decreased support for the presentation of Christian symbols (i.e. nativities, crèches) on government property around Christmastime, less interest in attending church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, and even a lower likelihood of gathering with family to celebrate the holiday.

Most strikingly, faith in the reliability of the traditional biblical account of Jesus’ birth has declined. Religious “nones” are 13 percentage points less likely to believe that “wise men, guided by a star, brought Jesus gifts.” Even Christian belief in the virgin birth dropped from 90% to 85% between 2013 and 2017.

It’s easy to point toward consumerism as the reason for falling interest in the spiritual aspects of Christmas. But the Pew study seems to indicate another symptom: every year, Christmas becomes more like a cultural holiday than a religious one.

Secular Christmas and consumerism go hand-in-hand, after all. When Christmas lacks a sense of the sacred, something else must fill the void. The problem is, taking advantage of yet another “buy one, get one 50% off!” sale will never feel sacred. So American culture at large searches for ways to make Christmas feel holy without mentioning the name of God.

Yet even those who celebrate Christmas as a purely cultural holiday participate in numerous traditions that hold sacred significance to Christians: decorating a Christmas tree, filling stockings hung over the fireplace, even teaching their children about old Saint Nick. But do these traditions mean anything without a religious worldview?

Sure, Christmas traditions bring us together – a blessing we can’t take for granted in such a divisive age. But what is bringing us together?

Without a sense of the sacred at Christmas, we still feel unified – but we’re gathered together around mountains of stuff, a temple to consumerism and big corporations. If that’s the case, no wonder celebrating Christmas is becoming less attractive. It doesn’t mean anything.

I think we can all agree it should mean something, that there is – or there ought to be – something greater to bring us all together. Because Christmas isn’t just a cultural holiday, nor is it a pagan holiday. It doesn’t invite us to gather around our gifts, however lovely; it invites us to gather around the Christ Child. May we all do that in our celebrations this year.

Merry Christmas!

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