Frankly, if everything you knew about Christmas came from tree ornaments, house decorations and Christmas movies, you might not have a clue the holiday ever had anything to do with the birth of Christ. The fact that people think of Christmas trees as religious symbols proves Christians have not made their message clear.

The community where I live doesn’t make international headlines very often, but last week the managers of a local residential complex for seniors earned a large-print banner at the top of the Drudge Report. “Christmas Tree Banned: ‘Religious Symbol,’” the headline screamed.

Someone in the retirement center’s parent corporation decided Christmas decorations are sectarian emblems and banned them from all communal areas. Staff members were directed to remove the central Christmas tree that residents had already decorated.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this story is that it made headlines at all. Every year, the Grinches of militant secularism complain about Christmas decorations in public places, and each Christmas seems to produce more stories like this than the last. Lawsuits and protests over decorations have become as much a holiday tradition as figgy pudding. Of course, Christmas trees are not really religious symbols. There is no biblical, creedal or ecclesiastical mandate to decorate trees — or to exchange gifts, for that matter. We don’t know the actual date of Christ’s birth, so even the Dec. 25 date had no special significance to the church for at least three centuries after Christ. These are traditions that Christians have observed for generations. Like breaking plates at a Greek wedding, such things are cultural customs, not religious rites.

There is certainly nothing sacred about Christmas decorations, and if you don’t believe me, take a drive through the typical American neighborhood at night during the holiday season. Yards and houses are blanketed with fake snow, bright lights and fantasy figures — Santa, Frosty, Rudolph, Jack Frost, gingerbread men, elves, nutcrackers, Charlie Brown and, of course, the Grinch.

Indeed, Christmas in American popular culture is overgrown with folklore, feelings and nostalgic icons that have nothing whatsoever to do with religious faith. Most popular Christmas traditions are less than 150 years old. One such tradition, dating back to Dickens’ time, is the sentimental exploration of the question “What is the true meaning of Christmas?”

The true meaning of Christmas meme even has its own Wikipedia entry. According to the article there, “In pop culture usage, overt religious references are mostly avoided, and the ‘true meaning’ is taken to be a sort of introspective and benevolent attitude.”

The truth of that analysis is amply illustrated in a growing menagerie of popular Christmas movies. From the classic favorites (played repeatedly in 24-hour marathons) to the cheesy dramas shown wall-to-wall on cable TV each December, Hollywood force-feeds viewers a seriously skewed notion of Christmas. The Hallmark Channel alone is advertising 12 new Christmas movies this month. In one way or another, most of them offer some view on the true meaning of Christmas.

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