DUBUQUE, Iowa - I don't like much about winter, especially in the Midwest. Days are short, the landscape is dead and brown and sometimes the air gets so cold it feels like metal pressed against your skin. Winter has its hazards as well as its inconveniences. There's black ice, frostbite and Seasonal Affective Disorder.
But there are benefits to winter, too-the main one being the holiday season. It began shortly after Halloween with the appearance of turkey and pilgrim decorations. It's intensified in the past week. Almost immediately after Thanksgiving, the Christmas decorations went up and carols started playing on the radio.
Some people complain about the fact that Christmas seems to start earlier every year, but I honestly don't mind. The holiday season is one of my favorite times of the year, and if it lasts a month or two, I don't have any complaints.
What does irk me about Christmas is the way that utterly asinine battles of the "culture war" are fought over it. Take a recent exchange in Wisconsin over the "Holiday Tree" at the state capitol. According to a Nov. 29 Associated Press story, the name of the state's official holiday evergreen has become something of a political football. For decades it was officially known as a "Christmas Tree," but for the past 20 years it has been called a "Holiday Tree."
Rep. Marlin Schneider raised the issue on the floor of the state house, his voice rising to a scream, insisting that the "ire and frustration of the majority of people" in Wisconsin has been raised by the fact that the tree on the statehouse grounds is called a Holiday-rather than a Christmas-Tree. Opposing him was Annie Laurie Gaylor, of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, who insisted that Wisconsin could not have a "Christmas anything," as it might offend non-religious people.
I think there's a healthy debate to be had about the separation of church and state when issues like this arise. However, you can hardly count on a shouting man and an organization called "Freedom From Religion" for healthy debate. I want questions of constitutionality debated coolly by men in judicial robes with law degrees, not by clownish political caricatures. But I don't want Christmas bound up in the mix at all.
My memories of Christmas are of quiet days spent with family, with a dusting of snow on the ground outside and smoky fires sputtering under the chimney. That's what I think the holidays are really about: simply making a reserve of memories that tide you through hectic or lonely hours during the rest of the year. For me, that makes the whole Christmas and holiday season a private affair. I think a lot of people feel the same way, judging from the way that the commercial aspects of Christmas are so often pitched as ways to access those holiday memories from long ago.
So I feel a little bit violated when Christmas is dragged into some goofy debate over what the name of a tree should be. Two bellicose groups who obviously have no intention of ever coming to consensus shouldn't meddle with the holidays for their own ends. Cooler heads should prevail, and point to other, less personal venues. Perhaps these culture warriors can find an inscription on a state memorial to bicker over instead. It's ultimately just as unimportant, but has less of a sting to it.
As for me, as Christmas approaches I'll be looking forward to spending time with my family. I haven't had a chance to relax at home for quite some time, and the week between Christmas and the Iowa caucus will be the busiest of my life. It will be nice to hunker down and remember the other Christmases I've spent with them. And I won't for a minute think about what we should name our tree.
Frank Holleman is a Trinity junior. His column runs every other Monday.
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