Now if only I could somehow work in a brilliant piece on how The Office is part of the nefarious War on Christmas–or is “Yuletide Contingency Operations?”–I would take the proverbial holiday cake.  Alas not.

But I find this excerpt from Jamelle’s post (hauntingly) intriguing.

Boss Creations, a new holiday decor company, has introduced the new “CHRIST-mas” Tree, featuring the unique trait of a trunk in the shape of a wooden cross.

Jamelle correctly points out the indigenous European agriculture religious roots of Christmas.  The word pagan comes from the Latin pagani meaning a “country dweller” (or perhaps country bumpkin).   Christianity was in its earlier years a largely urban movement—St. Paul wrote epistles to whole cities, for example.  Only with the (much later) de-urbanization of the Roman Empire after its fall and the consequent Christianization of the European countryside did it have to come to terms with agricultural-based/fertility rites of passage.  Though to be fair, the great Jewish festivals of Sukkoth, Shauvot, and Passover are all themselves agriculturally based as well, so the tradition of agricultural cycles cum religious festivals is native to the Christian tradition through its foundation in Judaism.

So on one level, Jamelle is certainly right that this Cross Christmas Tree idea is pretty patently stupid.  The Christmas Tree is in many regards a pre-Christian (or even non-Christian ) image, so putting the “Christ” back in the “Christmas Tree” only shows the ludicrous nature of such a quixotic quest.  (cf. The dictionary definition of irony)

Though on another other level, this might be the theological equivalent of a double-turnover touchdown, i.e. there might be something going on here (though not in the way intended it by the purveyors of the “CHRIST-mas” Tree).

Now there’s certainly a longstanding Christian mythic tradition of imagining the wood of the Cross on which Jesus was executed as being from (or the same as) the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in The Garden of Eden.  Jesus is said to take on sin in his death and sin arises (according to the story) through the eating of the apple from the tree, hence his death occurs on the same tree.  The Cross is therefore also (paradoxically) The Tree of Life from the Garden of Eden, as through the Crucified Wood, the Resurrection occurs.

Now that Christian Easter* tradition has parallels (roots?) in the Norse mythology of Odin crucified on the Cosmic Tree Yggdrasil.  Odin later comes back from the dead–you may have guessed that was coming.

The Trees in the Garden of Eden certainly are cast mythically as World-Cosmic Trees.  The ancient medieval maps that show Jerusalem as the center of the universe and the site of the Crucifixion as the Center of Jerusalem–thereby locating it as the navel of the Universe–by extension are therefore equating Jerusalem to Eden. Or a New Eden anyway, as Christ is typified in the New Testament as the New Adam.

As the Christmas Tree has its (pun not intended) roots in the Cosmic Tree mythology, I hadn’t considered before reading that sentence from Jamelle’s post (and the strange “gift” being marketed/produced from the jolly holiday season) whether the Christmas Tree, in Christian tradition, would be considered a type of Cross.

But behold the Angels of Wikipedia announce unto me:

Other [churches] use the same stripped Christmas tree as a Christian cross at Easter.

In the medieval poem The Dream of the Rood (Rood, meaning Rod or Cross), the Cross is festooned (post-resurrection) with jewels and lights.   There is also a tradition in Renaissance painting of the Christ-child holding a miniature Crucifixion.

Meister Eckhart, the famed (and controversial) German theologian, described God as from All Eternity laying on a bed wailing in labor, giving birth to a redeemed and sanctified universe.  And the Incarnation itself is described by the ancient Church Fathers in language similar (if not almost identical) to the Cross.  The Incarnation of the Christ (as the second member of the Trinity) is taken to be an “abasement” or a “humiliation”, a “condescension” to the human condition.  A horror–in the ancient sense of both awe-inspiring and fear-inducing–to be behold.

In other words, The Incarnation itself is a form of Death and Resurrection, with The Word of God (The Logos Christ) leaving the Godly condition to accept the reality of space-time limitations in a body and thereby “rising” to life in birth.**

Following this line, the Christmas Tree, is therefore a representation of The Cross.  Weirdly, our friends got it right in a way, though for the wrong reasons. In other words, it’s too bad our makers of The CHRIST-mas Tree couldn’t see this connection instead of focusing on some politicized, made-up, hyperventilating rightwing radio-inspired nonsense.

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* English is really unhelpful here.  The name of the Feast, in terms of Christianity, should not be Easter.  In Spanish the term is Pascua referring to the Pascal Mystery of Life, Death, Burial, and Resurrection.

**Given this, it’s a good thing that Mary (so far as we know) didn’t keep the placenta or undoubtedly there would be some devotion to the After-birth of Christ.

This is a little ridiculous (via Dara’s Google Reader feed):

Boss Creations, a new holiday decor company, has introduced the new “CHRIST-mas” Tree, featuring the unique trait of a trunk in the shape of a wooden cross. Company owner Marsha Boggs says the tree was specifically designed to counter the “war on Christmas.”

“When I became a Christian a few years ago,” says Boggs, “I was appalled by the secularization of the Christmas holiday. When retail stores started substituting ‘Happy Holidays’ for ‘Merry Christmas,’ and schools began calling their Christmas programs ‘Winter Plays,’ it all seemed ridiculous to me. That’s why we have created products that remind people what the Christmas season is really all about – the birth of Christ.”

It’s hilariously ironic that Boggs would use a Christmas tree as a means of combating the “war on Christmas.”  After all, the Christmas tree has distinctly pagan roots and stands mostly outside of Christian tradition.  Indeed, there was a time when Christmas itself was a controversial subject among Christians, many of whom wanted nothing to do with a celebration that hearkened back to the pagan festivals of old (if we’re going for accuracy, the Persian god “Mithras” is the real reason for the season).   If anything, Ms. Bogg’s Christmas tree has the opposite effect: it reminds me that early Christians were a fairly opportunistic bunch, and would happily co-opt pagan celebrations if it meant that they could save a few souls (see: Easter).

That aside, the yearly outrage over the “war on Christmas” reminds me of one of the things that really bothers me about contemporary conservative evangelicalism, namely, it’s tremendous hostility to religious pluralism.  “Happy Holidays” is a fundamentally inclusive greeting.  It’s a way of respecting non-Christian Americans and acknowledging the fact Christmas coincides with other religious holidays equally worthy of respect (like Hanukkah, for instance).  When someone wishes you “Happy Holidays,” they are saying something roughly the same as this: “I’m not sure what your religious beliefs are, but whatever they are, I hope you enjoy the holiday season as much as possible.”

This is the furthest thing from “offensive” that I can imagine, and yet, there are many Christians who are apoplectic about the change.  From what I can gather, the offense comes from the fact that they have to share the holiday.  It’s not enough that Christmas and Christianity are in every other way privileged above other religious celebrations, no, we have to actively avoid acknowledging the existence of other religions.  “Religious freedom” for them isn’t the right to practice as they see fit, it’s the “right” to banish every other religion from the public square, or something to that effect.  It probably isn’t my place to say this (since I’m not the ultimate arbiter of right belief, or something), but the stunning lack of charity and understanding inherent in this approach to other religions and other people strikes me as a pretty clear-cut example of what Jesus specifically asked us not to do.