Last week, I talked about the silliness of getting stressed out about whether to call a decorated evergreen a “Christmas tree” or a “holiday tree.”
As additional evidence that traditions matter, regardless of where they came from, observe the general attitude toward snow. Some people like and some don’t. Yet when Christmas is approaching, it seems everyone wants snow! Snow somehow reminds people of Christmas. And that’s a bit odd, considering that snow (as well as evergreens) is more reminiscent of Europe and Colonial America than of the Holy Land. It may snow in the Holy Land, and evergreens may grow there. Yet there’s nothing about this in the Biblical account of Christ’s birth, as far as I know.
Let’s be honest. Snow reminds us of such happy things as storybooks, movies, childhood, visits to grandparents, hot chocolate, cookies, tobogganing, snowball fights. Some of these are Christmas-related, simply because Christmas is celebrated in winter—at least if you live in the Northern Hemisphere.
Tradition is important to humans. Most of our Christmas traditions really have very little to do with Christmas. Enjoy.