I come from a family that isn’t religious in any sense. My brother and I weren’t even baptized due to my father’s disinterest in the concept as a whole. Growing up, I understood religion in an abstract way as a thing that my friends’ families and the Simpsons did on Sundays. 

Christmas, however, was a completely different story. I looked forward the whole year to waking up early to find the presents under the tree, eating my mother’s lasagna, and watching the animated Rudolph and Grinch movies from the 1960s. I might not have understood much about God at the time, but I was an ardent believer in Santa Claus. To be sure, the Christmas celebration at my house was a very secular one. The idea of spending precious Christmas hours at church was incomprehensible to my young mind.

It’s a holiday that is so culturally important to us Americans that it overwhelms the season around it. We associate extremely general concepts like reindeer, the North Pole, and even things like snow and winter with Christmas. Hanukkah, which is religiously a relatively minor Jewish holiday compared to the High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, has an outsized visibility because of its proximity to Dec. 25. And so many songs, movies, and television specials have been created about Christmas that they become inescapable in the month before the holiday — as anyone who has worked in retail during the last month can tell you.

Religiosity in my family seems to skip generations. My grandfather is very devout, which might have informed my father’s opposition to organized religion. As a result, I grew up in a completely secular environment, and that might have informed my conversion to Islam in 2019. But this didn’t actually have a big impact on how I celebrate Christmas. The only difference was that I started reading Maryam, a sura in the Quran that contains a description of the birth of Jesus, on the holiday. While the Christian and Islamic narratives diverge in a lot of ways, we still believe in the virgin birth of Jesus. Because of that, I can focus on this part of my religion while most of the country is celebrating Christmas.

As a result, I have started to consider and appreciate Christmas’ religious significance over the last few years, for really the first time in my life. While the allegations of a War on Christmas being waged and the demands to put the Christ back in Christmas are overwrought and insufferable each year, I do think the way celebrations of Christmas have developed over history is peculiar. The fact that my family, and millions like mine, happily and excitedly celebrate this specific religious holiday in a completely irreligious way without a second thought is a bit odd when you step back and think about it.

I can see why for a Christian who considers the Nativity to have a towering significance in their faith, these secular Christmas celebrations could seem tacky or distasteful. Of course, that can only go so far. Christmas is so widely celebrated in America because Christianity has been a dominant social force throughout this country’s history, and it’s silly to complain that others are celebrating this inescapable holiday in the wrong way. However, I think there is a legitimate concern about the way Christmas has been commercialized here. Does it really make sense that on this holiday about a humble family that had to place its newborn baby in a manger, we are bombarded with advertising campaigns and special deals encouraging us to spend as much money as possible?

Because at the end of the day, I think this central story is why Christmas remains so resonant to Americans, even many of us who aren’t Christian. It is about a family that comes to exist as a result of a miracle, even in modest circumstances. This is a very relatable thing, and it is reinforced by the memories people have of their families on this holiday. It’s certainly not a coincidence that so many Christmas movies are about families experiencing financial distress (“It’s a Wonderful Life”), separation (“Home Alone”), and marital tension (“Die Hard”). Item Santa has shown us this year how many families struggle to put together a nice holiday for their children, and that sort of struggle is what we look for in our media about Christmas.

I’m not sure if I am going to get to see my family this Christmas. I had a recent COVID exposure, and right now it looks likely that I will be spending Dec. 25 in quarantine. But even if I can’t see them, I know I’ll be thinking about them.

Stuart Foster is The Item’s opinion editor.