‘War on Christmas’: Movement to Cancel Holiday in Canada Seen Before in Communist Regimes

The Canadian Human Rights Commission said in a recent report that having statutory holidays for Christian celebrations such as Christmas is “a form of discrimination ... deeply rooted in our identity as a settler colonial state.”

It’s the latest shot across the bow in what’s often called a “war on Christmas,” primarily driven by those seeking to secularize public life, says Christmas expert and historian Gerry Bowler of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.

The children’s classic, “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe,” illustrates the loss of joy a society experiences when Christmas is downplayed or outright cancelled, he told The Epoch Times.

“Under the reign of the evil ice queen, the complaint is that it’s ‘always winter and never Christmas,’” Mr. Bowler said.

‘Leftist Thinking’

Like the ice queen, communist regimes in China and the former Soviet Union have cancelled Christmas in the past. Communism is fundamentally atheist. “Communism begins from the outset with atheism,” Karl Marx once said, according to historian Dimitry Vladimirovich Pospielovsky.

In the 1920s, Christmas celebrations were banned in the Soviet Union, and Ded Moroz, Russia’s version of Santa Claus, was effectively exiled. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin did eventually bring Ded Moroz back as a way to gain some needed popular support, but he associated the figure with New Year celebrations instead of Christmas.

The Chinese Communist Party, with its anti-Western sentiments, has portrayed Christmas as a “white, Western interloper,” Mr. Bowler said. The Canadian Human Rights Commission’s Oct. 23 report that included the statement against Christmas contains similar language. It says favour should not be given in Canadian society to “white, male, Christian,” and other identities, as it excludes others.

“Christmas is an engine of good feelings,” Mr. Bowler said. “For a government organization to claim that it’s part of some evil, settler colonial mentality is just to reveal the poverty of that kind of leftist thinking that has penetrated pretty much every institution.”

‘Holiday’ and ‘Winter’ Celebrations

Just as Ded Moroz became a more secular symbol under Soviet rule, Mr. Bowler noted efforts in Canada to separate Christmas traditions from the celebration of Jesus’ birth.

“In public schools, we no longer have Christmas pageants, we have winter pageants,” he said.

He heard of a student who was turned away from a school costume party one December because he was dressed as Santa. Some schools and universities have banned red and green decorations, he said.

Canada and the United States had a spate of such incidents in the early 2000s, Mr. Bowler said, and now it’s “just about as bad.” But many of the incidents have met with pushback, providing hope that Christmas will endure.

He gave the example of how a town council in the U.S. city of Kensington, Maryland, voted in 2001 to exclude Santa from a tree-lighting ceremony. In response, hundreds of people showed up dressed as Santa.

Another example he gave was the 2005 controversy over Boston calling a Christmas tree that had been gifted by Halifax a “holiday tree.”

“When it left Nova Scotia, it was a Christmas tree,” then-Nova Scotia Premier John Hamm told The Globe and Mail at the time.

The man who cut down the 48-foot tree, Donnie Hatt, was also upset about Boston calling it a “holiday tree.” “I’d have cut it down and put it through the chipper,” he told the Halifax Herald.

While Boston’s mayor spoke publicly, agreeing that it should be called a Christmas tree, recent articles from local publications, including the Boston Globe, refer to it as a “holiday tree.” Every year, Halifax sends a tree as a thank-you for Boston’s help in 1917 following an explosion that devastated the city after two ships collided in the harbour.

Another example Mr. Bowler gave in the ongoing efforts to undermine Christmas was when a Toronto judge ordered a Christmas tree removed from a federal courthouse in 2006, inciting much backlash. “She was forced to retract that,” he said.

Other Canadian Traditions

The “war on religion” as Mr. Bowler frames the “war on Christmas,” has extended to other Canadian traditions.

The Canadian military effectively banned prayer at all official events ahead of Remembrance Day this year, replacing it with “spiritual reflections” that must not include the word “God.” But following pushback from chaplains and others, including federal Conservatives, the military backtracked and said chaplains could pray as they always had.

Although not a religious tradition, Canada Day celebrations have been under scrutiny for reasons similar to those cited by the Canadian Human Rights Commission, related to the country’s “colonial” past.

Some major cities, including Calgary and Toronto, moved to cancel Canada Day celebrations this year, but the celebrations were held after public pushback. However, Vancouver Fraser Port Authority, a federal agency, indefinitely cancelled fireworks and has rebranded the day “Canada Together.”

Christmas ‘Not Racist’

During question period in the House of Commons on Nov. 29, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked whether Christmas is “racist,” in light of the report from the federal human rights watchdog.

“Obviously, Christmas is not racist,” he replied. “This is a country of diversity, a country that celebrates not just our personal individual beliefs, but we share and celebrate the events of our neighbours too. That’s what makes this country so rich.”

The House of Commons on Nov. 30 unanimously passed a resolution to denounce the claim by the Human Rights Commission’s report that Christmas is discriminatory.  A day earlier, Quebec’s National Assembly adopted a similar motion defending Christmas.

Despite attempts to downplay Christmas in the name of diversity and inclusion, a Leger opinion poll published last year showed most non-Christians in Canada are fine with being wished a “Merry Christmas” and 70 percent of Canadians say “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.”

Mr. Bowler also says that, in his observation, most Canadians of other faiths are supportive of the public celebration of Christmas in Canada. “The only people who are opposed to it are the secular fundamentalists,” he said.

Christians and non-Christians alike get caught up in the good spirit of the holiday, he said, and it’s the “most important single festivity in the world” as it is celebrated around the globe.

“You’re caught up in the music, you’re caught up in the rush, you’re caught up in the messages,” he said. “It’s the one time of year when we expect other people to behave better.”

“It’s one of Christianity’s major cultural gifts to the world,” he added, “and Christians certainly aren’t going to stop celebrating it.”