'Tis Christmastide and the season to ...

Complain about the commercialization of Christmas. Grumble that some stores these days begin a Christmas emphasis before Halloween, let alone Thanksgiving. Urge "Put Christ back in Christmas."

As a churchgoing Christian, I have done my share of that kind of griping. But my study of history has brought me up short with the knowledge that across the centuries, if some religious people had had their way, there would be no Christmas as we know it.

The best insight I've ever had on this point comes from a book by anthropologist Earl W. Count, "4000 Years of Christmas." In it, he has this revealing insight:

"Christmas is a spontaneous drama of the common folk, a prayer, a hymn. All the while that Raphael was painting the Sistine Madonna, Frenchmen building the cathedral of Chartres, English bishops composing the Book of Common Prayer, Handel his 'Messiah,' Bach his B-Minor Mass, the common people, out of whom these geniuses sprang, were composing Christmas."

It was the common folk, not the religious leaders, who were responsible for the carols, the lights, the Christmas tree, the decorations, the giving of gifts that make the season so joyous. Moreover, Count and others have pointed out that church officials at various times have tried to put a stop to Christmas festivities.

For example, the great church father Origen in 245 A.D. declared it to be a sin even to think of keeping the birthday of Christ, "as though he were a king Pharaoh." As late as the 1740s, the Rev. Johann Konrad Dannhauer of Strasbourg had this to say: "Among other trifles with which the people often occupy the Christmas time more than with God's word, is also the Christmas or fir tree, which they erect in the house, and hang with dolls and sugar. ... Where the habit comes from, I know not. It's a bit of child's play."

I have just been reading a biography of Samuel Pepys, who lived during the time in the 1650s when the Puritans under Oliver Cromwell ruled England after executing Charles I. In his famous diary, Pepys reported that Christmas meant trouble in London when the branches of rosemary and bays that were traditional decorations appeared mysteriously in the churches, and a group of apprentices decorated a pump in Cornhill with holly and ivy, all in defiance of the Puritan ban on seasonal festivities. Troops sent to remove the offending greenery were driven back by angry crowds, and there was deep resentment against soldiers entering private houses to prevent the celebration of Christmas.

It's little wonder that the royal family was soon restored to power with Charles II retaking his father's throne to end Puritan domination.

Professor Count builds his "commonfolk" case by going back as far as the Mesopotamian midwinter festivals of 2000 B.C. out of which came such features as pageants and the exchange of gifts. The birth of Christ was not celebrated until centuries after the event, when the story of the babe's advent in a manger took on such prominence in the minds of church people that the resistance of such as Origen was overridden.

For some reason the church accepted Dec. 25, perhaps to co-opt the riotous Roman Saturnalia that celebrated the time when the days started becoming longer. Even though the church largely tamed Saturnalia, the common people kept alive many of its facets, such as festivals and feasting, and across the centuries added in the gift-bearing Saint Nicholas (our Santa Claus), folksong-based carols, the Christmas tree and the rest.

What many Christians don't take into account in their disapproval of the commercialization of Christmas is that no religion has a more appealing advertisement of its beauty and meaning. In fact, other faiths have had to emphasize Christmas-like festivities from their own traditions to counteract the unbelievable appeal of Christmas, particularly for their children.

One of the great memories in our family was attending a Christmas Eve service in an Indian pueblo near Albuquerque, New Mexico, where in the middle of the Mass, dancers in buffalo and deer costumes came cavorting down the aisle in honor of the Christ Child. The explanation: the ritual was "grandfathered" in because it had been practiced by pueblo Christians before the Catholic Church cracked down at the Council of Trent in the 1600s on such syncretism (inmixing of pagan practices).

And here in Pittsburgh, something we particularly treasure is the rich variety of Christmas traditions among its ethnic groups. We've attended a tamburitzan Christmas Eve service at a Croatian church, and one in a Serbian church with straw on the floor, symbolizing the manger where Jesus was born. Clearly, these are examples of what the common folk have wrought across the centuries.

Of course, there are excesses at Christmas time, just as there are overindulgences in every human endeavor -- family connections, courting, sports, eating and drinking.

But I, for one, value the fact that the common folk, and not the religious "guardians," prevailed in the "composing" of the Christmas we now enjoy and treasure.