The slow but sure demise of Christmas

The slow but sure demise of Christmas. Oh this has been going on for sometime now. The rulings that have outlawed manger scenes from public displays unless you give equal time to other religions such as Islam and the acceptance of pagan holidays such as Kwanzaa, hearing more and more about the madness of black Friday and whether sales figures will be up have all contributed to the watering down of the Christmas season.


But the elimination of Christmas was never more evident than at the 2010 Winterfest held in downtown Cleveland this past weekend. Maybe I shouldn't of been to surprised because the name does give a hint as to what the festival was to hold but I still was taken aback.

I have been going to see the light display in Cleveland since a child when my parents would drive the family down there. I carried on the tradition of making it habit to see the display all but the last five years or so. This year I went with my best friend and his family because his children never got to experience it. I wish I would of not attended so my memory of how things were would not of been ruined by the present. It's sad what the Christmas season has turned into.

The name of the event held in Cleveland says it all - Winterfest - which is a joke because we are not officially in winter yet. A winter fest should be held when? in winter, say January or February. This is the Christmas season - period.

The light display itself was lame, just lame and not worth the gas to go see it. I saw no theme. I saw no wreaths. I saw no bells. No snowmen. No trains, nothing! And definitely not a sign or hint of the word Christmas. Nada!

The MC's of the event did all they could to try to keep the crowd enthused and build they hype of the lighting ceremony. Mayor Jackson said a few words welcoming everyone and so did other notable people and councilman of Cleveland. Unless I missed it, I didn't hear any of them say Merry Christmas. I did hear welcome to Winterfest. The entertainment was OK. Even though a few of the songs we scratched our heads trying to figure out what that had to with Christmas. And the girl group the Pink Stilettos were good but they came from Salt Lake City. C'mon Cleveland you couldn't find a local group?

After the square was lit and the fireworks display we ventured inside of Tower City and were greeted by the same thing inside. Lame! The decorations were sparse and we couldn't find much of anything that said Christmas. We quickly left.

I brought home two things from the event. One was the program of the Winterfest. I grabbed it so I could send it to my over seas friend as a souvenir of an American Christmas celebration. But upon reading and witnessing what I saw, the booklet ended up in the trash. In the whole fifteen pages of the program were only three mentions of the word Christmas. Two of them were in ads from the Old Stone Church on pages 8 & 10 and on page 9 was an ad for Scrooges Night Out. That's it! No other mention or hint of Christmas.

The other thing I brought home was a political paper someone handed to my friend. He gave it to me cause he knows I am into politics. The paper was a newspaper from the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA. I will quote just one sentence from it.

"The truth is, there are no gods... and we don't need them."

Judging from the Winterfest Cleveland has really taken that communist message to heart. As I never saw or heard mentioned God or Christmas anywhere in downtown other than from a group from Akron Bible Baptist Church preaching the gospel on the street.

Merry Christmas,
Carey Masci


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For those who may be upset about what I said about Kwanzaa, just do the research. This is only one I pulled off the web.

During the early years of Kwanzaa, Karenga said that it was meant to be an alternative to Christmas, that Jesus was psychotic, and that Christianity was a white religion that black people should shun. However, as Kwanzaa gained mainstream adherents, Karenga altered his position so that practicing Christians would not be alienated, then stating in the 1997 Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday."


Keep an eye on my You Tube page, humminaaa, as I will be posting some clips on it soon, one is from John from the Akron Bible Baptist church.