Is Santa Claus a Jew?

I LIKE the Christmas season. I really do. But I'm not Christian.

I think the lights and the music are pretty and I certainly can't complain about the presents. And I like the sense of excitement on campus, so I hate to say anything to put a damper on the holiday cheer. But I feel compelled to point out the fact that not everyone at Harvard celebrates Christmas.

Not that you could guess this by walking into the Union. The Union is festively decorated with wreaths, lights and poinsettas. Not a menorah or a dreidel in sight.

Never mind that almost a quarter of Harvard undergraduates are Jewish, or that many students practice some religion other than Christianity or no religion at all. In the euphoria surrounding the Christmas season, many students and staff seem to forget that there are other denominations around.

This year, the holiday decorations at the Union consist of red bows, poinsettas of various colors and (a burst of creativity) colored bulbs to replace the traditional white ones in the Christmas candelabras.

I asked Union supervisor John J. Soldano why there were no Hannukah decorations, only Christmas decorations.

"Christmas...that's a hard term," he told me. "It's a seasonal celebration. There's nothing religious in the music or the decoration. There's no nativity. Green wreaths are traditional."

Yes, all of these decorations are traditional and secular. In fact, most have their roots in pagan folk rituals. There are no creches or crosses in the Union. But the Union management treats Christmas as if it were another secular national American holiday, like Thanks-giving or the Fourth of July.

That's a typical reaction of people who feel uncomfortable publicizing religious celebrations in an environment of pluralism and First Amendment lawsuits. (Ever notice that Harvard students get time off for a safe, white-bread, "Winter Recess" instead of "Christmas Vacation" or "Holiday Break"?)

Far better would be to acknowledge that Christmas is fundamentally a religious celebration, and that other religions exist as well.

Not all campus dining halls are quite as Christian-oriented as the Union. Some houses do have Hannukah decorations in their dining halls. Quincy House displays a cardboard cut-out menorah. Dunster has a real one. The Winthrop House Christmas tree is bedecked with dreidels and Stars of David.

This approach acknowledges the religious origins of Christmas while giving equal consideration to other groups who consider the middle of December a sacred season.

ALONG with decorations comes the institution of Secret Santa. Holiday gift-giving in the dorms is a great idea. But give a campus-wide institution a Christmas-related name and you're asking for trouble.

Two years ago, Adams House residents replaced the name "Secret Santa" with non-denominational phrases such as "Politically Correct Gift-Givers" and "Incognito Benefactors." That's a little excessive to be sure, but at least these students made an attempt to recognize the fact that there are non-Christians among us.

This fact isn't always acknowledged. I've heard of a number of Jewish students who have felt reluctant to participate in Secret Santa events. When Jewish first-year student expressed reservations about joining in a seemingly Christian ritual, his proctor replied, "I hadn't even thought of that."

A few days later, this conscientious objector returned to his dorm to find his door covered with wrapping paper and a sign reading, "Don't Open Until Xmas."

The proctor and the overzealous Secret Santa clearly weren't trying to be insulting. They simply lacked sensitivity; they didn't imagine that the overflow of Christmas-speak and Christmas images can seem exclusionary to non-Christians.

THE SOLUTION is not, as many civil libertarians would have it, that we should purge all references to religious celebration from public life. Clearly, Jews and other religious minorities would still be conscious of the predominance of Christianity even if every nativity scene disappeared tomorrow.

The City of Cambridge recently became the center of controversy when some city councillors objected to the public display of a Christmas tree. The council voted to substitute a more universal seasonal symbol--a "peace tree."

The 1984 Supreme Court decision of Lynch v. Donnelly carried this nitpicking to extremes, declaring that Christmas trees, being secular holiday symbols, are acceptable holiday decorations on public property, while nativity scenes are impermissible. Presumably, a nativity scene that included a few reindeer and Stars of David would also pass muster.

Many explain the disparity in representation of Christmas and Hannukah decorations by pointing out that Christmas is a major holiday with significant religious meaning, while Hannukah is a relatively unimportant festival enlarged specifically to provide a counter-Christmas for American Jewish children.

Hannukah, then, is an attempt at pluralization of the holiday season. (Interestingly, the traditional December 25 date of Jesus' birth is said to have been created by early Christians for a similar purpose--to coincide with pagan Roman festivals.) There's no reason why that shouldn't be respected for itself. If Harvard is going to go out of its way to celebrate one religious holiday, we should at least make appropriate concessions to the multiplicity of religions here.

Maybe then Harvard's much-touted "diversity" would be a little more evident.

Joanna M. Weiss '94 lives in Weld Hall. She gladly accepts holiday gifts from people of all faiths.