There is nothing* about the Myer Christmas Windows on Bourke Street, Melbourne, which has anything to do with Christmas!

Why even bother doing “Christmas” windows if you’re going to boycott everything Christmassy?

I mean, the birth of Jesus Christ to the virgin Mary, betrothed of Joseph, in the inn keeper’s stables, traditionally on the cold wintery night in ancient Judaea (more than a century before Roman colonisers renamed it Syria Palaestina), heralded by choirs of angels in the sky and attested by the shepherds – is centrally pivotal to all of human history. The calendar system most of the world follows is organised into years before and after the birth celebrated by this event: Christmas.

Christmas literally means celebration of the Christ, Christ meaning “the Anointed One” – the prophesied Redeemer of all humanity.

How on earth could a giant corporation spend 12 months developing 30 custom-built animatronic figurines mimicking natural movements and forget to include Jesus, Mary or Joseph? Yet reviewing the 69 year history of Myer “Christmas” windows, it seems to be their preference to have a Christ-less Christmas.

Don’t get me wrong – I don’t want to report them to the thought police (grievance industry) or in any way bring the power of government to coerce them into honouring instead of cynically exploiting Christ’s birth for commercial gain, but isn’t this something the culture permits?

It doesn’t matter who such things offend, as grown ups let personal offences slide. Yet aren’t we responsible for our national culture, and not letting the steady decline in Biblical literacy continue unchecked?

If someone is offended by Jesus being born to give His life as a brutal sacrifice for their peace with God and breaking the curse of sin and death, then they should take a teaspoon of cement and harden up. There’s no such thing as freedom from religion, but you do get to choose who you worship, including yourself – best of luck with that choice.

So if we still have Christmas as a national holyday, and if people still want double time and a half to work or just to get paid to not work on December 25 because Christmas is a nationally recognised holyday, then no one has the right to take offence at the faithful, traditional celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ in a shop window, and Myer should fear the contempt of shoppers robbed of an actual Christmas display.

“Hey kiddies, let’s go into town and look at the Myer Christmas Windows, and I’ll tell you all about why we and so much of the civilised world celebrates Christmas. It’s because… Ace the eagle explored Australia Zoo???”

What the actual Christmas fudge?!

If you want to know why the elitists can’t define what a woman is but want fat blokes in frocks to play contact sport with girls, why feelings have become sacred but freedom of conscience isn’t, why few are willing to publicly fight for equal human rights for babies but denying kids TikTok accounts is a national outrage – it’s because this generation is Biblically ignorant.

This generation rages against God and proudly rejects Him, but they have no idea Who He is or what He’s done in human history. They actually think Christmas is about family, presents and feasting, and that’s exactly what they’ll say if you stick a mic’ in their face and ask them.

They have no idea that Santa Claus is the historical figure of Saint Nicholas, an extravagantly generous, 3rd Century Bishop of the port city of Myra in Asia Minor (present day Turkey) who was imprisoned for his faith in Jesus Christ, and a pro-life activist who preached against killing unwanted babies and other pagan practices.

Stick the real story of Santa in your “Christmas” window display, Myer!

No, this generation’s problems are entirely because we’ve turned our backs on the knowledge of God, and boycotted Christ in our history and celebrations. We have no concept of objective morality or constant Truth. In failing to send kids to Sunday School, we failed to teach an entire generation that there is an Authority higher than their fantasies, higher even than the government.

Of course nativity scenes alone won’t save Australia, but the absence of them is a symptom of the very real problem. The least a good corporate citizen could do is celebrate Christmas in the traditional fashion, without apologising for it being explicitly and distinctively Christian.

In the rush to quite literally take Christ out of the Myer “Christmas” Windows, we see the inevitable conclusion of toxic multiculturalism. As Australia and other Western nations have rushed to make new immigrants with other cultures and religions feel welcome, we’ve increasingly apologised for having our own culture and religion to the point that Christianity is being erased as somehow offensive and Christ is being cancelled right out of Christmas.

You can ring Myer on their publicly listed number and very politely leave them feedback about what you want to see celebrated in next year’s “Christmas” windows. Remember you need to sound Christian, not terrorising, when you ask for more Christ in Christmas! You might use suggestions like “nativity scene”, “story of baby Jesus”, and “traditional” in your feedback.

*EDIT – Readers have helpfully contributed that there is in fact one single window each year which nods to Christianity. Pictured below is this year’s minimalist, monochromatic, static, token effort. Something is definitely better than nothing, but this is barely more than nothing.

Dave Pellowe is a Christian political educator & commentator, founder of The Good Sauce, convener of the annual Australian Church And State Summit and host of Good Sauce’s weekly The Church And State Show. Since 2016 Dave has undertaken the mission of arming Christians to redeem culture through events from Perth to Auckland, videos, podcasts and articles published in multiple journals across Australia and New Zealand. [more]

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