This is Christmas in small town America in 1960. Dover, NJ. Henry Boschen photo.  It is very much Christmas, but nothing religious in this public space.

Christmas Eve in Firemen’s Park, Ocean Grove. Blogfinger.net photo.

Paul Goldfinger, MD,  Blogfinger.net  11/15/21.   2022 update.   Is Santa coming to town tonight?  Christmas Eve 2022?–Bulletin–change to Eagles Fire House because of cold.   (Main Avenue at Benson.)

“Happy, happy, merry, merry”…It is certainly a time for religion, but, to be inclusive for everyone,  it is  “the  most wonderful time of the year,” so let’s say, “Happy holiday season.” which covers all  bases.  After all, you could say “Happy holidays” but it’s not a holiday for everyone.   Or you can use my greeting:  “Happy, happy, merry, merry.”

I grew up in Rutherford, NJ  (pop 20,000.)   We had a church practically on every corner. There was a Catholic school and a synagogue.  But religion was confined to those houses of worship.

Except I rode on the same bus after school with a girl in my class.   At a reunion she said, “Do you remember that we rode on the bus:  I to catechism class and you to Hebrew school?”   And I did recall after she reminded me, and that was something more memorable than Hebrew school.

Each Christmas the town was lit and decorated. School kids painted seasons greetings and pictures on store windows on Park Avenue, and the high school music groups put on a concert at the school.

My band friends and I took our horns, accompanied by chorus members, and went caroling.  My Jewish friends didn’t get gifts on Christmas Day, but we took solace in recalling that Jesus was Jewish.  And we did have Hannukah.  That wasn’t nearly as festive, but it was fun and it was a marvelous tradition.

The high school had a live nativity scene in the school auditorium  which we all had to attend.  My friend Phyllis,  a Jewish girl, was the virgin Mary. We had fun with that, although the original Mary was a Jewish girl also, so the casting was accurate.

I don’t recall a tree or a menorah downtown.  Of course, homes were decorated, and you could see the lit trees in the windows.  Christmas in Rutherford was a lovely small town backdrop for families and churches to privately celebrate their religions.

Ocean Grove now is something else altogether, and the push by the CMA to dominate the culture and character of OG has to be rare among American towns and it should concern  the population here which is mostly secular.

Remember the yearly fun event in Firemen’s Park on Christmas eve?  Nothing religious then (except for the creche.)—A small band would play carols and happy families  and fire trucks would show up in the cold.  Santa  and his lovely wife  (?did she have a name?)  arrived on an OG fire truck.

The CMA brought Santa to the Auditorium park on Dec. 3.   We hear that Santa will come, as per tradition, tonight to Firemen’s Park—but will he?

They’re moving to the Eagles Fire House because of extreme cold.   ?6 pm.

Christmas Eve 2017. Firemen’s Park .  Carols.  Paul Goldfinger photo. ©

Asbury Park has its own way to do Christmas. Cookman Avenue. Paul Goldfinger photo.

And here’s some secular Christmas music—devoted to love, fun,  and home.

JACKSON FIVE:

LEIGHTON  MEESTER: