The New International Symbol of Peace

As one of my preparations this year for Christmas, I decided I wanted to make some ornaments with my daughters who are 4 and nearly 3. It needed to be something simple for their sake and for mine. My husband is a pacifist: peace is probably the most important condition for him. So I thought a dove would be a lovely thing to do.

A tree hung with many white doves would be symbolic of so much. It is not just peace they bring. A dove brought the branch to Noah signifying the flood was over. The Holy Spirit descended like a dove on Jesus at his baptism. It is a sign of God's work in our world, and perfect for decorating a tree that we use to help celebrate the birth of the living God.

At first I thought we would buy some pre-made wooden doves and paint them white, sparkle with glitter and have our ornaments. However, I couldn't find any wooden doves at the craft store, so I had to scrap that plan. Next I began looking for a dove ornament I could trace onto card stock or craft foam. No luck there either.

Then my thought turned to those Christmas cards. I noticed every store was selling them for 50% off. Surely there was a box with a lovely, prominently placed dove that we could cut out and hang as our ornament. So on my big Christmas shopping trip, I began to look. I looked, and looked, and looked and looked. I visited 4 stores, and must have looked at over 100 different cards and found not a single card with a dove. What I did find was a very unusual trend in peace symbols for this year, it was almost offensive really.

Sure there were any number of distasteful cards (if you ask me). What does a woman on a motor scooter with a santa hat have to do with the birth of the Christ child? Or the many cards depicting thin, stylish women in some sort of festive situation: with heals on, a feathery scarf, martini in hand, overloaded with packages. None of those convey the message of peace and hope the savior brings to the world. Materialism was everywhere, it seems that's the true meaning of Christmas these days. But there were other disturbing cards like cats, dogs, rabbits, chipmonks etc. in santa hats that say nothing about the meaning of Christmas. Of course my favorite card to hate is the one that wishes me a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukka and Happy Kwanza all in one. That one is pretty much offensive to anyone who celebrates one of those holidays and is only given (I hope) by idealistic teens and 20somethigns who think they're honoring everyone by saying "have a great holiday of the variety you celebrate, even if I don't take the time to find out or acknowledge exactly what holiday that is". I'm pretty sure there aren't many Christians or Jews out there who go around thinking "wow, isn't Mary so considerate for including my holiday in this list."

But it wasn't these meaningless cards that bothered me. What really caught my attention was a trend in cards, cards that said "Peace" on the front. The first time I saw it I simply thought "how odd", but as I continued looking, and even in different stores I began to wonder: when did the Snowman become the new symbol for peace?! Yes, that's right, the snowman. I must have seen a dozen different cards that said "peace" while prominently featuring a snow man!

The more I thought about it, the more odd it became. If anything, the snowman is a symbol of oppression. Come on, people, can't you see it? I mean first of all it's a "man", next, he's white. Do you see snowmen of color, ever? But beyond that, there's so much more. For one thing, one has to have a few luxuries to make one, including: a yard, warm clothing, free time, accessories that you don't mind leaving outside, the list goes on. No one slaving away to put some crumbs of food on the table is going to be making a snowman anytime soon. But then, look at snowmen, they should be wealthy figures considering their makers are, right? No, they're not. they're workers, often holding brooms. They have very little, if any, clothing. These are clearly poor figures. And you can see what their wealthy makers think of the working class: fat with skinny arms and noses often made of carrots, or eyes of coal. It's not an attractive carricature. And many snowmen smoke: as if somehow that's a class or economic habit. Truly, let's face it, the snowman is one of the least kind depictions of winter, and perhaps worst of all: it's disposable. We expect them to die rather quickly.

So why a symbol of peace? Truly it baffles me. There is nothing in a snowman that proclaims "peace on earth" or that encourages divisions to cease. However, several cardmakers have decided it does some how. It's truly perplexing.

In the end, I gave up finding the perfect model for my peace doves and drew one myself to make cutouts with. Our tree looks lovely. But next year please don't expect to find me breaking out the new international symbol of peace: the snow man.