Last year there seemed to be a big push to say happy holidays instead of merry Christmas. It annoyed me. (It also annoys me that the school Halloween carnival must now be called Fall Festival.) Last year i protested “happy holidays†by going thru my collection of good-intention Christmas cards and freecycling all the ones that said happy holidays.
I just now received a link to a song on youtube, “It’s Called Christmas”. I listened to it. Naturally it’s protesting our adopting the politically correct “happy holidays,†rather than greeting each other with, “Merry Christmas.†It’s very catchy. It makes the point that the holiday is about the birth of Christ… i could not help thinking about Winter Solstice and wondering if the “pagans” were singing, “It’s Called Winter Solstice†when we Christianized their holiday and made it about the birth of Christ.
I guess i am a little more tolerant of “happy holidays†now, though for me it will always be Christmas.
Sigh. Well, that was about what I expected.
Foremost reaction is to the mass of contradictions in the song. Starts off saying that we all say Merry Christmas not out of any religious intent but to strengthen national identity; then the prevailing lyric is “it’s about the birth of Christ .. ” etc. Then there’s the part where they say, I’m tolerant of your view; if you want to say Happy Holidays that’s fine, but if you don’t want me to say Merry Christmas than forget you. And so on and so on.
But then again, I come from the land of Limbaugh, Beck, and O’Reilly, so I’m REALLY uptight about this kind of thing and have to think about it all the time. So my reaction is more extreme than it ought to be.
Yes, the whole Assault on Christmas thing really annoys me.
What, Christ came to guarantee that obese arctic elves could break into your house? To make sure that retailers would have one really fantastic sales month? Oh, or are those Godless Liberals having sit-ins at church doors, shouting Happy Nondemoninational Winter Buying Frenzy at the folks going to Mass?
Cause the Christmas holiday as celebrated in modern America is no more about Christ than the Easter bunny is about the Resurrection. And our dear conservatives, who don’t care what you call it as long as you say Christmas, really annoy me.
It’s Christmas when you’re in a Christian church. It’s weird retail winter madness (or Black Friday) when you’re in the shopping mall. It’s Winter Gathering when you’re at the office party. It’s Solstice and Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and Ramadan and Diwali when you’re in those settings. Any wonder that our nice pluralistic retailers go for “holiday”?
Sigh. Well, I guess I got started. I didn’t mean to. Generally I just smile and nod.
lol this is where you are supposed to vent. And you make good points. It is frustrating, isn’t it…