Tis the Season

Every year some faction or another arises and claims that somebody, this year it’s the liberals (whoever they are), is removing Christ from Christmas. For my entire life this has been going on. I remember early on that there was a movement to boycott any business that referred to Christmas as ‘Xmas’. My parents were firmly in this camp, claiming that the use of ‘Xmas’ was anti-religious and was taking Christ out of Christmas. This lasted for quite awhile until everyone wised up when they “discovered” that ‘X’ was an ancient symbol of some sort that was a kind of short hand for Christ. Not sure when this occurred, maybe access to the Internet was partly responsible. Nevertheless, the outcry about ‘Xmas’ has come and gone.

Now we have a bunch of folks complaining about the use of the word ‘holiday’ as in ‘Happy Holidays’. They don’t seem to care about ‘Season’s Greetings’, which is equally non-Christian. Maybe they are saving this one for their next crusade. Anyway, the editorial pages and letters to the editor are filled with the angst of these folks, who must save it up for eleven months until they hear the first reference to ‘holiday’. They have pounced with a vengeance this year all the way to the White House. The Bush Christmas card makes no mention of ‘Christmas’, which is, when a rational human considers it, a very wise thing. While I cannot give credit to Bush on this, as I am sure that he had nothing to do with the text inside a Christmas card (he’s too busy illegally tapping citizens’ phones), I must commend the administration as a whole for this flash, albeit ever so brief, of tolerance or inclusion.

What is the big deal about this anyway? After all, Christmas is a holiday, so it seems reasonable that when the sentiment of ‘Happy Holidays’ is uttered or written it would Christmas should be joyfully implied along with all of the other year-end observances by non-Christian folks. It’s not like someone is saying “Happy ancient pagan ritual, stolen from religions pre-dating yours” or “Happy whatever to all of you fake Christians who have allowed the observance of the birth of the focal point of your religion turn into an excuse for rampant, uncontrolled capitalism” or “Merry anti-Christ behavior and wishing you even more criminal acts of killing, greed, and hate in the New Year”.

Until I die I will just sit back and be amazed at the annual outcry by some bunch of crazies with too much time on their hands. If any of you are reading this, and you know who you are, let me suggest that you spend your time crafting true, heartfelt greetings. Anyone can say “Merry Christmas” but what does that really mean? Does it mean something like “I hope your son or daughter never has to experience the horror of war” or “Let us all count our blessings for not being subject to genocide” or “Someday our country will stop ignoring the poor and less fortunate among us”. You see, these are much more specific and can apply to anyone, even those who do not observe any kind of holiday during this time of year.

Best wises to all, everywhere, all of the time.