Cold weather and warm cocoa. Spending time with friends and family. Remembering to care for your fellow fellow human being.
And ... arguing over what to say to each other?!? What?!?
Every year I hear this same argument - why can't I say Merry Christmas? What's wrong with saying Merry Christmas? Everybody celebrates Christmas except a few people who ruin it for the rest of us! :::insert pouty face here:::
REALLY, PEOPLE?
There are so many things wrong with this attitude I'm having a hard time knowing where to begin.
First, let's acknowledge that Christmas is a celebration of money. When you go to the mall to buy your presents for everyone you are bowing down to the great financial deity and offering up your hard earned cash as a sacrifice to the economic gods.
The religious meaning of Christmas may be preserved by the families that celebrate it in their own homes and churches on Christmas Day but, for the most part, in this country, it is NOT a religious holiday. In fact, beginning June 28, 1870, it is a legal holiday that allows our banks and government offices to close and gives most people the day off from work or school. Thank you President Grant! Incidentally, the same bill granting legal status to Christmas is responsible for granting legal status to New Year's Day, July 4th, and Thanksgiving. No special treatment.
That being said... there are several religious/cultural holidays celebrated in December and none is better than another. The purpose of a generic "Happy Holidays" greeting is to honor everyone's traditions, not to belittle them. But instead of embracing each other at this time of year, we are so focused on making it about "us" that we stop caring about things that are for "them".
If you work in customer service, it just makes sense to stick to a generic greeting instead of trying to stereotype someone into a particular holiday. Consider your customer... not yourself. It's about what THEY celebrate, not what YOU celebrate.
Another comment that I hear that I think is absolutely ridiculous is, "If you don't like that we celebrate Christmas, then go home." Ummm... excuse me? Go home? Do you really think that everyone who is an American celebrates Christmas or that anyone who doesn't is from another country? This comment is just plain ignorant.
As a religious holiday, Christmas is the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated by Christians around the world.
In addition to Christmas, Americans celebrate Hanukkah. This is an 8-day long Jewish celebration that commemorates the re-dedication of the Temple in Jerusalem after the Jewish victory over the Syrian-Greeks in 165 B.C.E. Hanukkah is also celebrated around the world as well as in the United States.
Kwanzaa is a week-long American holiday honoring universal African heritage and culture. It was first celebrated in the United States from December 26, 1966 through January 1, 1967.
Then there is Yule or the Winter Solstice. Various traditions have a celebration to recognize the longest night of the year and the first day of winter. It is recognized anywhere from Dec. 20 to Dec. 22, depending on when the solstice actually occurs.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of holidays. Instead, it is the most commonly celebrated holidays in the United States today. When you run into someone you know who celebrates Christmas, shout out a Merry Christmas. But if you come across someone who celebrates a different holiday or if you're not sure what holiday they celebrate, don't show your ignorance by insisting they honor your holiday.
"Among the most inestimable of our blessings, also, is that... of liberty to worship our Creator in the way we think most agreeable to His will; a liberty deemed in other countries incompatible with good government and yet proved by our experience to be its best support." --Thomas Jefferson
I believe people have a right to offer a greeting for there own beliefs and in return should expect the same of everyone else. It's those who turn it into an insult that need to go. The offering of Merry Christmas was never meant to be little another beliefs it was always the most common. More people need to worry about the spirit in which it was giving and less in the actual words spoken. We have become far to PC of sociaty and end up doing more harm then good.
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