The War on Christmas
I'm sure if you're reading this, you already think the "war on Christmas" is retarded, but oh well.
I am an atheist, but for cultural reasons, I celebrate Christmas. Christians can campaign about the "reason for the season" all they way, but Christmas has become a Western cultural holiday that has transcended religion. That's not to say that we shouldn't recognize that other cultures within our culture don't celebrate it and have other holidays of their own that we should treat equally, but it does mean that there are plenty of people out there with no particular religious affiliation who celebrate Christmas.
So sure, I say "Merry Christmas" all the time. Yes, me, a godless homosexual. Shock.
Well... I did.
See, the Religious Right started this whole idea of a "war on Christmas" just because some of us think it's a good idea to include other winter solstice holidays in our seasonal celebrations and well-wishes. We put a menorah beside the nativity scene or we say "Happy Holidays." And despite the fact that 95% of this country does celebrate Christmas, they've decided that this means there's a WAR on Christmas. "Happy Holidays" doesn't just mean that you want to wish Jews and Muslims a happy season as well as Christians, it means you HATE CHRISTMAS! What kind of a heartless bastard hates Christmas?!
So something that started out rather innocuous, saying the all-inclusive "Happy Holidays," became a thing. And by the same token, saying "Merry Christmas" no longer meant that you were celebrating Christmas and hoping the recipient in question had a good one. It meant you were asserting yourself as a REAL Christian and recognizing who the REAL winter-solstice-holiday boss was.
And so saying "Merry Christmas" has become distasteful to me. I didn't mean it to. But I found myself almost exclusively saying "Happy Holidays" to folks this year, whereas previously I would've said "Merry Christmas." Maybe I'm just becoming more subconsciously inclusive, and I'm sure that's part of it. But I feel like the main reason is that if I say "Merry Christmas" I worry the other person will think I'm making some kind of... statement.
Ironically, it was the Christians trying to "bring back" Christmas that made me stop wishing people a Merry Christmas.
So I hope everyone had a happy holiday!
P.S. This is a fine example of why word policing is annoying and counter-productive.
I am an atheist, but for cultural reasons, I celebrate Christmas. Christians can campaign about the "reason for the season" all they way, but Christmas has become a Western cultural holiday that has transcended religion. That's not to say that we shouldn't recognize that other cultures within our culture don't celebrate it and have other holidays of their own that we should treat equally, but it does mean that there are plenty of people out there with no particular religious affiliation who celebrate Christmas.
So sure, I say "Merry Christmas" all the time. Yes, me, a godless homosexual. Shock.
Well... I did.
See, the Religious Right started this whole idea of a "war on Christmas" just because some of us think it's a good idea to include other winter solstice holidays in our seasonal celebrations and well-wishes. We put a menorah beside the nativity scene or we say "Happy Holidays." And despite the fact that 95% of this country does celebrate Christmas, they've decided that this means there's a WAR on Christmas. "Happy Holidays" doesn't just mean that you want to wish Jews and Muslims a happy season as well as Christians, it means you HATE CHRISTMAS! What kind of a heartless bastard hates Christmas?!
So something that started out rather innocuous, saying the all-inclusive "Happy Holidays," became a thing. And by the same token, saying "Merry Christmas" no longer meant that you were celebrating Christmas and hoping the recipient in question had a good one. It meant you were asserting yourself as a REAL Christian and recognizing who the REAL winter-solstice-holiday boss was.
And so saying "Merry Christmas" has become distasteful to me. I didn't mean it to. But I found myself almost exclusively saying "Happy Holidays" to folks this year, whereas previously I would've said "Merry Christmas." Maybe I'm just becoming more subconsciously inclusive, and I'm sure that's part of it. But I feel like the main reason is that if I say "Merry Christmas" I worry the other person will think I'm making some kind of... statement.
Ironically, it was the Christians trying to "bring back" Christmas that made me stop wishing people a Merry Christmas.
So I hope everyone had a happy holiday!
P.S. This is a fine example of why word policing is annoying and counter-productive.