On the other
hand, some national retailers, like Wal-Mart, have gone in the
opposite direction, discouraging their employees from greeting
customers with "Merry Christmas," in favor of "Happy
Holidays." It's not that these businesses are particularly
political or antireligious. They just want to be as inclusive
as possible to avoid offending anyone in order to maximize sales.
They've now learned that anything you do offends someone these
days, as some Christian groups have called for a boycott of these
retail grinches.
My personal
preference is "Merry Christmas." Not because "Happy
holidays" offends my sensibilities as a Christian, since
I'm not a Christian. And not because "Happy holidays"
is offensive. It isn't. It's just that the de-Christmasization
of the so-called holiday season is an affront to common sense
and an unnecessary surrender to the forces of political correctness,
paranoid secularization and hypersensitivity. Can you spell A-C-L-U?
Christmas
has two dimensions, one secular and one religious, that have overlapped
and coexisted for centuries. Some people celebrate Santa Claus
Christmas, some people celebrate Jesus Christ Christmas and most
people in this country celebrate both. If you're a Christian offended
by the commercialization of Christmas, then shun it and focus
on the birth of Christ. Some atheists hate the overt religiosity
at this time of year. That's their prerogative, and it's everyone
else's to ignore their complaints. I enjoy the spirit of the season,
the music and the pageantry (both secular and religious), the
fellowship and the exchanging of gifts.
For heaven's
sake (I'm not invoking religion; that's a common expression),
this is first and foremost the Christmas season. There's no need
to downplay or euphemize the name. Yes, Hanukkah comes at about
the same time, but Jews make up only 2 percent of the population.
If Hanukkah were in July, it would fly under the public radar.
Kwanzaa? Be serious. That was the fabrication of Ron Karenga,
a violent ex-con and Marxist black separatist who, in 1966, pulled
the holiday out of thin air because he thought Christmas was too
white (someone should have told him that Bing Crosby's immortal
White Christmas refers to snow, not race). They've never heard
of Kwanzaa in Africa. The vast majority of American blacks are
Christians, and celebrate Christmas along with everyone else.
The same for Latinos. In the spirit of season, I can even forgive
Jose Feliciano for Feliz Navidad.
Yes, you
might say that Thanksgiving kicks off the "holiday season,"
but it's a relative newcomer. Christmas was around well before
it. And prior to the birth of Christ, pagans celebrated the winter
solstice at this time of year, replete with Christmas trees that
obviously were called something else then. Christians repositioned
the celebration of Christ's birthday to join the party and compete.
Retailers needn't be defensive about the name. They draw in the
crowds promoting Santa Claus Christmas.
Check out
their ads. You don't see images of Jesus or the Virgin Mary on
TV or in the newspapers when the stores herald their Christmas
sales. It's all about Santa, Rudolph and the reindeer, Frosty
the Snowman, and one-horse open sleighs. We have holidays all
year long but, from a commercial standpoint, the extravagant exchange
of gifts is unique to Christmas. We don't do that on Thanksgiving,
the Fourth of July, Veterans' Day, Memorial Day or New Year's
Day. Excited children don't have trouble falling asleep on President's
Day eve.
