Peace on earth, good will toward men ... please?

“I'm inviting all my Facebook family and friends to join me in returning to the traditional greeting of "Merry Christmas" instead of the politically correct "Happy Holidays". If you agree with me, please re-post this message or hit like. Merry Christmas!”

I’ve been seeing this status all over Facebook since early November, and every time I groan a little. I am irked by the so-called “war on Christmas” for a very simple reason. If there was a war, Christmas won, hands down. Starting well before Halloween, Christmas is everywhere, from stores to television. There is no possible way to escape being exposed to Christmas in some fashion, regardless if you actually celebrate the holiday. It has not only overshadowed all other holidays celebrated in the month of December, it has taken over Thanksgiving a full month beforehand. In fact, it seems to have stretched out its tentacles to ensnare Halloween as well. What aspect of Christmas has such power? It’s the commercialization and subsequent greed, of course. My young son says “I want to buy that!” after nearly every commercial that airs during his favorite TV shows. Well before Halloween, we are bombarded with ads: Get a jump on the holidays. Do your Christmas shopping now and use our layaway plan. Now the entire month of November is simply a build-up, not to Thanksgiving, but to Black Friday and Cyber Monday (or rather Cyber Week as it has evidently become). Thanksgiving itself, which used to be a strong, proud day of celebrating not only our American strength and persistence but also expressing gratitude for the people and blessings in our lives, has become as battered and starved as those first pilgrims. Instead of a day of good food, family/friend togetherness and football, many choose to sit outside a store and wait for the doors to open so they can mace each other over the 4 xboxes in stock. But I digress. My point, wherever it has gone to, is that for two to three months, this country is all about Christmas.

So why do people claim that war has been declared against Christmas? Because, even though the term Christmas itself is used just as frequently, some people choose to use other terms interchangeably. But let me go off on a tangent before I address that.

I’m converting to Catholicism, and so I’m attending an RCIA class (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). The first day, I was given a book, Believing in Jesus by Leonard Foley, O.F.M. It was approved, like all authoritative books on the Catholic faith, by the Vatican. In the very first chapter, I noticed that the author and editors chose to use BCE/CE to designate dates rather than BC/AD. This dating system, which stands for “Before Common Era/Common Era, was of course created as an nonreligious alternative to the long used “Before Christ”/”Anno Domini.” A third, less popular alternative I came across recently was to do away with letter designations altogether and simply use a + or – sign. So, 500 BC(BCE) becomes -500, and 1492 AD(BC) becomes +1492. As with most academics, the goal is less about politics and religion than it is about simply making it universally understood. I don’t wish to debate why one is better or worse than the other. In truth, it is merely a choice. A writer would be correct in using one or the other, although some fields or disciplines may prefer one to the other. Papers published in scientific journals, for instance, usually use BCE/BC. When reading books written by and for Christians, I have almost exclusively seen BC/AD. That’s what struck me as so remarkable about Believing in Jesus.

Why did the use of BCE/BC strike me as remarkable? Well, here was this book on the first Christian religion, willingly using terms specifically designed to replace Christ. I made the comment in my class that it impressed me that they didn’t make a fuss, like the Protestants did, who “see the switch to CE and BCE as just one more example of secularism and non-Christian religions being given precedence over Christianity.”  I expressed my observation that the Catholic Church does not appear to be threatened and chooses not to pick a fight over such a small thing. One of the teachers responded, “Well, of course the Church isn’t threatened! It’s been around for centuries. It isn’t going anywhere.” Of course, even the Protestants have made less a stink about date designations than on saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Honestly, I think they might have picked the wrong battle.

Waronchristmas.com states: “‘Christmas’ became a dirty word, and was replaced by ‘holiday.’ The War on Christmas had begun.” The author of this site claims that “‘Christmas’ was everywhere during the month of December,” but not anymore. The funny thing is, I see Christmas everywhere, starting in October. I see trees, wreaths, Santas, etc. all over the stores. I see the word Christmas everywhere too, as well as the more generic word “holiday.” In fact, I’d wager that I see more words related to Christmas, (Santa, St. Nick, Rudolf, Reindeer, stocking, Nativity, etc.) than I do any other holiday celebrated in November and December. Yet, people still raise heck when a store chooses to use “Happy Holidays” in their advertising. I think the best response to the outrage was expressed by Best Buy, “We recognize that several holidays are celebrated during the months of November and December. Many people exchange gifts in celebration of one or more of these holidays. In order to be respectful of all our customers (and employees) who celebrate different holidays throughout the season, we are choosing to use ‘Happy Holidays’ as the primary greeting in our holiday campaign.” And that is, really, what it boils down to. Of course, this response is dismissed with the charge of being “politically correct,” which is evidently a bad thing.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary (my new favorite website), “politically correct” first came to its current use in 1970. “[T]here is no doubt that political correctness refers to the political movement and phenomenon, which began in the USA, with the aim to enforce a set of ideologies and views on gender, race and other minorities. Political correctness refers to language and ideas that may cause offence to some identity groups like women and aims at giving preferential treatment to members of those social groups in schools and universities. [Thuy Nguyen, "Political Correctness in the English Language,"2007]” I do not believe using the term “Happy Holidays” falls into the category of political correctness. Its purpose is not to avoid offending non-Christians, but to simply not leave them out and respect the diversity in our society. Christmas is not the only holiday in the last two months of the year. And, I might point out, prior to the 1970s, the phrase was commonly used interchangeably with “Merry Christmas,” as was the seldom contested “Season’s Greetings.” It was a common way to wish someone not only an enjoyable Christmas, but also a handful of other holy days leading up to Jesus’ big day as well as New Year’s Day. ,I say “Happy Holidays” for two reasons: it’s all encompassing and it’s polite. I was raised to be respectful of others. It’s what Jesus would do.

This is not to say that the secularism of Christmas is not real. No one is denying that is an ongoing phenomenon. More than any other Christian holy day, with the exception of Halloween, Christmas has been infused with secular symbols and traditions, some dating back to the pagans. This is not a new development, however. The pagan practice of bringing an evergreen indoors dates back to a pagan tradition, and December 25^th might have very well been chosen due to it’s proximity to the Winter Solstice as a ploy to convert pagans. Our notion of Santa Claus seems to have been adopted from the Dutch legends of St. Nicholas, a Catholic bishop. In the Dutch legend, Sinterklaas traveled around and rewarded all the good children while his traveling companion Black Pete (an evil spirit/devil) punished the bad children. Somewhere along the line, we lost Black Pete due to his racist depiction of Moors. (For more info, please see links below.) Early settlers in Massachusetts actually banned Christmas for a spell claiming the celebrations went against the Bible. So yes, atheists and agnostics can celebrate a secular Christmas. There is a growing trend, however, of such individuals adopting a celebration of Winter Solstice, previously observed mainly by pagans and Wiccans, instead, but many of the same traditions adopted by Christians over the centuries (such as the tree, Yule log, gift giving, mistletoe, holiday cards, etc.) are still practiced.

One argument thrown at me recently was “There would be no ‘holiday season’ if it wasn’t for Christmas.” This promotes the notion that there is only one worthwhile holiday to acknowledge in December, Christmas. According to ReligiousTolerance.org, there are three main groups in the conflict of the winter holidays. Some Christians feel that “Happy Holidays” is too generic and that Christmas is exclusively the only holiday to be acknowledged in December. Non-Christians object to having their religious observances ignored, and a third group of people who don’t celebrate anything and resent being exposed to such intense religious “propaganda.” I would like to add a fourth group: Christians who celebrate Christmas but who feel that the Christian thing to do is respect all the other beliefs and non-beliefs that make our diverse society so interesting. I’m obviously including myself in this group. In the true spirit of Christmas, I extend well wishes to everyone this time of year. I respect their choices and beliefs, though they differ from mine, and acknowledge that Christmas isn’t the only game in town.

And what is so wrong with “holiday” anyway? According to OED, holiday is derived from “holy day.” Its earliest usage was referring to a religious festival or day of recreation. In the 1500s, those were one in the same. So if you feel it is a snub against religion, think again. When you wish someone “Happy Holidays,” you are wishing them a joyous celebration of whichever holy day they observe. I, for one, think that is a beautiful sentiment. And I am not alone in my opinion of the greeting. In a 2009 article published on The History News Network website, Edward T. O'Donnell, an associate professor of history at The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, praised the use of the phrase. “I must admit that the expression Happy Holidays once struck me as vapid and meaningless—essentially the December version of the all-time vapid and meaningless phrase of modern times, ‘Have a nice day.’ But all this War on Christmas hysteria in recent years has led me to a new and heartfelt appreciation for the expression, for I see that it embodies both a fundamental American value and, strange as it may sound, one of Christmas’s core religious ideals.” O’Donnell, a church going Christian, points out the particularly American virtue of “respect for each and every citizen’s right to their own religious beliefs (or non-beliefs).” He then goes on to state something I hadn’t previously considered. “The ‘Merry Christmas, or Else’ zealots are not preaching violence, but they are promoting a dangerous, unwelcome, and ultimately un-American form of religious intolerance. … Put simply, the charge that individuals and retailers who fail to say Merry Christmas is itself a very real assault on Christmas. After all, the holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus, an event the Bible tells us was hailed by a choir of angels singing, “Peace on Earth and goodwill toward men.” Raging against the inclusive, tolerant and ultimately harmless phrase, Happy Holidays, runs directly counter to this theme. Indeed, it’s like making war on Christmas.”

And here I just thought it was pointless and annoying.

Did “Happy Holidays” and “Season’s Greetings” come into use for the sole purpose of replacing “Merry Christmas”? Evidently not. It seems these phrases have been in use for quite some time, and were often used in conjunction with, not necessarily instead of, “Merry Christmas.” All this can be evidenced by these advertisements in the Los Angeles Times dating back to the late 1800s. According to Wikipedia, “Commercial use of the term ‘Happy Holidays’ to replace ‘Merry Christmas’ and ‘Happy New Year’ dates back at least to the 1970s. Use of the term may have originated with the Irving Berlin song ‘Happy Holidays’ (released in 1942 and included in the film Holiday Inn).” The same article mentions the term inexplicably less offensive to Christmas revelers, “Season Greetings.” "‘Season's Greetings’ is a greeting more commonly used as a motto on winter season greeting cards, and in commercial advertisements, than as a spoken phrase. In addition to ‘Merry Christmas,’ Victorian Christmas cards bore a variety of salutations, including ‘Compliments of the Season’ and ‘Christmas Greetings.’ By the late 19th century, ‘With the Season's Greetings’ or simply ‘The Season's Greetings’ began appearing. By the 1920s it had been shortened to ‘Season's Greetings, and has been a greeting card fixture ever since.” True, there was a movement in the 1970s and 1980s to make things less offensive to minority groups who did not celebrate Christmas. Stores and government agencies were, and occasionally still are, called upon to include other holidays alongside Christmas. Some were picketed and boycotted. But the tides have turned. Now stores are boycotted and chastised for being too inclusive.

In an article written for Time Magazine in 2008 (and a repeat in 2009), Alex Altman addressed the “war on Christmas” with striking clarity. He points out that it was the Puritans who first sought to shut down Christmas. They actually banned it in Massachusetts from 1659 to 1681. Henry Ford accused the Jews of opposing Christmas. In the 1950s, the destruction of American Christmas tradition was evidently on the to-do list of the evil communists. The modern connotation of this “war” did not, however, originate on Fox News as I had initially thought. “Before it became part of mainstream conservative punditry, the leading proponent of the War on Christmas was a former magazine writer and editor named Peter Brimelow.” But it did logically wind up there, as it claims Christmas is being attacked by us nasty liberals. “Outrage over alleged restrictions against Christmas emblems imposed by stores like Wal-Mart and Sears led conservative mouthpieces like Sean Hannity and O'Reilly to take up the cause in earnest.” Altman concludes that the “war on Christmas” is a “backlash against a wave of political correctness that swept the U.S. in the late '90s, resulting in some strange new concessions to cultural sensitivity: cities insisting on calling the telltale conifers ‘holiday trees,’ efforts to ban the pleasantry ‘Merry Christmas’ and crackdowns on the use of holiday nativity scenes and other religious iconography. But to many, the War on Christmas is a hyperbolic construct that blows the problem out of proportion.” I strongly agree with that last sentence, and applaud the use of the word “hyperbolic.”

Indeed, it is blown out of proportion, but only on one side. This might have started with concessions to cultural sensitivity, but the opposing side in this “war” seems strangely quiet in 2011. There are many retail businesses that freely use “Merry Christmas” in signage and advertising, and no one seems to be in a mind to complain. However, every episode of “The O’Reilly Factor” in December features a segment on the “war on Christmas,” giving 15 minutes to individuals in a mall offended by a store’s “holiday tree.” There is a website solely devoted to pointing out the “anti-Christmas” stores so that followers of the doctrine know not to shop there. According to the American Family Association, stores are either “for,” “marginal” or “against” Christmas. The criteria for these classifications are incredibly bias, and does not allow for any respect of or goodwill toward others. “The ‘Merry Christmas, or Else’ zealots” are a determined lot, and they are organized to the point of over-kill.

I’ve been often chastised for using Xmas as shorthand for Christmas. A modern interpretation is that “xmas” replaces Christ with the x variable. But really, this abbreviation has nothing to do with algebra. Turning to my good friend the OED once more, Xmas is derived from “X'temmas, wherein the X is an abbreviation for Christ in Christmas, from first letter of Gk. Christos “‘Christ.’" This abbreviation was actually in common use by the 15^th Century, as Gutenberg’s printing press was less time consuming if one employed abbreviations.  As Snopes states, “it’s a very old artifact of a very different language,” but allows that some might still be offended by it. It can be used erroneously by those who either don’t know or care of its origin in attempts to secularize or “cross out” Christ to insult Christians. But knowing the truth behind the term turns the tables. The joke is on them.

Here’s another nibble of food for thought. If there is such a demand for keeping “Christ” in Christmas, why not take it one step further. Christmas is, after all, a combination of “Christ” and “mass.” So why not put “mass” back in to? There’s room in my RCIA class.

To quote John Lennon, “War is over, if you want it.” Do you really want to spend the entire month angrily countering a store clerk’s well intentioned “Happy Holidays” with an embittered “Merry Christmas”? Are you really going to shove all the cards that say “Season’s Greetings” in a drawer while proudly displaying the one’s wishing you a “Merry Christmas.” Wouldn’t you be happier and more at peace if you just accepted these greetings for what they are, warmest wishes for whichever holiday you happen to celebrate? Christmas is a time of hope, peace, love and goodwill. As the old Sunday school song goes, “They will know we are Christians by our love.” Does it really matter if Kohl’s and Macy’s have Christmas decorations or holiday decorations if you have your nativity scene proudly displayed in your living room? Does it really affect your faith if we acknowledge other beliefs and traditions? Does it really ruin your traditions and celebrations if someone else brings an evergreen inside and incorporates it into their festivities, calling it a Yule tree, holiday tree or Hanukkah bush? Answer these questions truthfully.

Most of the people I know celebrate Christmas, though quite a few disregard the religious aspects. I know a few Jews, Wiccans, atheists and agnostics who don’t celebrate Christmas but acknowledge its existence. They aren’t offended by you wishing them a “Merry Christmas,” but are simply asking for reciprocal respect. All anyone asks is that the “Christmas people” (as my Jewish cousin called them) acknowledge their holidays, whether it is Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Winter Solstice, or even the generic cultural Christmas holiday. You don’t have to celebrate them, just admit that they exist and deserve to be acknowledged right along with Christmas. What’s so hard about that?

And if you happen to celebrate Festivus, consider this my "airing of grievances.”

Update (12/12/2011): My son was watching "Sid the Science Kid" this morning before school. It's one of his favorite shows, and one of mine as well. I knew it was incredibly educational, but I had no idea how open-minded it was. Evidently, Sid and his family celebrate three holidays in their house! Wow! My husband said that Sid must be really spoiled. I guess there's no "War on Christmas" in that house! View a clip here.

Further reading of the like-minded:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/28/war-on-christmas-walgreens_n_1116921.html

http://reason.com/archives/2004/12/28/what-happy-holidays

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charity-sunshine-tillemann-dick/war-on-christmas_b_1100413.html

“The Origin of Xmas”:

http://www.crivoice.org/symbols/xmasorigin.html

Regarding Santa Claus:

http://www.the-north-pole.com/history/

http://www.religioustolerance.org/santa1.htm

http://www.arthuriana.co.uk/xmas/

http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/origin-of-santa/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus

Regarding Christmas/Yule/Holiday trees:

http://www.christmas-tree.com/where.html

Visit Santa Claus and drop him an email:

www.northpole.com