I overheard a conversation last night talking about the
rapidly approaching December Calendar.
The perennial debate of “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays” was
the center of the conversation. It got
me to thinking, and reflecting.
It never used to really bother me before; the slow
conversion of “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays”. For me “Happy Holidays” included Hanukkah and
Kwanzaa in our collective merry-making. And
if I believed Happy Holidays was truly about including them, I’d still be okay
with it.
But I am coming to believe this is not what it is all about.
In “A Christmas Carol”, Scrooge said “If I could work my will, every idiot who goes about with
'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should
be boiled with his own pudding.” How many of you
have met people who have that same sentiment in their eyes when you dare to say,
and then defend, “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays”? I have met a fair number.
Maybe I am slow, or maybe I have not been watching, but
there is something more going on here.
The press for “Happy Holidays” pushes our faith-based celebration to the
fringe. The world has been trying to
push Jesus out of everything. And maybe
that is where it should be. Maybe
Christmas should be on the fringe, because the Reason for the Season-the birth
of Jesus-has been consistently pushed out to the fringe for generations.
Maybe, if Santa Claus
is really going to take over completely, if it’s going to be all about the gifts,
and the magic, and the movies, and the glitz and glamor, if Christ is being
evicted from even the stable and the manger, maybe “Happy Holidays” is the
appropriate title for the Season, from Dec. 25 on back to Thanksgiving…no…Halloween…no…Labor
Day… If we let the world win…
If you want some real perspective on the whole Holiday
Spirit of Christmas, go back and READ Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol”. Don’t watch the movie or television
adaptations (although George C. Scott and Mr. Magoo are PILLARS in the role of
Scrooge). When you read the original
(and the English is not THAT old), what Dickens keeps coming back to as the
story unfolds of one man’s redemption, are ongoing references to the birth of
Christ, and the spirit of that birth being foundational to Scrooge’s
redemption, and to the whole holiday.
Christmas is about the birth of Jesus. Christmas is about gifts, because of the goodwill
at the birth of…Jesus. The glitz and the
glamor and the magic, trees to angels, Santa to fruitcake, all of it is a
Celebration of…the birth of Jesus. And
while the world may not want it, Jesus came down to save that world. So, Merry Christmas to all!
I agree to a point. I think since Christmas has been so commercialized it doesn't really matter what you say because it's all about making money and not about the birth of Jesus. Let's leave Christmas at the fringes and bring back the true meaning of the season by saying "Happy Birthday" instead!
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