Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of hysterics about the phrase “Merry Christmas”, and who can or cannot say it. There are retail stores whose policy it is to advertise with generic greetings, like “Happy Holidays”.

And then there are the whole “taking the Christ out of Christmas” crowd, which seems more virulent than usual. Jerry Fallwell is telling his flock to boycott stores and is threatening lawsuits (SF Chronicle). My employer doesn’t have a “Christmas” party, or even a “Holiday” party – it’s called a “year end luncheon”. Lord have mercy. Even my mom complains that “no one can say Merry Christmas” anymore.

Balderdash! Get over it. I like Christmas. See, I called it Christmas. I don’t celebrate the "Christ Mass", but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy all the fun and camaraderie that Christmas brings.

Anyone who has read any of my posts knows I’m not a religious person. But, c’mon, already. Is “Merry Christmas” really offensive? It isn’t to me. For that matter, neither is “Happy Holidays”!

I don’t want to get into a whole church vs. state thing, here. This is more about the Christmas holiday season, however you celebrate it…or not. Personally, I think people should just lighten up (heh - get it, lighten up? )!

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why?

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why?

Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth?

And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you?

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why?
Not in the slightest. Even though the word christ is in the word, I don't consider christmas a religious holiday anymore, but I would prefer if it still be called the same (I should say that the Danish word for christmas doesn't directly relate to any religion).

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why?
No, if people want to use that phrase instead fine. I don't think they should use that phrase because they think there is a chance of offending anybody with the word christmas though. But who gets offended over these things anyway.

Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth?
Haven't there always been? I don't know who gets these crazy ideas to change names like christmas to something else, but its none of the liberals I know of. I also think the christian right does everything they can to blow it up to more than it is, so they can call it yet another attack on christianity by the liberals or whatever group their paranoid minds feel targeted by.

And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you?
Being around the family, having a good time, eating good food, drinking snaps and beer and giving/getting presents. Like everybody else I guess. I don't go to church (although some in my family does - the only time a year they go there, I find it kind of hypocritical), so I don't consider it a religious holiday. What I don't like about christmas is all the commercialism - in essence christmas is a commercial event. I can still have a good time with my family, but other thats the present, its not that different to any other holiday for me.

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why?
Of course not. It has been the phrase for a long time, why change it now?

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why?
No it dosen't. I mean, If someone wants to say Happy Holiday to me, ill say Merry Christmas back, no harm done



And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you?
Hang out with your parents, girl friend or boyfriend and being able to enjoy whats around you. Being able to go outside and breathe the fresh air!

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why?

No. That could be because I am Christian, but it doesn't.

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why?

Not at all. I certainly realize that not everyone celebrates Christmas, and not everyone who does celebrates it as a religious holiday. Becoming offended by an innocuous goodwill gesture seems to be about as silly as it gets.

Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth?

Definitely.

And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you?

I am a sincere Christian, so the focus for me is on Christ's birth. However, I have always dearly loved the music, carols, partying, and fellowship of the holiday season as well.

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why?

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why?

Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth?

And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you?


Really, does anyone actually even KNOW anyone who has a problem with the phrase Merry Christmas. The manufactured "culture war" garbage has just become flat out ridiculous and transparent--Who actually cares about what a store uses as their phrase?
How does it actually affect you? Whose life is that empty that something like that causes them mental anguish?

People should just enjoy the holidays and ignore the garbage that fox manufactures this time of year to help some people hate their fellow man even more than they already do.

Christmas means family and fun and great food--and now with 2 kids to buy gifts for--debt.

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why?
Not remotely.

Despite being what I would describe as a sceptical agnostic - I don't KNOW there is no God, but I haven't seen any really powerful reasons to think there is one - I'm as happy about getting some officially approved time to spend on family, friends and fun as anyone would be.

If I lived in the USA, with on average only 14 days vacation time available, which hardly anyone takes all of for fear of being seen as a slacker, this would go double.

The only thing that DOES bother me about the phrase is the retail, hospitality and toy industries' insistence that the time to start wishing it to people now begins some time in late September.

At least have the decency to wait until December before you start topics like this next year, DaffyGirl !!

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why?

No, because just about the only people who ever say anything other than "Happy/Merry Christmas" here are Americans. Despite the efforts of some of the po-faced PC police, even non-Christian minorities here don't generally mind wishig or being wished a good Christmas.

Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth?
In this and so many other areas, an emphatic YES!

And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you?

Like I said, family, friends & fun. Usually I'd add the opportunity to display (even) more generosity than usual, but the last couple of years have been a bit impecunious for me, so this element is currently on hold.

Sorry about that. I guess I got caught up in the crass commercialism myself, since the stores were running Thanksgiving-weekend-type sales last weekend, and I partook. (Got some hellacious good deals!) Then I saw the silly article about Falwell getting his panties in a wad about what message stores used. I think Falwell and people like him just need to get over themselves.

I love this sentence. Thank you! You put it exactly like I wanted to.

Every year I find myself forced into the role of the Grinch and Scrooge. So be it.

Let's get one thing straight. I can never point this out enough.

SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE ISSUES HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH "OFFENSE."

I'm sorry to shout, but I am a little tired of this simple point being constantly overlooked. It doesn't matter whether or not somebody finds the phrase "Merry Christmas" offensive. No government agency has any business expressing any religious or anti-religious sentiment under any circumstances.

Private agencies can do as they please. Falwell and his ilk certainly have the right to boycott anybody they like. When it comes to government, however, they are dead wrong.



Nonsense. A song with the lyrics "Christ the Saviour is born" conveys an obvious religious message. Putting Santa next to the Christ child doesn't make it OK. (If I were a Christian, I would be greatly offended by the effort to claim that Christmas is a secular holiday.)

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Peaceful Solstice -- I ignore all of these. Everybody else is free to say whatever she likes, unless she is acting in her official capacity as an agent of the government.

This is not just semantics. The annual feeding frenzy over Christmas in the United States provides the Religious Right with their greatest opportunity to make the nation officially Christian. They must always and everywhere be opposed.

What Christmas means to me is endless crowds of noisy, pushy people; the worst music of all time constantly playing at full blast; a thin varnish of cloying sentimentality over the basest of human emotions.

I honestly hope you all enjoy the holiday season in whatever way you choose. Do not expect me to join in.

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why?

Not really, but I get really sick of hearing and seeing it.


Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why?

Nope.


Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth?

Hysteria?

Just what exactly is it we're supposed to be celebrating anyway? Jul was never about Christ, Christ is not about presents... Christmas is just a pretext for a consumerist glut... and these days we are all consumerists all year round already.

So what is Christmas actually about? Peace on Earth? Where? Not only is religion nothing but self imposed ignorance, but if any one tries to tell me that religion promotes peace I will know they are liars.

God told Moses thou shalt not kill and Jesus told his disciples to forgive but for the last two thousand years Christianity has worshipped Gold, not God and waged more wars than any other ideology.

Don't believe me? Look at the Vatican and tell me those clerics live like Christ did.

Is it supposed to be about family? Really? Says who? Which of the twelve days of Christmas is about familly?


And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you?

Stress.

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why?

This year it does a little. I'm skipping the whole thing but will give a nod to winter solstice on the 22nd. The offense is that I'm pretty broke, and if you can't spend even on some stupid decoration, there's no fun in it. Can't even throw change into the red can! Bah humbug.

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why?

No, seems reasonable to me in a multi-cultural, free country. The more accurate saying would be "Happy Solstice" because you don't have to believe in anything. Solstice just happens, and in the history of the holidays, it was solstice that brought on the need to celebrate something.

Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth?

You bet!

And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you?

Let's see, the world turns into the longest, darkest night of the year. They say Jesus was born around this time, but that's not true. So we light up the place and try to make merry with whatever we got. Maybe give something to someone else. The day of thanks is over, but it still is something to keep in mind. Things could be a lot worse, as they say. We're warm, got decent food to eat, nobody's shooting at us, and enough money comes in.

Just not in the mood though. I suppose it would be nice to say that it's because so many others live in tragic, horrific conditions. Don't think so. It's because I miss giving away money and buying stupid decorations, maybe a special gift for someone. Last year it was a wall cross for my brother who finally saw the light, after a full lifetime of being materialistic. Eh, better late than never.

I hate being broke. Don't even have a gold watch to swap for hair combs. Pretty silly, isn't it. Maybe I need to take a long walk somewhere. Wish we had a cathedral nearby with a big pipe organ built in. Those are so awe-inspiring. We got mountains though, and maybe the music will be in my head pipes. A long walk is past due.

Ouch! I seemed to have struck a nerve! Sorreeeeeeeeeeee.

I did say this in my original post:

So, I'll just assume you're in the "or not" category. That's cool...

I purposely put this in Casual Conversation because I didn't want it to devolve into a church vs. state debate.

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why? No, but often it isn't accurate. Christmas is one day, two if you count the day before. Merry Christmas doesn't make any sense on December 5th, it makes sense on December 25th.

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why? No but it is accurate for more days. The Holiday season could include Thanksgiving, Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. Thus Happy Holidays is accurate longer.

Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth? Yeah, but hysteria about semantics isn't the only reason people lack joy and peace on earth.

What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you? Being with your family and eating is nice. The orgiastic display of conspicuous consumption is kind of sickening. People really don't need a pile of stuff every year. It's just a vicious cycle of temporal garbage that doesn't make anyone happier or solve any problems.

Gadzooks, I hardly expected this level of bile on the topic.

As a single person whose family is mostly hundreds of miles away, the holidays are always especially hard (precisely because all the holiday hype over many years has conditioned me). I try to stay cheerful, even if I'm bah-humbugging inside, because I found out one year what giving in to the morose, sad, alone feelings can do to me. Sure, you can complain that the Christmas season is over-commercialized, and argue about the semantics of greetings used by retailers, but why not make it about what you want it to be? It can be a celebration of friendship, or a relationship, if you are blessed in that regard, or a time to reach out a helping hand to someone less fortunate, or patch up an old feud. It could be a time to get back to nature, have a bar-b-que in the snow, travel to a faraway place, whatever floats your boat. Who says it has to be about religion and gifts and trees and whatnot.

Anyway, I wish you all a happy December. This one is going to especially tough on me - a landmark birthday will officially makes me an antique!

It is funny that you metioned December 5th. In the Netherlands we celebrate "Sinterklaas" (Saint Nicholas Day) on this day.

Wikipedia




I have always found it strange that our "Sinterklaas" has in some way transformed into (Coca-cola's stereotype) Santa Claus and that the latter was linked with the celebration of Jesus' birth, and older Germanic traditions. Later commerce entered the stage and turned Christmas into a lucrative business.

Christmas is just a melting pot of different cultural traditions with a modern fixation on family, friends and consumerism. Just enjoy the day, don't make any fuss out of it.

My sentiments as well. Between the anti-religious bigotry and the anti-consumerism, there's some serious Grinching here.

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why? Nope, not in the least. Nor does "Happy Hannukah". "Have a cool Kwanzaa" would offend me, but that's only because Kwanzaa is a lot more artificial than my Christmas tree, and is the product of the imagination of an unrepentant racist and scoundrel. Of course, the Christmas spirit is even slowly working its way to redeeming Kwanzaa from it scurrilous beginnings, so there is hope in the world.

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why? Depends on the context. In a personal environment, no. In a collective (i.e., corporate, governmental, etc) environment, sometimes, but certainly not enough to bogart my Christmas spirit. In the collective environment, I generally believe "Happy Holidays" to be the result of mush minded Political Correctness and/or hostility to Christianity. It is sometimes a wilful attempt to silence the expression of the dominant cultural and religious paradigm of Western Civilization. Sometimes.

Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth? Hysteria? I don't think I'd categorize it as hysteria. Nobody's "fainting with the vapors" or runnin' round like chickens with their heads cut off, although I do wonder a bit about the folks who characterize the inclusion of Silent Night in the Christmas musical as Talibanesque... As for the second half, of course there's not enough joy and peace on earth. That's why we have Christmas.

And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you? Peace that surpasses understanding, joy in both the cultural celebration and the reminder of God's love, the hunt for the right gift for others, good food, sparkling lights and crisp nights, annoying commercials, even more annoying medleys (I detest Christmas medleys), and heartwarming, sappy Christmas movies that I'm a sucker for. Christmas is a reminder that no matter how cold it is outside, no matter how bleak and long the night, life has joy, and peace, and love. Oh, and tinsel in the vacuum.

Christmas Should be More Commercial

Leonard Peikoff has a great article on Christmas in Capitalism Magazine.
He defends the materialism and also states that Christmas is a purely American invention and clearly NOT the domain of religion. Never was--never will be.





I couldn't say it any better--give it a read and use the ideas. Whatever religious connotations for christmas in America were lost long ago--and attempts to try and blame the loss of whatever religious aspects on Liberals should instead be placed on the shoulders of business--who it must be admitted are generally GOP.

I love Christmas

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why?

NO

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why?

NO

Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth?

YES

And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you?

A celebration of the birth of Jesus. A gathering of family and close friends, midnight mass, lots to eat and drink and presents. One of the happiest times of the year. People shouldn't get caught up in Holidays vs Christmas. It is the best time of the year. Enjoy it and don't cause a big debate, just be happy.

Absolutely not. I've grown up with Christmas, with the excitement, the stress, memories of roller coaster emotions all centered around the one day, and the school vacation around it.


No. I am aware that Christmas is a widely-celebrated midwinter festival but that it is not the only one celebrated. If Christmas weren't celebrated in December but sometime in the spring, closer to the time of year when Jesus was actually born, there would still be a need to celebrate something in the cold, dark, often-cruel winter. There is something in humans that needs to remind itself that the darkness is not permanent, that the seasons of light will return.



I wish that Falwell and his ilk would concentrate more on the "peace on earth" part and less on what store clerks happen to say to them when they make their purchases. What happened to the fact that our countrymen and women are fighting a war overseas and that their families will not be celebrating Christmas with such joy and abandon?


There was a cardboard stand-up Christmas Nativity scene that I traditionally put up at the foot of the Christmas tree when I was a child. My parents had a more formal (read: more expensive and breakable) creche that was "hands off," but I preferred the one at the foot of the tree anyway. I had dreams of being outside the stable in Bethlehem on a desert night and hearing of the birth; it was always a comforting feeling and so wonderfully unlike the nightmares of the Wicked Witch of the West and Tyrannosaurus Rex that scared me so badly.

We never attended church as a family. I was allowed (interestingly enough, I was encouraged) to go to Sunday School but did so alone. Dad would rail against the religiosity of some people he had to deal with as a salesman, and his anger at "the hypocrites" kept him away. I suspect Mom felt the same way, but she did not talk about it. But Dad always pulled out all the stops when it came to decorating for Christmas, and there were always gifts from Santa for my brother and me. And Dad would talk about the fact that Jesus was born in a cave and in a different time of year.

We would watch "Scrooge's Christmas," "Miracle on 34th Street," "It's a Wonderful Life," and "A Christmas Carol" every year. As my brother got older (excuse me, I meant to say as we got older--what an odd way to phrase it! ), we were able to also watch "How the Grinch Stole Christmas!" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

Like AuthorMusician, it's going to be rough--moneywise--for us to celebrate Christmas this year. My daughter, I know, will be getting less than what she wants and what we would like to give her, but she understands the circumstances. We have an artificial tree (it breaks my heart to discard a once-living tree after the celebration! ) and all kinds of lights and ornaments to decorate it. We are capable of having a wonderful holiday even if we don't get all we could wish for under the tree. And my brother will be coming across the state to have dinner with us and open a couple of presents. This year I'm making a Celtic design stained glass panel for him!

I'm glad that Jesus was born, and I believe in the traditional significance of the event. And I love the following carols: Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming, Carol of the Bells, O Holy Night, The Holly and the Ivy, O Come All Ye Faithful, Away in a Manger, The Little Drummer Boy, O Magnum Mysterium, Ave Maria, Angels We Have Heard On High, etc., etc...

And also "Deck the Halls"!

Does the phrase “Merry Christmas” offend you? If yes, why?

Does the phrase “Happy Holidays” offend you? If yes, why?

Is there just too much hysteria about semantics and not enough joy and peace on earth?

And just for fun: What does Christmas/the holiday season mean to you?

A quick check of the Internet showed a Curmudgeon to be, "An ill-tempered person full of resentment and stubborn notions." (American Heritage Dictionary)

Yes, this season brings out the worst in me, but I really take less offense at Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays than I do when someone tries to force me to 'Smile!" or "Have a Good Morning!" when it's been a long night... The greeter at Wal-Mart is after all there more to deter shoplifters than he is to spread the owner's religious beliefs. (Actually, the Walton's may have a fervent religious belief that shoplifting is a mortal sin...)

Republican "family values" have made it nearly a crime to post the message of "Peace on Earth." It has been nearly impossible for us to find Christmas cards, for instance, bearing that traditional message of Christmas.

But let's be nostalgic for a few minutes...

My father was the department store Santa until the year that none of his six children stopped in to ask Santa for something for Christmas. Thus, I remember asking Santa for a jar of peanut butter for Christmas, and being delighted when it appeared under the tree on Christmas morning.

Then there are the other memories...

Mom's Christmas tradition of going out at midnight on Christmas Eve to find a Christmas tree for a "poor family that won't have one otherwise."

My brothers giving me presents that they wanted to play with. I got two toy cannons for Christmas one year, which were used to break all the glass ornaments on the tree. Both brothers were shooting at each other. Thirty years later, my mother was still celebrating Christmas by describing to me the origins and significance of each of the ornaments that she felt I had broken while she was cooking.

Mom was a lousy cook, and fixing the Christmas feast usually escalated to a shouting match. My dad rarely stayed to eat it, preferring the peaceful company of the homeless at the Salvation Army.

My ex used to order all the presents for my older children through the Sears and Penney catalogs. Her mother would usually send her a check for Christmas which would arrive on the 23rd or 24th, be cashed, and a rush to the catalog stores would result in a lot of last minute wrapping. The year that Sears quit their catalog sales, all the orders were placed through Penney's. That was the same year that we had purchased a new (for us) home. The previous owner had given his daughter permission to live in the home until it was sold. He didn't bother to tell her it had been sold. After the closing at the Realtor, I took the key and headed to the house to find someone else was moving in. I went back to the Realtor, who contacted their lawyer, who contacted the father, who had her out of the house two hours later. My wife had not been with me, and didn't recognize the daughter when she sweetly took our Christmas order at the J. C. Penney catalog desk. At 5:00 P.M. on Christmas Eve, we discovered that no order had been entered into the system... An investigation by Penney's eventually led to a written apology from the store manager, including the fact that our order had been found in the employee's locker, and her explanation as to why. She started the New Year, she called to tell us, both homeless and jobless... I changed all the locks on the house.

I actually have a lot of happy memories of Christmas, but I've shopped enough at Wal-Mart to be certain that the greeter is there to make you feel welcome coming in, and to act as an underpaid security guard on your way out. What the greeter says is really irrelevant to his or her job, it is simply a lubricant in the gears of commerce... Why should I get offended?

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Season's Greetings to one and all here at America's Debate. I look forward to continuing our conversations in the coming year.

Curmudgeon