What is Wrong with Merry Christmas
There I said it
Lots of people get grumpy at that greeting. They don't want to be supporting Christianity in a secular society and prefer - Happy Holidays. I grumble at that. Somehow something gets lost when you say that.
I was raised as a Christian in the Baptist church and a high point of the year was going to a midnite service at the church on Christmas Eve.
We'd dress in our Sunday best and then put on warm overcloaks and walk up the hill to the church which was just glowing with openness and warmth.
We'd all sing together songs we all knew.
Somehow saying Happy Holidays ignores all of that. Merry Christmas talks of a spiritual experience while Happy Holidays talks of enjoying your time at the beach in a tropical paradise.
I admit that Merry Christmas can be seen as exclusionary since lots of people follow non-Christian traditions. But I think the sentiment behind the saying is a pretty universal message that is compatible with every religion I know of.
For me, Merry Christmas has connotations of peace on earth and good will to all men.
Happy Holidays has connotations of "I'm all right jack - keep your hands offa my stack"
Once long ago I stopped paying attention to Christmas. It all seemed phoney. I worked in a camera store that counted on Christmas for half of the yearly sales. I was wtf.
One Christmas John and I drove from Vancouver to Salmon Arm without Christmas celebrations. I liked that. I fell into a tradition of going into a retreat at Christmas where I'd stock up on favourite foods and not celebrate and would stay away from the celebrators.
But when people say Merry Christmas to me I don't take the meaning to be the commercial subliminal suggestion to buy more gifts. I take it to mean peace on earth and good will to all men.
And I amend that to mean - peace on earth and good will to all people.
Merry Christmas :-)
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.