Why the War on Christmas Isn’t What You Think

It’s that time of year again! I put up my Christmas tree weeks earlier than is commonly accepted in my peer group, I’ve been singing carols for at least as long, and my holiday spirit is bordering on manic. In my household, we are holly jolly from the start of October until the New Year dawns.

Of course, it’s inevitable that someone has to kill my happy holiday buzz with posts about the “War on Christmas.”

For the last time, there is no War on Christmas!

Happy Holidays

Saying Happy Holidays is inclusive of all the holidays that happen from Thanksgiving all the way into the New Year’s celebration. So… that includes Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.

It further includes Hanukkah, St. Nicholas Day, Boxing Day, and Kwanzaa. While not all of these holidays are widely celebrated in the United States, it has come to my attention that not everyone lives in the United States. Saying Happy Holidays is just easier than saying Happy-Thanksgiving-Merry-Christmas-Happy-Hanukkah-Happy-St.-Nicholas-Day-Happy-Boxing-Day-Happy-Kwanzaa-and-Happy-New-Year.

That’s certainly an exhausting mouthful of seasonal cheer. It’s not saying Not-Merry-Christmas or Happy-Holidays-to-everyone-but-those-celebrating-Christmas.

For those who point out that we wouldn’t have a Christmas season but for the birth of Jesus, I should point out that we would still have a boatload of holidays. Further, there is absolutely no evidence that Jesus was born on December 25th. Taking it a step further, most of our traditional Christmas celebrations come from pagan traditions.

If you don’t believe me, look it up.

Merry Xmas

Then there are the “don’t cross Christ out of Christmas with X-Mas” people. Let’s break this one down, too. Now I’m no Greek expert (after all, it’s all Greek to me, haha), but I can search the Internet just like anyone else.

That X in Xmas? It’s the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ. It’s not crossing Christ out of Christmas, and it’s not a new trend — it’s been around since the 16th century if the Internet is to be believed.

Starbucks Cups

And the Starbucks cups? I haven’t even checked them out yet, but if they aren’t in the shape of a stable with a baby Jesus on the side with the word Christmas in bold someone is bound to complain. We’re talking about coffee cups here.

Apparently, last year they were in 4 different holiday designs: red, patterned, red, patterned green, and holly berries. Grab your Hobby Lobby torches, and let’s take to the streets!

If I seem awfully triggered about the complaints around Christmas, please allow me to explain.

This time of year is supposed to be the season of generosity and goodwill to all. It’s not supposed to be a time to prioritize our own particular celebration over all others and be mean to our fellow humans because they didn’t make merry in the way of our choosing. That would be like getting angry because another family chose to open a gift on Christmas Eve rather than waiting for Christmas because it’s not what your family does. Which is just crazy.

I guess it comes down to three things:

Mind your business.

Don’t look for something to be offended about.

Just enjoy the holiday season.

Actually, if you need something to be offended about, I have a list for you.

It’s not all-inclusive, so go ahead and get offended about that, too, while you’re at it: homeless veterans, the conditions of refugees seeking sanctuary in our country, our climate change crisis, children going hungry, the number of US deaths from mass shootings, people going without proper healthcare, the high rate of suicides around the holidays, elder abuse, child abuse, domestic violence, poverty, the insanely rich getting insanely ridiculous tax cuts, sex trafficking, hate crimes, police brutality, animal abuse, and the list just keeps going.

A better idea for the holiday season would be to save your mad for one of these things and then put it into making a donation to a good cause, volunteering our time, or actually doing something in our communities to help out.

It would be so much of a better use of our time than getting angry that a secular holiday song was chosen as the theme of a holiday parade that you think should be called a Christmas parade or complaining about what coffee cups people are drinking out of this season.

When someone says Happy Holidays, feel free to return that greeting with the one of your choosing if you like, but if you don’t know what holiday they might celebrate, it would be kinder still to simply return the well-intentioned Happy Holiday greeting.

Because no one is saying Happy Holidays to piss you off.

Except maybe me after you killed my happy holiday buzz with your Grinchy attitude.

To recap: the holidays are more than just Christmas, no one is waging on Christmas but they sure as hell are complaining an awful lot about being tolerant and inclusive of everyone, and if we want to be grouchy during the holiday season, we would be better served to find a cause that needs our passion and address that.

And finally, Happy Holidays isn’t leaving out Christmas, and I’m pretty sure if Jesus was walking the Earth today he wouldn’t be flipping over tables at Starbucks because they didn’t use the right cups or complaining on social media that people were slighting his special day. I’m pretty sure he might just smile, return the greeting, and keep on treating people in the way he wants to be treated like the Golden Rule dictates.

Maybe we should follow that example and save our righteous indignation for something a little more worthy of our time and attention.

Happy Holidays!