Holidays vs Christmas: a minority view
I’ve been noticing the ongoing brouhaha amongst the blogosphere about many stores using Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas in their advertising and corporate phraseology during this shopping season. As I reflect on the issue, I am not sure it is that bad an idea.
But not for the common reason of political correctness that many cite, but from my faith in the Savior of Christmas.
One of the objections is that it commercializes Christmas. I hate to say it, incase you haven’t noticed, Christmas has been commercialized for a long time. The whole season now is devoted to encouraging greed, avarice, pride, vain-glory and a host of other vices and soul-traps. This is reason number one why I support the move in the corporate world to make it Happy Holidays.
I can’t find anything in my Bible or in my faith that tells me that Jesus would be overly pleased with the outrageousness we have grafted onto the season that began as an act of faith devotion. I believe that Jesus died so that I might have abundant life not so I could get a really good discount on a self cleaning razor and some really warm slippers (my beard doesn’t want the first, but my cold toes would really like the second). I think we believers should be glad to make some separation between the holiday orgy of spending and advertising so we can be clearer about leading people to find their true hope not in the latest gadget but in the child/boy/man/savior we proclaim.
Let the marketers have the Holiday, we will better love the Christ without the extra.
Which raises my other thought about Happy Holidays versus Merry Christmas. Just who is to proclaim the birth of Christ anyway?
Why are we as Christians concerned that non-Christians say the name of Christ? Wasn’t one of emphases in the early church that only one who believes in Christ can/should utter the name of Christ? Isn’t it a bit hypocritical of us asking people in the larger society who don’t believe to invoke the Sacred Name in such a heretical way? And what about corporations? Last time I checked they didn’t have souls. They have soul-filled folks in them, but a corporation cannot be Christian. Why should we insist that a soul-less organization take over our responsibility for telling the story of Christ.
And therein lies my point. We are the ones who should be telling the story. If it is getting lost in the shuffle and the crowd, it isn’t the fault of the company or the clerk who is trying to earn a living for their family. The fault is ours.
Sadly, for some the controversy becomes a smokescreen. I want to lift the veil a bit and say that we are the ones that are failing to be true to the season. We want to stuff and the gadgets and we don’t want to show the compassion or faith.
We can’t do anything to stop the out of control nature of what our society is doing to the holiday season. But we can within our own lives and families and communities reclaim the sacred story with our love and hope in the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ.
That said, I think I will get that robe and slipper set for my wife and I saw these other things for my daughters. But then I will also make sure to put more than a few pennies in the Salvation Army pot and will make another contribution to hurricane and disaster relief. For me they will all be Christmas gifts, and I think that is where the celebration of Christmas belongs, in our hearts and homes, not in the profane world of commerce.
December 7th, 2005 at 11:49 am
I blogged recently on this very thing–but from the other side of you argument. I understand what you are saying, but I think what bothers me and a lot of people is the nonsense involved in the extreme politically correct crowd who think we may offend the 4% of the population who do not celebrate Christmas (regardless of religious belief).
The suggestion I wrote in my blog was to politely say “Merry Christmas” back to the generic “Happy Holidays” greeting.
December 7th, 2005 at 1:39 pm
I would agree that making the change simply out of fear of offense is nonsense. I guess what I was trying to say is that there might be a different level for us Christians to be discussing the issue than simply in reaction to the pettiness of the PC crowd (I say that while still seeking to be inclusive in my language and compassionate for those who choose to believe different than me).
For me, it will be Merry Christmas, because I believe it. I want to have people say it because they believe in Christ not just because it is the name of a season. That I guess is the heart of my argument.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:46 pm
Keep It Holy
If Christians haven’t been responsible about keeping ONE DAY a week holy…how can we expect to keep an ENTIRE SEASON holy?
December 22nd, 2005 at 1:13 am
hmmm… Christmas IS afterall a Christian holy day. I have Jewish (so they call themselves) that put up decorations for Christmas and exchange gifts because they like the tradition and pretty decorations. I saw photos of the malls in Japan today that have Christmas decorations (0.7% of the population there is Christian). I have mixed emotions about this. On one hand the holiday has been very commercialized and the spirit and intention of the season has largely been lost.
On the other hand, people are celebrating it, perhaps without even realizing why. Is it at all possible that the fact that they celebrate it will lead them to ask why and question?
I, like the good RevDave, have a hard time during the holidays, for many reasons I won’t go into here, but talk about on my blog.
One other thing… even though many people attending Church this Sunday don’t attend throughout the rest of the year, it is a chance for them to hear the message again, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll be inspired to come back more often.
That said, there are other religious holidays in December besides Christmas (Hanukkah, Kwanzaa 2 that I am aware of). Hopefully people are open minded enough to not take offense to a generic greeting or one that doesn’t mesh directly with their beliefs. Maybe I’m out of line, but I wish my Jewish friends a happy Hanukkah, out of repect. They wish me Happy Holidays. I take no offense.