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MM.org Forum: Talk => Tiptoeing Around 'Merry Christmas,' er, 'Happy Holidays'
Quote: :
Tiptoeing around 'Merry Christmas,' er, 'Happy Holidays'
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Ebenezer Scrooge would enjoy Christmas in America this year.
Drowning out the sounds of sleigh bells ringing and children singing are the sounds of arguing.
At issue is how to greet people, how to decorate main street and how to sell gifts -- all without offending someone.
Religious conservatives are threatening lawsuits and boycotts to insist that store clerks and advertisements say "Merry Christmas." Countering are those who argue they are being inclusive and inoffensive with the secular "Happy Holidays."
In the middle seem to be most Americans, who not only aren't offended but find the whole spat rather ridiculous.
"You'd think there might be some Christmas spirit around Christmas time around the issue of Christmas," said Paul Cantor, a popular culture expert and professor at the University of Virginia.
"It's one time you really wish people really could live and let live."
Alas, that's not what this Christmas is all about.
Sparks flew when President Bush sent out cards referring to the "holiday season," a leading Republican declared the decorated tree on the Capitol lawn a "Christmas Tree" and not a "Holiday Tree" and the logger who cut down the tree for the Boston Common was so upset when officials called it a "Holiday Tree" that he said he'd rather see it fed into a wood chipper.
'Hanging the greens'
Conservative groups have marshaled the forces of lawyers volunteering to help anyone fighting for Christmas displays and launched boycotts of retailers whose advertisements fail to say "Merry Christmas."
A school system in Texas found itself in court after teachers asked children to bring white -- rather than red and green -- napkins to a party, while Annapolis, Maryland, raised hackles by calling its evergreen boughs and ribbons on public buildings the "Hanging of the Greens" rather than "Christmas decorations."
Fanning the flames are conservative talk show personalities bemoaning the secularization of Christmas.
Fox News anchor John Gibson chimed in with a book "The War on Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse than You Thought."
"'Happy Holidays' and 'Season's Greetings' are not a substitute for 'Merry Christmas,"' said Manuel Zamorano, head of the Sacramento, California-based Committee to Save Merry Christmas, which organizes store boycotts over holiday advertising.
"Christmas is the holiday and 'Merry Christmas' is what we want to hear," he said.
"It's political correctness gone amok."
Blame politics
Bah humbug, said radio talk show host Bill Press, author of "How the Republicans Stole Christmas."
"People have been saying 'Happy Holidays' for a hundred years at least," he said.
"This is nothing new.
It just celebrates the diversity of America."
He blames politics.
"It is all by design," he said.
"The more people are talking about who's saying 'Happy Holidays' and who's saying 'Merry Christmas,' the less people are talking about Karl Rove, torture, Tom DeLay, the war in Iraq and other hot issues.
"And the more they stir up their evangelical Christian base over this issue, the more likely they are to get out and vote Republican in 2006," he said.
The debate has become comic grist.
"Every time you say 'Happy Holidays,' an angel gets AIDS," warned television comedian Jon Stewart.
The satirical newspaper The Onion wrote a spoof about a judge who declared Christmas unconstitutional, with a photograph purporting to be workers dismantling the famed tree at Rockefeller Center to comply with the judge's ruling.
Making the rounds on the Internet is a series of mock memos from a fake company inviting employees to a Christmas Party, complete with open bar, gift exchange and tree lighting.
By the last of the memos, the increasingly beleaguered company is forced to apologize to its Jewish employees, the office alcoholics, Muslims, dieters, pregnant women, gays and lesbians, union members, management, cross-dressers, diabetics and vegetarians.
In the end, the party is canceled.
Retailers in the middle
Stuck in the middle of the debate are retailers, whose seasonal selling campaigns seem to raise particular wrath.
"When someone says 'Happy Holidays,' they're saying something very nice to you.
There's no ill intent behind any of this," said Dan Butler of the National Retail Federation.
"When you're dealing with the public you'll get positive comments and negative comments about everything in the world."
Perhaps, added Peter Steinfels of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, there isn't a war on Christmas after all but a more sensitive religious right.
Conservatives are using the super-fast Internet and e-mail to publicize what they see as extreme examples of "super politically correct conduct," he said.
"It gives the impression that there's a great deal of political correctness ...
When in fact it may not really be so different from the way it's always been."
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/12/18/christmas.holiday .reut/index.html
"Happy Yule"
There.
Problem solved.
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Yule is not till the 21st.
Now is Los Posadas.
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I despise it that people are up in arms about this.
This time of year is supposed to be happy and so forth rather than who's saying what.
There are a butt load of other holidays around this time that should be celebrated too.
So what's the problem with saying happy holidays?
And along the other lines to the other side.
I'd take no offense if someone said happy hannuka to me.
What's the problem with Merry Christmas too?
That's it.
I'm going to give out carrots and yams for christmas and shout Happy Kwanza at the top of my lungs.
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The holidays are a time of horrible stress and feelings of being a failure because I can't get everyone the things they would love to get.
On the TV even Santa can give Mrs.
Claws that special something that will make her entire year.
Sometimes it just seems that Christmas is the time for people with a boat load of money to buy the love of their children for another year while the rest of us spend money we don't have in hopes that our kids will not feel left out and then worry about how to pay the bills for the next few months.
I know this seems off topic but what I'm getting at is in the holiday popularity contest Christmas bought first place so it doesn't matter what you call it as long as you smile while taking out your check card to pay for it.
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This is getting crazy.
Who cares what you call the holiday season?
The people who must fuss over the smallest detail, that's who.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, the holiday season, etc, they all mean the exact same thing.
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The only reason I celebrate Christmas with my family is because of the chance to give and get neat stuff and eat until I explode.
In the end, I really don't care what it's called.
To me it's just a day designated by society to celebrate with your family.
You want to call it Jesus Day?
Fine. You want to call it The Time of Winter Giving?
No problem. You want to call it ZOMG J00r Reelijin Iz Silleh!!!111?
I can deal. Christmas isn't about what you call it;
It's about how you spend it.
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The only reason we celebrate Christmas in the winter is because of Yule.
Yule was celebrated in the winter because all of the crops were harvested, so there was an abondance of food.
When the church tried to turn everyone to christianity they used that pagan holiday, and made it a christian holiday instead, so the 'pagans' could still celebrate without a fuss.
Jesus Christ wasn't born in the winter, he was born sometime in the summer.
So, if they *really* want to be politically correct, then they should say Happy Yule, instead.
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Lady Serissa wrote on Mon, 19 December 2005 13:27
The only reason we celebrate Christmas in the winter is because of Yule.
Yule was celebrated in the winter because all of the crops were harvested, so there was an abondance of food.
When the church tried to turn everyone to christianity they used that pagan holiday, and made it a christian holiday instead, so the 'pagans' could still celebrate without a fuss.
Jesus Christ wasn't born in the winter, he was born sometime in the summer.
So, if they *really* want to be politically correct, then they should say Happy Yule, instead.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who knew that.
Oh and: Christmas + New Years = More that one holiday, therefore I greet people with "happy holidays".
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I have to agree with Fan, and I propose that the child in Weird Al Yankovich's "12 Pains of Christmas" name the holiday: "BUY ME SOMETHING!"
It's a really miserable experience to have no money to pay bills with, and to still feel obligated to buy relatives - in-laws, no less - gifts because they feel the need to send a Christmas list to you detailing what they want to get.
Fortunately, they took a hint from us this year, and instead of getting crappy Herberger's or JC Penny cards this year, they got us the Wal-Mart cards that we told them we needed - that's how we've been buying groceries since the 11th, when we celebrated Christmas with them.
My boss was also sympathetic to my griping about them and got us a Wal-Mart card for a Yule gift.
Here's what I have to say to the religious right: Christianity is the dominant religion, right?
That's what you keep saying.
That's why you keep saying that all of us have to say "Merry Christmas".
If that's the case, then QUIT SPENDING MONEY during the holidays and SPEND TIME WITH YOUR BIBLE instead.
How long would the "commercial" or "secular" holiday last if every Christian (or professed Christian who is not but still feels the need to bitch) quit spending money on gifts during December?
Then us good Pagan kids could quit feeling obligated to buy gifts for people and could instead spend the holiday quietly with food, family and greenery, like we're meant to.
Happy Yule, everybody.
I'm looking forward to "Christmas" at my parents' house on the 25th - a whole day of cooking, pigging out on food, and throwing random objects at my brothers, as it has been every year since I can remember.
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Bah. My Econ class discussed this briefly today.
And no one was happy that people were making such a big deal about it.
As one classmate put it, "It's just another reason for people to fight, after there isn't anything left to fight about." or something along those lines.
The class agreed it's just another reason to cause another political uproar and keep politicians in the spotlight.
I don't care what people call it or how others celebrate the season, I know I spend my time with family and friends to have a good time, and enjoy each others company with food and thoughtful gifts.
If more people would leave it at that and not get caught up in 'political correctness', everyone would be all the merrier.
I say 'political correctness' for the reason that there is no such thing.
At least that's what I think.
But that's another issue.
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Merry Not-Giving-A-Damn-Bout-Loser-Relatives to y'all then!
Yes it exists, and I'm the one that created it.
It goes from Dec.
20 to Jan. 10, more or less, depending on how much Christmas spirit my relatives have.
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Poverty. AIDS. Cancer.
The war in Iraq. Plenty of problems in the world you can go over, but you got to pick the pettiest one?
Try doing some real good, gov.
Pricks. Just say Merry I-have-a-gift-you-got-a-gift-let's-exchange-them-a nd-be-happy-for-once.
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Quote: :
"Every time you say 'Happy Holidays,' an angel gets AIDS," warned television comedian Jon Stewart.
That's why I love Jon Stewart.
Anyway, Christmas is the most nerve-raping, walet-sucking holiday known under heaven.
Jesus called and wants his birthday back from capitalism.
Screaming "MERRY CHRISTMAS" at the top of your lungs at anybody doesn't change the fact that the true "reason for the season" is our republican economy.
All of this we like to call "christmas" really makes baby Jesus cry IMHO.
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Let's see... the2 1st...
happy:
Yule/Winter Solstice, Litha and St.
Thomas Day
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Oh what? and no one's saying "Happy Hanukkah"?
It's what Jesus celebrates.
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Before school let out for break, this topic actually came up in both my English class and my Theology class.
I really think that *it doesn't matter*.
As Wolf said, there are bigger things to worry about.
People are just overthinking and fighting about a petty topoic.
I think that whoever brought this argument up--not at MMo, but who REALLY started this argument--must be a very sensitive, un-fun person, and I probably wouldn't want to be friends with them.
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