Seasons Greetings??

Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas?  This, in case you haven't noticed, is a major issue for debate this time of the year.  I once asked someone why she got so upset to hear Happy Holidays as a greeting instead of Merry Christmas.  She said they were trying to take the Christ out of Christmas.  Ok.... so then I asked her who "they" were.  People will answer with the Jews, the Muslims, the atheists (does that need a capital letter?).  Her response? and the one I hear most often?  "They" is the government.  Sigh.

I don't believe anyone can take Christ out of your Christmas unless you allow Him to be taken. In my opinion, many of the people celebrating this occasion have allowed just that.

How many people dread the holiday season because of the amount of work it takes to buy the gifts, decorate the inside of the house, decorate the outside of the house, cook the food, attend the parties, deal with the hyper kids, socialize with the crazy relatives and so on and so on.  Women especially are driven to the point of sheer exhaustion as they are determined to create the "perfect Christmas" for their families and friends.  That idea of perfect is somewhere between a Martha Stewart special edition magazine and a movie like "White Christmas."  That's a lot of pressure on a homemaker; and how many of them only utter the Lord's name while cussing all the work to be done?   The original birthday took place in a dirty manger without a whole lot of fuss.  Remember?

This time of the year brings a lot of complaints about how "commercial" the Christmas holiday has become.  Well how the heck did that happen?  We did it to ourselves...no "they" is responsible.  How many people cut short their quiet Thanksgiving dinner to get to the real  event of the day?  Black Friday shopping, a day early.  The news was full of stories of people camping out in order to be the first to buy the latest trendy gift at a reduced price.  More "fun" were the reports of folks being trampled when the mall's doors opened or of beatings in the parking lot over some transgression of the unspoken rules of super shopping.  I don't think anyone was saying "Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas."  More likely, what you could hear was, "Get outta my way."  Why do we do this to ourselves? 

I am no great philosopher, but I believe too many of us need to stop being annoyed/angry about what "they" are doing to take the Christ out of Christmas, and reevaluate our expectations for the season while taking personal responsibility for the way we celebrate the birth of the Lord. If you are anti-commercialism, then think twice before getting into a cutthroat competition for the last toy-of-the-season on the store shelves.  If you think that accumulating a debt that will take you until Easter to repay is what makes Christmas special, then stop complaining that you don't have enough money.  If you think the month of December is solely owned by Christ-believers, then get over it.  Many people enjoy a secular Christmas that has little to do with Jesus, and that's just fine.  The Elf on the Shelf, Santa Claus in every mall, Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer, Lifetime movies that have reinvented Christmas as the aphrodisiac to marriage, these have become holiday traditions about as far removed from Christ as you can get.  Jews celebrate Hanukkah, and despite the beliefs of some outside the religion, the main focus of the holiday is not the eight days of gifts.  Kwanzaa began being celebrated in the 70's I think.  While I don't observe it, I certainly believe others are entitled to their holiday without the snorts and sneers of non-participants. We all have New Year's Eve in common!  Ain't that grand!

        Happy Holidays!  Seasons Greetings!            Merry Christmas! 

Who really cares to split hairs over what form of cheerful greetings are offered? Take them in the spirit of the season and return the kindness.  You'll be glad you did.