'Tis the Season

Meanwhile, around my lovely hometown …

Wal-Mart Confronted on 'Happy Holidays'

By TOM CHORNEAU, Associated Press Writer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A group of religious protesters demonstrated outside a Wal-Mart superstore Saturday, hoping to turn away customers by calling attention to the retailer's decision to use "happy holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" in its seasonal advertising.
But even shoppers who agreed with the protesters weren't willing to interrupt their quest for holiday deals.

"I believe in Christ, and I don't like the use of 'xmas' or the use of 'happy holidays,'" said Steven Van Noy, 39, as he left the store loaded down with packages. "The bottom line is that they had what I needed at Wal-Mart, so I went to Wal-Mart to buy it."

Controversy over the secularization of Christmas is nothing new, but this year religious groups are publicly taking on retailers who have decided to tone down the religious aspects of the holiday in their store decorations and promotional material.

In an online petition, the American Family Association recently gathered more than 500,000 signatures asking Target to include Christmas in its promotions. Stores such as Sears and Wal-Mart are facing boycotts.
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About 50 protesters took part in Saturday's demonstration, organized by religious leaders. Dick Otterstad of the Church of the Divide donned a Santa Claus costume and greeted shoppers with the message: Don't forget about the meaning of Christmas.

"It is insulting that Wal-Mart has chosen to ignore the reason for the season," Otterstad said.

"Taking the word 'Christmas' out of the holiday implies there's something sinful about it. ... This is a part of our culture."

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Few things amaze me more than the ability of the Socialist Right (a.k.a. Christian social conservatives) to feel oppressed by the fact that there are people out there who just aren’t like them. This whole non-existent “war on Christmas” is the latest, greatest example.

So let’s take a yuletide look at this latest, silliest, conservative distraction from the real issues of the season.

First off, over the years "the holiday season” has referred specifically to the time around and between Christmas and New Year’s Day. That's not one, but two holidays, logically requiring a plural reference.

For most of us, “the season” covers time our kids are out of school, the workplace slows to a crawl and we often take time off for family, friends, football and general relaxation. That’s why we like “the season”, generally anchored on each end by Christmas Eve, where most of us get to go home early, and New Year’s, which heralds back to school and work. For marketing purposes, and sometimes family too, Thanksgiving gets wrapped into the “season” too.

In short, “Happy Holidays” makes perfect sense if we’re referring to the holidays , more than one, please note, and it’s a lot easier on the tongue than saying “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!” for a month or two.

We, all of us, Bible thumper, secular, Jew, all of us, like “the holiday season” because it brings us closer to friends and family, and inspires end of the year reflection on what the past twelve months meant. For the spiritually-inclined, it’s a chance to get closer to the Constitutionally-protected spiritual path one has chosen. For my Jewish friends, this means making more out of a minor holiday just to keep pace with the goyim. So, we greet each other with a holiday greeting to wish the -other person- a fine time over the course of the season. It has nothing to do with how we wish to celebrate the season.

If we wish anyone and everyone “Merry Christmas!” then we’re assuming anyone and everyone’s celebrating Christmas. This ignores our Jewish, pagan and Kwanzaa-celebrating crowd, along with agnostic, atheist and generally secular folks who still celebrate Christmas because it’s fun to share joy and presents regardless of the initial reason for the season.

If we wish “Happy Holidays!” then we’re able to wish joy and happiness on someone regardless of how they happen to find it come December. It also ignores the perfectly decent holiday called New Year’s Day, where Americans pay honor to another spiritual quest, the search for the perfect Bowl Game.

And this is precisely what bugs the Socialist Right.

They want a society where anyone who doesn’t feel as they do in any way is made to feel like a pariah. Or infidel. “Merry Christmas! Sorry if that makes you feel uncomfortable, you un-American heathen weirdo. If you just prayed to my interpretation of God, maybe you wouldn’t feel this way, eh?” And it’s the duty of every marketing device throughout the season to enforce their call to mission.

How dare companies, individuals and anyone and anything actually refer to the plural holidays involved and, the high crime, respect and acknowledge individual spiritual belief and holiday practice? They only practice this kind of rampant uncontrolled individualism in America, not here ... America.

This just ain't right, in their religious collectivist view. Given the power to command Wal-Mart and others to say “Merry Christmas” and nothing else, does any calm observer of the movement believe they wouldn’t do it? That they see it as perfectly acceptable to use the state’s power (after they’ve stripped it of any ability to do meet any real needs) devoted to requiring that we all march to the same hymnal?

The "War" is just another tired refrain in the Socialist Right’s demand than anyone who doesn’t help them bully others into their way of thinking and acting is bullying them –them- in turn. "We're oppressed in the fact that we can't oppress you!!" It’s an assault on the Constitution and the core being of the American political character.

So, in response one and all, wish everyone around you the best holiday season ever in whatever form you wish. It’s the spirit behind the season which counts, not the specific greeting. If in doubt about how to approach it, just ask yourself, “What would Thomas Jefferson (noted Deist) say?”

And if you just happen to run across some goofy minister parading in front of your shopping mall and ranting about Christmas as you go about your holiday spending spree, just smile pleasantly at him, call out, “Hail Satan!” and make the two-fingered sign of the horn (first and index fingers pointed up). Rock his world. It’s good for him. He needs it.

Postscripts:

For a little more holiday enlightenment, go here for a little bit of the fascinating history of the Christmas holiday.

Finally, go here for real reasons you should feel blessed this season.