I disagree.  It does kind of stink when you can’t find anything with a manger scene, three kings, etc., at your mainline Target.  Yes, the public flogging that church in Dallas did was over the top, but the lady you quoted does have a point. 

Do you also think that A Charlie Brown Christmas is over the top for its in-your-face fundamentalism?  :)

“Christians who imagine they are doing Jesus any favors by going around with a chip on their shoulders looking for opportunities to be offended by every bit of tinsel that doesn’t have Jesus’ name inscribed on it are as annoying as the secular fanatics who file suit every time they hear a Christmas carol in a mall.”

No they are not Shea.

Mark,
I both agree and disagree with you here.  Yes, I do think that some get too upset when stores say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.  Yes, Christians (at least nominal Christians) still make up the majority of this country, but there are enough people of other faiths in our country that such a simple phrase probably does no harm.  Also lets remember that origin of the word holiday is in fact “holy day”—in a sense, even when people try to avoid referring to Christ, they end up acknowledging the religious roots of Christmas.

On the flip side, I think it is ridiculous that you pretty much have to shop specialty outfits to find a Christmas card/ornament/decoration that references the Nativity Story in any way.

Ha!  You’re absolutely right!  Does this mean I don’t have to feel guilty now when I sing along to a piped in “Santa Baby” or “Holly Jolly Christmas”?  You’re such a refreshing voice of moderation in the Catholic Blogosphere.  Keep up the good work!

Wicky, I will join you on Holly Jolly Christmas… but “Santa Baby”?  Doesn’t that song pretty much celebrate everything that is wrong with Christmas?

Mark, you are right, though it is a matter of degree, as in many things.  The person going around ready to take offense will of course receive what they seek, i.e. offense.  On the other hand, to be able to find religiously themed cards, ornaments and what not is also what we expect.  Imagine the day we cannot find Christmas cards with a religious theme, and only find vapid images of sleighs and cardinal birds.  Having said that, I agree with your point that chips on a shoulder are not very christian.  Merry Christmas

//is as alien to the spirit of the season as the people who want to pretend it has nothing to do with the birth of Christ.//

And yet we have a column which in 347 words has managed to call Christians silly, abnormal (twice), fussy puritan inquisitors, obnoxious, prideful, annoying and insensitive.

-Tim-

Personally, I’m not particular about a manger, snowflakes, Holy Family, Holly Jolly Christmas, or Silent Night.  As long as it carries the label “Made in China,” I know the reason for the season.

I don’t think it’s too much to expect to find religious Christmas cards, Nativity Scenes (both for Outdoors and indoors at secular stores. 

I also resent a store proclaiming “Happy Holidays” or from the clerks refraining from saying Merry Christmas I make it a point to say Merry Christmas to them, and so far none of them have told me that I’m hurting their feelings.

Maybe I’m going overboard, but no one’s feelings got hurt in the fifties and sixties when Merry Christmas was splattered all over and Nativity Scenes were common.

And I certainly don’t think that Christians, particularly Catholic, should be named “Christmas Inquisitors” for remembering what this day truly commemorates.  Or, are we like the old Jewish people “who knew him not” but we sure know Santa Claus and Rudolph, don’t we?

Just another thought on the Happy Holidays versus Merry Christmas debate (While listening to a Religious Christmas Carol on an NPR station!).  Just because someone doesn’t complain about being wished a “Merry Christmas” doesn’t mean they don’t feel, in some sense excluded.  Certainly (at least I hope not) we would not go around wishing a Merry Christmas to those we knew were not Christians (Note I am not talking about those who use Christmas as an opportunity to evangelize!).  Yet we might be doing exactly that to those we wish Merry Christmas too.
—
In addition, I can’t help wonder if forcing “Marry Christmas” onto an increasingly multicultural and secular society might not risk stripping the Holiday of its religious meaning.  Already there are areas of the world where Christmas is celebrated by millions of non-Christians purely as a secular holiday.  Should we really force the term Christmas on those to whom it means nothing but Reindeer and a totally secularized Santa Claus?

And yet we have a column which in 347 words has managed to call Christians silly, abnormal (twice), fussy puritan inquisitors, obnoxious, prideful, annoying and insensitive.

Correction: We have a column which in 347 words has managed to call Christians who go out of their way to take offense silly, abnormal (twice), fussy puritan inquisitors, obnoxious, prideful, annoying and hypersensitive.

You left out the choice things I have to say about the silly people who live in fear of mentioning Christmas lest they give offense to the politically correct who loathe all things Christian.  These too are silly, abnormal (twice), fussy puritan inquisitors, obnoxious, prideful, annoying and hypersensitive.  I prefer the great and ordinary mass of humanity who either celebrate the holiday without turning it into an occasion of Culture Warfare or, if they do not observe it, wish well their neighbors who do.

In short, I rejoice over the great mass of humanity that is not silly, is quite normal, are not fussy puritan inquisitors, obnoxious, prideful (at least about Christmas, though it’s a battle we all fight somewhere), annoying nor hyper-sensitive.

Celebrate Christmas and you celebrate the normal and the human, not the abnormal and hyper-sensitive and fussy.

Is the removal of Christ from Christmas a bad thing? Yes. Is it part of a grwing trend? Yes. Is it likely a sign indicative of the decline of Christianity in our times? Yes.

Should we go around looking for it and being grumpy when we find it? No.

Perhaps more positive Christians who say “Merry Christmas” with a smile will do more good converting others than pointing out how sinister they are for saying “Happy Holidays.”

James:

I love “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.  People who find it offensive should learn to operate a TV remote.  There is no clause in the Constitution mandating the separation of Church and cartoons.  Secularists who can’t grasp this are in desperate need of Insensitivity Training.

I do not have a chip on my shoulder.  I’d just like to find decorations/cards/gift wrap with a religious theme without a major search.  Really.

Susan:

La voila!

Took 10 seconds.  With a slight refinement of my terms, I could probably narrow it down to specifically Catholic gifts, cards, decorations, and wrapping paper.

Make your own ornaments. Buy them from a local monastery or convent.

Mark,

You are completely wrong. I don’t see anything “inquisitorial” in people wanting Christian decorations for a Christian holiday. Have you been imbibing “the spirit of Vatican II”?

I found some beautiful Christmas cards with the Madonna and Child, angels bowing down at Bartell’s drug store.  In previous years, I’ve found them at Rite Aid and Big Lots.  It’s really not that hard.

Re: a non-Christian feeling “left-out” when greeted with Merry Christmas.  For Pete’s sake - WHO is the season about?!  All of the Jesus’-loves-everybody-and-tolerates-everything taken into consideration,  if someone insists on being offended, my response is “I think it is possibly offensive to Jesus for us to want to minimize Him because some other human doesn’t accept Him.”  If someone insists on taking offense, so be it.  I think we must give Jesus His due.

Therese60640, you do realize that in December there are actually Holidays celebrated by several major religions.  The Jews have Hanukkah and the Muslims have Eid al-Adha.  If we are going to be fair, though none of the modern Pagan sects anything but modern, the Winter Solstice has been an important pagan holiday since long before Christianity appropriated the end of December for Christmas.

Now, I certainly don’t think we should go out of our way to hide our Christianity, and I find it insulting that so often many want to exclude Christianity and the religious aspects of Christmas from the public view.  That being said, I think we are more likely to get interest from non-Christians if we don’t try to force our religion down their throats.

I think this one is worth complaining about. She actually apologizes for saying “Christmas.” 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/12/20/nprs_nina_totenberg_apologizes_for_saying_christmas-comments.html

I think the whole Christian Nazi approach misguided, but it is but a swing of the pendulum from the runaway political correctness that somehow changed our culture to the point where it is treated as insensitive to say “Merry Christmas.” Which is silly, and shame on us for allowing that to happen. The simple fact is the national holiday marked on my and every other calendar I have seen in my four decades of noticing such things is called “Christmas.” My calendar even notes “Christmas Eve.” Saying “Merry Christmas” is wholly appropriate because that is the name of the holiday. There is no holiday listed on any day in December as “Holiday” nor is there one listed as “Season.” We don’t say “Season’s Greetings” on Thanksgiving, Independence Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Valentine’s Day or even, interestingly, Easter. We hear “Have a safe and happy Fourth”, “Happy Valentine’s Day”, “What are you doing Labor Day weekend?”, and we even hear “Happy Easter.” It is therefore easy to view the substitution of “Season’s Greetings” and “Happy Holidays” for “Merry Christmas” as a denial of the very essence of the holiday being celebrated. The answer, for me anyway, is to say “Merry Christmas”, note and thank people who say it to me, especially in stores and such; buy Christmas cards that reflect the holiday, just like we do for Valentine’s Day (there are no generic “Happy Feelings of Vague yet Uncommitted Non-Specific Emotion” cards issued for that day, after all) and relax about it. Slowly we will realign the culture. I’ve noted in the past two years a definite swing back - and we should simply and lovingly acknowledge the change and refocus on the reason for the season - which is not to club everyone over the head about what they should and shouldn’t say - but is simply to reflect on our response to the Incarnation of the Savior of The World.

Which is silly, and shame on us for allowing that to happen.

We have no reason to feel ashamed because Professionally Aggrieved Grievance Professionals decided to make themselves hyper-sensitive.  My wishing you a Merry Christmas only constitutes a crisis for secularist human toothaches.  If such people decide to feel hurt, I feel no obligation to accommodate their hyper-sensitivity whatsoever.  They need to grow up.  I do not need to change one iota, nor does any Christian who like to celebrate the Feast of the Incarnation.  Nina Totenberg’s sense of shame at the frowns of her snooty friends does not obligate me to feel empathy for her.

I merely note that Christians also have no obligation to feel so cowed by these silly people that they over-react and start policing everybody to make sure that they say “Merry Christmas” and not “Happy Holidays”.  Fussy Left Wing Culture War Puritans are not mended by fussy Right Wing Culture War Puritans.

Poor cool Mark, !@#$%, !@#$%, !@#$%…always !@#$%. Time to emerge from Romper Room after so many years one would think.

Thomas:

Thank you for that lesson in constructive commentary.

Well, I believe that Jesus does not want us to be ashamed of him either.  I may be “Fussy Right Wing Culture Warrior” but guess what Mark, our Diocesan Bishop actually wrote us a letter advising us to “observe Advent”, have Christmas parties AFTER Christmas, not to decorate your tree or decorate the Church until Christmas.

Forgive me if this week I am emphasizing “Merry Christmas”,  As a fellow poster remarked this is a federal Holiday “Christmas” and not “Holiday”.  I think it’s a small thing to wish someone a Merry Christmas.  Of course, I wouldn’t say that to either a Jewish person or a Muslim.  I respect everyone else’s belief, but just lets not take the “Christ” out of Christmas, especially in this era where atheists seem to win every battle with the ACLU helping out.

Rosemarie- Where in the world did Mark say he was ashamed of Jesus or did he advise people to not observe Advent? I am sure Mark is doing so as well! Your post does not follow at all from Mark’s entry.

I agree with your post wholeheartedly. And honestly I don’t know what all of the fuss is about…I have never had a problem finding religiously themed cards at Kmart, Target, etc. There are rows and rows of all types of cards. However if people are so concerned about preserving Christian identity, perhaps we could all strive to support Catholic bookstores, monasteries, etc. with our cards and gifts.

And in all honesty, most secular commercial establishments have a very different meaning to their Christmas than we do as Catholics…is that really the representation of Christmas I want shown? I don’t know about that.

When the dominant forces of society (media, government, commerce, workplace) systemically attempt to shove the religiosity of the Christmas into the closet and keep it there, while freely soliciting our time and money for their own pockets and careers under the guise of “The Unknown Holiday” (as I like to call it), it’s a little bit annoying. 

But I don’t cringe when people say Happy Holidays. On the other hand, when I complete a transaction at any store, instead of waiting for the salesperson to send me on my way, I issue a hearty “Merry Christmas!”, and every single time, I’ve gotten a very happy “Merry Christmas to you!” in return.  People are very eager to say it. 

There’s always going to be a group of people that will focus like a laser on semantics, but the fact is, over the last hundred years, the season has been gradually captured by secularists.  And it wouldn’t have happened if Christians hadn’t given them their money and empower them to do it ni the first place.  i.e., the horse is out of the barn. 

Let the dead bury the dead.

I must be living in my own private universe here in the Washington Metro area.  I have noticed so many people saying Merry Christmas to me this year. (Of course I do wear a little crucifix on a chain around my neck).  I’ve seen so many references to Christ and the Nativity this year as well.  We went to a parade in Leesburg VA which had Christ all over it.  The Knights so Columbus marched in it, for one!  We went to sing Christmas carols (not just songs but actual carols) at a nursing home and nobody got offended.  Everybody was full of good cheer.  And as for Christmas cards and such, support Catholic Companies and mail order your cards.  Goodness, people get mad at the commercialization of Christmas but then they get mad when it isn’t commercialized enough!

I live in a very multi-cultural area, yet I have definitely seen an increase in people just openly being Christian, LOL!

What’s going on at the Register today? This is the second article today that leaves me very disappointed with your lack of good judgment.

I’ve wished Jewish friends a Happy Jewish New Year and they have wished me Merry Christmas. The only people who get their knickers in a twist are the folks who don’t want any of this, in my experience.

The hypersensitivity you describe is kind of silly and does exist, but I don’t think being slightly disappointed when a store like Target doesn’t have manger scenes (if in fact they don’t) is a bad thing. Reacting to it by chewing out a manager or something is, sure, but it might not be bad to go up to an employee and ask where they keep them.
___
The key is this: when the employee says “I’m sorry, we don’t have those,” respond “Oh, ok. Thank you,” not “That’s @#$$@# #@#$#$@ retarded,” and you should be good. If enough people do in fact care, the stores will catch on and things will swing back the other way. And if not, at least you didn’t make yourself (and the rest of us) look like turds in public.

Claire, I was just making a point of Advent celebration BEFORE Christmas.  And a lot of this depends on the area you live in.

I live in Salt Lake City, and religious cards are not that prominent here.  Rather the decorations point to reindeer, Santa and a lot of secular things.

I do notice though that the clerks always respond to “Merry Christmas”.  I am very disappointed however in Mark’s column.  If I didn’t know better, I’d believe it was from the Times or our local secular paper.

I wonder if he’s read of the Baby Jesus billboard in the UK or the large billboard recently put up in NYC to counter the atheists one.  Are these also Christians who have gone too far?  Enough said.

“If I didn’t know better, I’d believe it was from the Times or our local secular paper.”

I’m genuinely curious.  Why would you think that?  Do you think, “Look, I’m a believing Christian who not only thinks we should keep Christ in Christmas, but who even thinks we should keep Mass in Christmas” is a profoundly secular sentiment?

I think some stores chose not to carry religious cards out of political correctness.  Perhaps it is their own bottom line they are hurting.  Either way, there is a definite market for the cards.  Some will buy through the Knights of Columbus stand at their Church, others through other stores or online stores.

Because of your proceeding remark “Well, normal people have the same reaction to silly Christians who go into the holiday (notice you did not say Christmas) season itching for opportunities to police everyone elses speech and actions for telltale hostility toward Christians”.  This I would expect to see in a secular paper, probably in the editorial page.

Would that include, “Merry Christmas”, staying out of stores that refuse to use the word “Christmas” but other holidays are okay?  And would that include the Knights of Columbus billboards that portray the Nativity?

If so, I am one of those crazy culture Christians and proud of it.  This in part from the good Sisters that taught us in the 50’s and our parents.

“notice you did not say Christmas”

*shaking my head*

“Would that include, “Merry Christmas”, staying out of stores that refuse to use the word “Christmas” but other holidays are okay?  And would that include the Knights of Columbus billboards that portray the Nativity?”

People can shop as they please.  If you feel like keeping a checklist of how many times some clerk says “Merry Christmas”, knock yourself out.  Meantime, why on earth would you think I would have a problem with the Knights of Columbus billboards?  You don’t really seem to grasp my point, Rosemary.

I think if you want to find a creche or special card at Target or whatever, then tell them. They are a privately owned company, they will sell what they can sell. If you don’t like it, shop somewhere else. Your local Catholic bookstore is small, independent and deserving of your business.

I love your blogs, by the way Mark, I always laugh at the comments of the people who get so bothered by you. People who want to fight every stupid little battle so hardcore drive me crazy and I love how you call them out.

Maybe you need a better example, Mark.  The person you quote doesn’t engage in any ‘Christmas Police junk’, she merely expresses that she’s tired of seeing only snowmen, etc. and then says that she will support stores that carry religiously themed cards.  That doesn’t seem like a puritanical inquisitor to me.

Elijah:

My example was the link to the story of the website that has been created for the sole purpose of publically flogging harried clerks and shopkeepers whom hypersensitive Christians have decided are “grinches”.  I’m sorry, but I simply don’t believe that we are living in a society where it is impossible—or even difficult—to find as much Christian-themes Christmas stuff as one could want.  As I say, I could find stuff in five seconds on the web.  My Christmas joy doesn’t depend on whether the manager at Target is timid or not. I regard much of the War on Christmas rhetoric as a yearly exercise in getting the troops ginned up for next year’s culture war, not as something having to do with actually celebrating Christmas.  The fruits of this stuff are not love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control, but sullen resentment and hypersensitivity.  Not healthy.

Mark, your finding stuff on the web in five seconds doesn’t count for anything.  One can find anything on the Web; we’re talking about finding stuff in real life.  You are right that Christians don’t need to go around looking for reasons to be offended and being rude to well meaning folks, though.  (And, I didn’t go to the link.  I think you should include some policier stuff from the page to which you refer and your case would be helped.)  Anyway, Happy Holidays!

I believe that all of this stuff, Mark, began years ago when all of a sudden Nativity scenes were removed, the word “Christmas” was removed from the season, for example kids programs and “winter recess”.

That is why some of us remain Culture Warriors as silly as it seems.  Gradually, the stores are coming around and thanks to some, Nativity scenes are being restored.

This country is being secularized gradually and we need to speak up.  I respect your opinion though, but forgive my for being a hyper-sensitive old lady who thinks of the old days when we didn’t even perceive a “Christmas War.”  And Merry Christmas to you and your family.

Rosemary:

We aren’t disagreeing.  The fussy Puritans of the Left who are bound and determined to make it “always winter and never Christmas” (like the White Witch in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) are indeed nasty creatures.  I’m simply saying that we don’t do the gospel any favors by becoming mirror images of them.  By all means, celebrate Christmas out loud and in public.  I’m just saying that when we do so as a sort of political statement intended to score off some ideological opponent instead of to celebrate Christ, we are losing track of the meaning of the Feast of the Incarnation.

I get your point. I mainly get frustrated with myself. Especially whem I was younger (and a bit protestent), I fretted so much over the issue. (and I personally find stores like Life Way to be stuffy and boring). I still want to see some option for traditional manger scene’s and Joy to the world but i also enjoy picking out wrapping paper with Father Christmas, winter scenes as well. Even the paper with the pointsettia’s has a Christ centered meaning to it. While the season can be at times void of anything sacred at times, lets not make it worse for ourselves and our familys by becoming Scrooges, rather let enjoy and share every aspect of it. Like a Bob Cratchit.

Right on, Mark. Thanks for your reasonable and sane outlook.

Mark,

Great post! I love that you bring such a blunt point of view…and it is really refreshing to see different opinions:) I agree we shouldn’t be looking for things to be scandalized about.

Let’s face it - we’re Christians in a post-Christian society! And maybe it’s my age, but I just don’t expect major retailers to carry Advent Wreaths, Beautiful Angel tree toppers and Nativity Scenes (well - they do carry the Little People Nativity:) I fully expect to go to a Catholic Bookstore to find those things.

And I do think that finding Christian/Catholic items online counts for A LOT - since MOST people these days are BUYING THINGS ONLINE when they want to find “specialty items”:) For pete’s sake - if you want something from Pottery Barn and you don’t have a store within a 20 minute radius, you go to the POTTERY BARN WEBSITE and order it from there!!!!

Merry Christmas:)

Mark,

Are you wearing a yarmulke in your picture?

I think you’re obnoxious.  Almost as obnoxious as those atheist bus ads this time of the year.

Maybe all the Nativity scenes and religious-themed greeting cards were sold out before those disappointed shoppers got there. Whatever, merchants will sell whatever sells. I choose whatever cards strike me as pretty, because Jesus came to redeem all creation, and nothing on earth exists outside his Kingdom. That’s why heaven and nature sing! So, I think “Jesus is Lord” when I say “Happy Holidays” cause I am a supersecret soul-loving sabotuer.

“Are you wearing a yarmulke in your picture?”

?!

No.

Kasey:

And a Merry Christmas to you!  Christ is born!  Alleluia!

People. “Eid” is not not NOT a “December holiday” or a “winter holiday”, because Moslems use a pure LUNAR calendar which has NOTHING to do with the seasons.

This year, Eid-ul-Adha was on November 16th. Last year, it was on November 27th. Next year, it will be on November 6th. The year after, it will be on October 26th.

  Eid-ul-Fitr, in all these years, was in August or September on the Roman calendar.

  None of these is usually considered “December” or “winter”.

  How, how, did this “Everybody Knows” canard get started?

And, Mark, I think it quite reasonable to take offense when OUR holy day is treated as though it was the coming of Santa Claus, not the coming of Christ. I have been told that putting “religious” messages on “holiday cards” or greetings was “too blatant”. If I object, does that make me a “Christmas Inquisitor”?

  It looks to me like “they” are not the only ones looking for reasons to be offended.

“If I object, does that make me a “Christmas Inquisitor”?”

Of course not.  What, in what I wrote, would make you think that?  You have a perfect right to celebrate Christmas and if secularists in need of Insensitivity Training feel the need to scold you, ignore them.

But that’s the point:  Ignore them.  Don’t let them stick in your craw and make you bitter and resentful.  We live in a post-Christian culture.  Getting angry about the fact that non-Christians ignore Jesus at Christmas as they do the rest of the year is a waste of time.  They’re non-Christians.  Why should we expect different?  If a few of them decide to make themselves the Blatancy Police, laugh at them, wish them a Merry Christmas anyway and move on.

Let Scrooge’s nephew be your model, not some angry blowhard on FOX who is only interested in ginning up Christmas War rage because it makes Christians easier to manipulate the rest of the year.  Christmas belongs to the Christ Child, who had no place to lay his head, not to either side in our contemporary polarized and politicized climate.

Mark: 

Given one of the posters above mentioned the Sol Invictus.  Having read—and tried to spread!—your work on the origins of using December 25 for the celebration of the Lord’s birth, I was surprised you didn’t mention that in your comment.

I have read a work of Pope Benedict’s in which he mentions the Sol Invictus as being “baptized” by Christianity, and the man is no slouch on history and theology.  How solid is your argument pertaining to the dating of the original Good Friday and its relation to Christmas?

I apologize is this is a bit of a rabbit hole…but I also hope it introduces some sanity.  :)

Happy Advent!

(Wow…typos abound.  My apologies.)

Maryland Bill:

Turns out the Christmas/solstic/Sol Invictus connection is bunk.  Go here for more info: http://markshea.blogspot.com/2006/12/everybody-knows-that-christmas-is.html

Mark, I loved your column in the Register.  I wish you would write columns like that online.  However, you evidently don’t like Fox, and thats your right, so don’t watch it. 

I happen to believe that the “blowhards: on staff, particularly O’Reilly for the past few years has brought the real meaning of Christmas back to the world, and if he whined about stores and such not having the Christmas spirit that is his opinion, but it sure has brought the Nativity Scenes and such back, and stores wishing a Merry Christmas.  I don’t think that thats going overboard or too much to ask.

Interestedly enough, I don’t watch any of the cable news networks now including CNN OR the news channels.  I would rather glean through the papers online and get my Catholic news from the Register.  Merry Christmas.

Rosemary:

I don’t get much TV.  We use a DVD player.  O’Reilly may, for all I know, have had an impact on the timidity of shopkeepers.  If so, good for him.  However, when he asserts that the true meaning of Christmas is “The Lord helps those who help themselves” with the serene expectation that all good Christians agree that this is a cornerstone of true Christian faith, he is (one must say) a rank heretic who is leading millions of people into replacing Catholic teaching with conservative ideology.

If there is one thing that Christmas and the whole gospel message oppose with savage ferocity, it is the lie that the Lord helps those who help themselves.  The entire point of Christmas is that the Lord came to help those who could not help themselves—every last sinner who were powerless to save themselves. 

So celebrate, by all means, that O’Reilly might have gotten a few shopkeepers to say “Christmas” out loud.  But if the cost of that is that millions of Christians blindly agree with the lie that “The Lord helps those who help themselves” and forget completely that “God commends his own love to us in that, while we were yet sinner, Christ died for us” then I’m skeptical that it’s a good tradeoff.

I play the piano an hour a week at a senior citizens gathering in a city hall in a town in California.  This time of December, my playlist is mostly Christmas Carols, with a few secular (Jingle Bells, etc.) tunes thrown in. This morning, I was delighted by one of the seniors having a bilingual set of lyrics for “O Holy Night”, NOT on my playlist, but I do know the tune.  After several of the ladies sang it in English, I was amazed that on the repeat, two of them sang it in Chinese! (Cantonese pronunciation, probably!).  No one complained that we were singing Carols in a city hall - maybe the ACLU hasn’t heard about it.
After my hour was finished, a number of those present applauded, and we received compliments - no one complained.  I think people are mostly grateful to hear Christmas carols sung.
TeaPot562

Teapot:

Right you are!  Normal people like Christmas carols.  They like them even better when they get to sing them.  It’s really only a very small percentage of people who are such human toothaches as to get all offended when normal people are having a good time.

I’m coming more and more to the opinion that the best way to deal with these officious killjoys is to simply—and en masse—ignore and defy them.

It may seem like people are being hyper sensitive but it can also be interpreted as vigilance. The trend has been decidedly anti christian over the last few decades and every inch of ground lost has been because christians didn’t vote their values in the ballot box or the cash register. We should hold every bit of ground from here on out. :)

I seem to have a unique (or at least rarely voiced) opinion on the matter: defer to the tradition of the person you are wishing well if you know; if it’s not obvious, mirror back the wish they express to you. This is an imperfect analogy, but here goes. . . one doesn’t say “Happy Birthday” to another person because it’s the speaker’s birthday, but because it’s the *well-wished person’s* birthday. In my opinion, both situations should be focused on the other rather than the self, wishing another person happiness in what they are celebrating, whatever it is. I happen not to be Christian so wouldn’t likely say “Merry Christmas” if I speak first, unless some signifier such as a crucifix indicated that was appropriate. I generally say “Happy Holidays” because I want to be inclusive. I like it when people who know me wish me well in my tradition, but I don’t expect it at all. I’m certainly not offended by being wished “Merry Christmas”. If someone greets me with “Merry Christmas!”, I wish them the same even though it isn’t my holiday, because it’s likely *theirs*.

The issue I have is when a company makes a decision to not allow their employees to say Merry Christmas. I think making people aware of companies with those policies allows shoppers to spend their money with knowledge of those who are telling people no more of that Merry Christmas stuff.  I also hate it when some organizations do the same by taking Christ out of Christmas and respond by having my say about their choice which is the American way last time I looked. 

If a person by their choice says Happy Holidays, you can respond by saying Merry Christmas again by your own choice.

If a person or entity wants to say “Happy Holiday” or “Season’s Greetings” instead of “Merry Christmas”, I don’t begrudge them, so long as they’re not doing it to avoid offending people. Why would anyone be offended by well-wishing? I may be wrong, but this notion of non-Christians being offended by Christmas greetings or displays is a fairly recent phenomenon. It used to be that they understood that Christmas was a very popular Christian holiday in our culture and by and large they accepted it. Many, if not most, still do. It’s largely non-non-Christians who are trying to take Christ out of Christmas for the sake of being “inclusive”.

Wow, great article and super discussion going on here!  This is my first visit to this blog/site—found out about you all because this article was linked in a post at http://honeytrail.wordpress.com/2010/12/22/a-christmas-picture-worth-a-thousand-million-words/#more-726

Keep it up!

“Both sides are wrong so imitate my way of life,” is the subtext of many pieces by Mr Shea, so, it is not surprising to find evidence of it in this piece.

However, were it not for Culture Warriors, America would be far worse off than it is.

Over at VDARE (Mr Peter Brimelow initiated the War over Christmas against the Pagans) there is an excellent column by Mr. Tom Piatak wherein he gives credit to the culture warriors Mr. Shea chooses to excoriate.

And where was Mr. Shea when these Christian men were doing the heavy-lifting and realising substantial and substantive results in the market?

Dunno.

In any event, here is the link to Mr. Piatak’s piece:

http://www.vdare.com/indexb.asp

I don’t have a problem with pushing back against the small minority of people who are really hostile to Christmas.  I merely think that becoming hyper-sensitive and hostile to every timid shopkeeper who says “Happy Holidays” is as foreign to the spirit of the Season as the human toothaches who get offended by red and green decorations.  Say “Merry Christmas” all you like. I do, and I don’t care if somebody gets offended.  I merely note that most people don’t.  The problem is timidity primarily.  Not “War on Christmas”.

Mark Shea, you just condemned yourself by going out of your way to condemn someone who was upset at not being able to find any christian materials to use. I take this to mean one of two things. A public statement of the possibility of your decision to reject Christ, or that you may have a problem with pride that has resulted in you writing carelessly to make your point.

“I take this to mean one of two things. A public statement of the possibility of your decision to reject Christ”

Yes.  You have me pegged exactly.  Writing, “I’m a believing Christian who not only thinks we should keep Christ in Christmas, but who even thinks we should keep Mass in Christmas” is clearly a signal of my intention to reject Christ.