My sentiments exactly. Who cares what anyone says about Christmas? I’ll keep saying “Merry Christmas” with great joy just as I’ve always done, no matter what. If people get all grumpy about it, so what?!

And the funny thing is, when was the last time you met somebody who got grumpy about it?  Most people are relieved when you say “Merry Christmas”.  They realize it’s okay to say it.

Excellent column. Thanks. And Merry Christmas to all.

I like that distinction between cultural and spiritual warfare - going to ponder that for a bit.

Well, of course you are right, Mark. That is why He is known as The Prince of Peace.

As always, Mark, you are taking it to the “next level” (spiritually).  I LOVE how you challenge the readers of the Register.  I am often dismayed at how media outlets “pander” to their readership w/out challenging them to think or examine their own conscience.  God bless you.

I especially love the challenge to keep ‘doing Christmas’ past the 25th.  How many Catholic folks will be tossing their trees and stop playing their Christmas music on the 26th just as the stores and radio stations will do?

I am not asking anyone to consider keeping those traditions going until Candlemas (Feb. 2nd) but how about at least until Ephiphany (Jan. 6th)?  It is always so jarring of me that the radio stations start the Christmas songs on the day after Thanksgiving but end them at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 26th! 

Let’s not forget that the 12 Days of Christmas are supposed to start on the day AFTER Christmas!!!

Mark,
There is only one thing to say,
The Kramer family wishes the Shea family a joyous and blessed Merry Christmas.  May He who brought joy to the world bless your family this year.

Mark, another excellent work.  But, I can’t help opening up the voting can of worms again by asking—why not apply this same approach to those who are as equally convinced of the necessity of counting “happy holidays” as those who are worried about counting votes and winning elections and changing the colors of state maps from red to blue and back? (as if party politics = moral rectitude)  You argue that Cultural warfare is not spiritual warfare.  I would argue Political warfare isn’t spiritual warfare, either.  If your last quote from St. Paul is true of the War on Christmas, it is also true of the War on Guns, the War on Liberty, the War on…. fill in your own petty worry.  If everybody participating in the political process took all of that time and money and angst and focused it into fervent righteous prayer and service to the Church of Christ, think of where we would be?

Steven:

Merry Christmas from the Sheas to all the Kramers!

Thank you for this Mr. Shea.  I love Christmas.  I love Christ.  We do indeed have great good news!

Only one person ever got angry when I wished him Merry Christmas: a sales manager of a company providing alternatives to traditional facelifts. A smile would make anyone’s face look better. If someone wished me Happy Hannukah I’d be thrilled; let me feel the joy you do and I will feel and share mine. Mark, great post—Merry Christmas to you and your family!

good stuff, Mark! But note that even “Xmas” itself was/is/could be again a Christian way of identifying Christmas proper: http://dailyuw.com/news/2011/dec/06/wills-word-week-xmas/ ... though I know you are indeed thinking of “Xmas” as the secular concept, and with you I agree.

but since this country WAS built on the premise of freedom of religion we cannot stand idly back and let those freedoms be trampled on…... the very least we can do is speak our minds and vote accordingly…the rest is up to our Lord

Could you tell me where I recommended letting religious liberty be trampled?

That was very helpful.  I feel freer!

I refuse to say “Happy Holidays.” For the simple reason it is Christmas. The memorial of the Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ who toke on flesh,and was send by our heavenly Father. Being born of the Virgin Mary. I think this is enough reason to celebrate this so special season. John. Flipsen

Another cop-out by Shea; & Laurie Shultz you are so right. Every freedom that we lose will never by re-gained until the final coming of Jesus. Is it right to sit in a pan of water, not moving, as the flame makes the pot hotter & hotter as Mr. Shea seems to be telling us? No thanks & have a very, Holy Peaceful CHRISTmas!!!  +JMJ+

JMJ:

“I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute. We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party. But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I’ll keep my Christmas humour to the last. So A Merry Christmas, JMJ!”

“Good afternoon!” said JMJ.

“And A Happy New Year!”

“Good afternoon!” said JMJ.

No one will every stop me from saying Merry Christmas.  I say it will much joy and love.  No one seems to mind when I say it.  Some yes are startled but they like it.  This was a very good column.  Very inspiring.

The highest thanks.  I refuse to participate in this so-called war by liking all my friends’ posts or proclaiming with bumper stickers about “keeping CHRIST in Christmas.”  Enough already, it only makes followers of Christ look bad to always be up in arms about everything!  When Charlie Brown complains about the commercialization of Christmas, it’s funny.  From everyone else, it’s just whiney.

JMJ, I don’t see it as a cop out at all. Going against the tide and not caring about being PC by wishing people a “Merry Christmas” isn’t just sitting around doing nothing. We don’t need to confront people. We need to pray and live our Faith. Every Sunday I drive to the OWS
encampment here in Kansas City. I don’t get out of my car and confront the ‘protesters’. Instead, I pray either the Rosary or the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for their souls. Wouldn’t it be great if people did this in front of these anti-God displays instead of getting all angry?

K:  I hear you.  If I were to have a bumper sticker about Christmas, it would say, “Keep Mass in Christmas”. :)  However, the only bumper sticker I ever put on my car said, “Break the Conventions.  Keep the Commandments.”  I think wishing somebody Merry Christmas for joy and not as an angry political statement as JMJ would have us all do is a much more Christmassy thing to do.

K, I agree with you. I have seen militant postings on Facebook that say, “I don’t celebrate ‘holiday’; I celebrate ‘Christmas.’” Rather than liking it, I simply commented back: We can’t lose sight of the fact that it IS a “Holy” day (holiday). In our right desire to protect the word “Christmas,” we should also work to protect the meaning of Christmas.

It still annoys me to hear all the national news media say “holidays”.  It’s like Christmas is a bad word.  Ordinary Americans aren’t against Christmas but certain athiest groups are like those that don’t want anyone to have a natavity scene.  I’m all for the Christian groups that are fighting for our religious rights.

If you say Merry Christmas, I’ll buy lots of material things from you with my credit card that is already in debt!

Ah yes, that’s exactly what Christ had in mind!

Have a Hanukkah!

About the only thing Keith didn’t say in this video was that we’ll put a boot up ol’ Herod’s rear.
  I’m still cracking up and I’ve been sending copies of this link to my family members and friends.
  But for a more egg-heady blast at the social correctness Scrooges, let’s not forget Garrison Keillor’s attack on the goo-goos of a couple of Christmases ago. http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2009-12-16/news/bal-op.keillor16dec16_1_silent-night-unitarian-christmas
  Well, he wasn’t addressing his usual NPR-Prairie Home Companion listeners, but his pique is somewhat understandable having just left Cambridge…not exactly a place anymore where Christmas is celebrated and honored like it used to be. I can remember when Harvard Square was a fun place for all people around Christmas time.
  He should’ve headed west by a good 90 miles to the Five College, Inc. territory, aka “Happy Valley,” “Pioneer Valley,” Hampshire County, Northampton, (aka “NoHo” a place where Bohos can feel right at home) and Amherst, where the real natives properly pronounce as Amerst. That’s right, no h.) Even in Amerst they manage to get the UMass/Amherst Minuteman Marching Band to play at the multi-culti Christmas and other religiously themed sing-along on the Amerst Town Common.
  On the other hand, if he didn’t want to head west, Keiller only needed to take a bus up a few blocks to Tip O’Neill’s old turf, “Barry’s Corner,” a blue-collar working neighborhood: Where even a Midwestern Lutheran can feel more at home than at Hah-vud Squaaa-uh.
  The scenery’s much nicer out west, though. So are the people. 
  Merry Christmas, y’all.

A great assessment of what C. S. Lewis calls “Christianity AND,” where the cause initially adopted to support the Faith comes to supplant the Faith.

Much is made among “progressive Catholics” of Benedict XV’s condemnation of Action Francaise nearly a century ago.  The reason was that the leaders of the movement, who were atheists, said that the Church existed to support monarchy, rather than that monarchy existed to support the Church.  They later recanted, and the ban was lifted.

Then the “progressives” did it with civil rights, peace and social justice in the 60s, where their support for those worthy causes led them to allow those causes to overwhelm not just other political and social concerns but to subordinate their faith to those Causes.

And now, it’s happened with the Catholic Right and abortion, homosexuality, etc.

As for your comparison of culture war and spiritual warfare, I’d say that Culture War *is* spiritual warfare so long as the “culture” is kept focused—that, like you say, we don’t confuse Christianity *with* America, or Christianity *with* GOP conservatism, etc.

I like what a commenter on your old blog said several years ago, that the Culture War is really a three way war—the Cross, the Crescent or the Condom.

I guess if Catholics want to be edgy they can say “Happy Advent” until Dec. 25th. I like “Happy Holidays” because, until Dec 25th, it isn’t Christmas. The only thing being memorialized at this time in the Church is Advent, which should be a series of “happy” holy days where we prepare for the coming of the Lord historically as a baby so many hundreds of years ago, and eschatologically at his second coming. There are also other Happy Holidays around the season, like the Immaculate Conception, so it seems more fitting.

Retail stores aren’t celebrating Christmas, they are celebrating their profit, so I don’t give a flip if they wish me a Merry Christmas or a Happy Holidays because their lips say one thing but their intentions scream “Sucker!”

You can write a 1,000 volumes with a thousand millon unpronouncable, meaningless words in it as to why x-mas to you is so lovley, to God it is not! It was not observed by the original church, only the Holy Days as outlined in Leviticus 23 are. You cannot erase history, or the prophets, though you have tried and do try. “In vain you worship me, teaching as doctrine the commandments of men”-Jesus Christ. Some of the “harshest” condemnations given by the Lord was directed toward the “religious authority”, Not the adultrers, thieves, etc, etc. The road to the Lake of fire is paved by mens traditions! I would not label you as “sucker”, but decieved all the same.

You make me happy!

“The worship of some creature such as “America” or “traditional values” or “Xmas” or “the good old days” gets all balled up with the worship of Jesus and replaces it like stone replacing bone in a fossil.  Jesus made his great beachhead landing on the Normandy of satanically-occupied earth on the first Christmas in joy and humility, not in frustration, anger, resentment and with the sense that he was fighting a losing battle.”

Very nice! This culture will pass away (perhaps very soon), but the Church will always be with us.

Well, now, I did used to write a humorous email to some catalog companies who advertised pages and pages of “Holiday” goods without once using the word “Christmas.”  Now, I can beam with mild goodwill upon “Holiday” tableware and “Holiday” decor, but I get a little crease in the old forehead over “Holiday” trees, “Holiday” ornaments, and “Holiday” stockings.

So, as I say, I’d write an email, in which I asked in a kindly but puzzled voice if the store merchants could please send me a copy of their Christmas catalog, as I didn’t celebrate “Holiday” and had no use for a “Holiday” tree and “Holiday” stockings?  Some responses were so p.c. as to be hilarious; others were quietly humorous, and still others sympathetic—but here’s the thing: several of those companies now use “Christmas” quite openly and fearlessly in their “Holiday” catalogs, as if before the only thing stopping them was a fear of public disdain and lawsuits by the ACLU.  They must have heard from many customers like me, and realized that, actually, people aren’t by and large offended by the idea that if they’re shopping for greenery, ornaments, and stockings in December the word “Christmas” is okay to use in connection with those things.

The conundrum is: how do we know when to be salt to the earth, and when to refrain because instead of salt we’re actually being vinegar?  I think if a preference for the word “Christmas” being used can be conveyed kindly and with good humor one need not be afraid to make that preference known.  As Mark says, boiling anger over a “Happy Holidays” message is likely not a “salt” moment.

(However, if the Nissan (tm) company tries to tell me once more that we’re celebrating “The Most Wonderful Sale of the Year” I may have to disconnect my TV until after the New Year holiday.)

“Happy Holidays” makes perfect sense, since around Advent and Christmas, there are so many holy days we celebrate: St. Nicholas’ feast, The Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Lucy’s feast, Christmas, The Holy Family, The Holy Innocents, Mary Mother of God…to name a few!!  Happy Holidays is not a white-washed, pc version of Merry Christmas, and there’s no reason to be offended if someone wishes you a Happy Holidays!  Give them the benefit of the doubt.  :)

Thanks Mark, for this article.  I am fairly dumbfounded that Toby Keith actually wrote and sang a song like that!  I take it, from your comments, that Steven Colbert made the video, but the words are just as absurd as the visuals, so it’s hard to tell!

What if the store clerk is not a Christian? Do you (whoever is offended by “Happy Holidays”) honestly expect them to go around saying “Merry Christmas” as a practitioner of another faith? Would you feel weird if a store clerk said “Happy Kwanzaa” or “Happy Chanukah” to you? Or would you prefer the

Customer: “Merry Christmas”
Store clerk: “Happy Chanukah”

exchange over the

Customer: “Merry Christmas”
Store clerk: “Happy Holidays”?

Mark wrote, “Culture warfare is not spiritual warfare.”

Perhaps.  But our great Pope John Paul II understood that culture is the driving force of society.  Let’s not forget that he wrought much havoc in the halls of power of the old U.S.S.R. and Poland with his cultural warfare.

JMJ & Laurie: You both need to loosen up, lighten up and chill out in Harvard Square and Lake Woebegon. Even hanging out with the Boho’s in Noho, (Bobehmians in Northampton, MA) would do you a lot more good than sitting around and conjuring up the next holier-than-thou hard-pack’d and yellowish-looking snowballs at Mark.
  I can just see you two watching A Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life,  an’ wringin’ your hankies the moment Scrooge softens up upon l earning about Tiny Tim’s illness and mean ol’ Potter tossing his towel in because he can’t bag George Bailey on embezzlement charges he ginned up to begin with. That would’ve taught Bailey not to mess with the REAL bankers like today’s who don’t mind hiring robo-signers as cheap as they can by the dozen so legions of old widows can be tossed out of their homes on Christmas Eve.
  There’s gotta be some script writer out there with the charm of Ann Coulter and Mitt Romney who’d love to bankroll this upcoming gem of compassionate cinematic advocacy: “Some Like It TOUGH!”

I liked your column too.  Happy Holidays is okay with me too because actually it should be “Happy Holydays” and we do have a lot in December!

I am one of the Catholics this year that is beginning the season on Christmas!  This was urged by our Bishop last year, and I reluctantly surrendered to that.  My Mary and Joseph are on the lawn, but no Jesus yet.  I suppose that most of the neighbors think I’ve lost it, but never mind.  Ones that have inquired about it, I’ve informed them that Jesus wasn’t born until Christmas!  I get a lot of reactions because I live in a mostly Mormon community that believes stringing lights and showing Santa and his reindeers is Christmas!

It’s far more peaceful to begin celebrating on Christmas Eve (our pastor suggested that we “give something up” on that day to honor the Christ Child.  He “suggested” the computer, so I may do that.  My Christmas music is ready to listen too, and although I don’t have a tree, the Nativity (weather permitting) will be displayed until the Nativity.

I was going to post the music video on my facebook but I’m afraid some of my old GOP buddies would have taken it seriously. Seriously!

You betcha if all they watch is Fox and all they read is Drudge.