There's nothing happy about ‘Happy Holidays'

December 11, 2005

Valley Voices\Larry Wood

I am disgusted by the cowards who say &#8220Happy Holidays” when they know very well that the holiday in question is C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S. To fail to acknowledge the reason we all get Dec. 25 off from work is hypocrisy of the highest order.

Furthermore, to misrepresent the day as other than what it is, is to deny the meaning of the occasion. I believe that to deny and demean the meaning of Christmas is the very purpose of saying &#8220Happy Holidays.”

Saying &#8220Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year!” was the American custom up until the Clinton era. Since then, anything smacking of Christianity is to be exorcised from our public and commercial speech. I say, enough is enough.

The meaning of Christmas to Christians is to celebrate the birth of Christ, our Redeemer and Savior. Whether Dec. 25 is the actual day of His birth is irrelevant, just as whether the Christmas tree is a pagan symbol of some sort.

What is relevant is that we, as a nation, celebrate the event as a nation. Whether we, as individuals, wish to acknowledge the &#8220why” of it is up to each of us individually, just as is the nature of our faith. However, all, including atheists, take the day off.

Ever hear of anyone working through Christmas Day simply because they do not believe in Christ?

Christmas. CHRIST MASS, get it? Not snow day, or Peggy's birthday, but Christ's birthday.

I am certainly not offended when somebody says &#8220Happy Hanukkah!” Why should anyone be offended if I say &#8220Merry Christmas,” or if Wal-Mart employees say &#8220Merry Christmas,” something they are not doing this year, as Wal-Mart has bought into the appeasement philosophy.

Why have we allowed our major retailers and our government officials to think they have to go to extremes to avoid saying or allowing expressions of Christmas? Isn't that a restriction on free speech?

Why is Christ's name so abhorrent that Anchorage's mayor, Mark Begich, exhibited moral cowardice by naming Anchorage's Christmas tree a &#8220holiday tree”?

&#8220Merry Christmas” is allegedly not acceptable commercially or in public, because it &#8220excludes” some folks who don't wish to acknowledge the meaning, not to mention excluding those who are offended, because their religion is not the focus. Too bad.

Somewhere along the line of politics and clashing political ideologies in the battle for the hearts and minds of the masses, we have forgotten one glaring fact about a constitutional republic: Rule by majority.

The other glaring fact that is judiciously ignored in any public discussion about this issue, is that the U.S. is a Christian nation, not Muslim, not Hindu, not Buddhist, etc. The figures I have seen demonstrate that more than 80 percent of U.S. citizens claim to be Christian. I think that qualifies as a &#8220sit down and shut up” for the disaffected.

If you are not Christian and find acknowledging Christmas verbally distasteful, you are in the minority by quite a margin. So bite it and suffer through hearing &#8220Merry Christmas.” You can respond to the greeting in a civil manner that pleases you.

The point of protecting the minority viewpoint in the Constitution was to prevent physical harm, not inconvenience, nor prevent a perceived affront to one's sensibilities. Seeing a cross, a Christmas tree, or a Nativity scene will not harm, or immediately confer upon our government, or force upon the viewer an unwilling acceptance of or conversion to Christianity.

I consider &#8220Happy Holidays” in lieu of &#8220Merry Christmas” as another example of a hard-pressed attack upon our culture in this country and the majority religion of the West.

We should not accept such slights to our culture, to our religion or to ourselves as Americans. I am not ashamed of Christmas. Therefore, why should I want to say &#8220Happy Holidays” when I mean &#8220Merry Christmas”?

May you and yours have a merry Christmas and a happy new year. Please do not forget to pray for our troops and their families. May God bless them one and all.

Larry Wood is a resident of Palmer. His Valley Voices column appears every four weeks.