Andrew Crighton
Editor-in-Chief
This time of the year has become unnecessarily complicated in the amount of time that I have been alive. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings; which of these is correct? Are any of them incorrect? Is some random guy in front of me in the checkout line going to go off on the cashier because they said the wrong one apparently? I just don’t know anymore.
Since I was in my late teen years, I would say is the time that the ‘War on Christmas’ has been on my radar; and I grow even more tired of it every year.
In the first place, I really don’t see why it matters that people have begun to replace the greeting of Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays. December has one of the highest concentrations of different celebrations and holidays in a single month. Because we live in an increasingly smaller world, with a decreasingly homogeneous society it is simply more factly correct and accurate to say Happy Holidays in the month of December.
There is no attempt to remove Christmas from the attention and knowledge of people across this country. There is an effort being made to acknowledge the other holidays that have existed and been celebrated by people in the United States for far longer than this has been an issue.
If as an individual you feel that your beliefs are under attack by no longer being told Merry Christmas when checking out at Walmart, perhaps you need to consider that the United States is not a Christian nation. The U.S. is a nation composed by a large proportion of Christians, but that is not the same. There is no reason why any person should perceive any different sentiment in the greeting of Happy Holidays; it is an inclusive term. Christmas, shockingly, does count as a holiday.
I am about to back peddle a little bit here, as well as possibly contradict myself. The conventions of how we as Americans celebrate Christmas, are changing. But it is not for the reasons that are spouted out by angry social media users and Fox News.
Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas doesn’t matter. Starbucks has a plain red cup, removing the snowmen and decorated pine trees? It doesn’t matter.
What does matter is that debt accumulating, money spending smorgasbord of Christmas shopping is starting earlier and earlier every year.
If my memory serves me correctly, there were Christmas trees on display in the local Walmart in October….October!!!
Black Friday has always had kind of a dirty reputation as blowing the good-willed sentiment of Thanksgiving out of the water. But it has been getting so much worse in the past year or two.
My family usually goes Black Friday shopping, because it’s fun and you might get a crazy good deal. As far back as I can remember the craze started at midnight the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Then a little while back some stores started having early bird doorbusters at 10 p.m. and 11 p.m.
And then this year it changed big time. Stores were open at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving day, the doors closed around midnight to restock, and then reopened at 2 a.m.
I’m sorry, but that’s just ridiculous.
If you’re upset about the ‘War on Christmas’, be mad about that. The cashier doesn’t get paid enough to deal with your insecurities about Happy Holidays, actually confront the things that are changing how you celebrate Christmas.
