{"id":15428,"date":"2014-11-11T11:00:24","date_gmt":"2014-11-11T18:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=15428"},"modified":"2014-11-10T13:34:30","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T20:34:30","slug":"great-debate-merry-christmas-or-happy-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/great-debate-merry-christmas-or-happy-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Debate: Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Westover<\/em><\/p>\n

(Author bias: I\u2019m completely neutral in this debate \u2013honestly. If given the chance, I\u2019d gladly scream \u2018Merry Christmas\u2019 at the most ardent anti-Christmas freak out there, especially if I knew it would turn them purple with rage. It is not that I enjoy making people angry but rather that in my own sick, twisted way I enjoy seeing people get angry at the silliest things. But at the same time, I hold no ill will for the phrase \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d. I find it funny that some people do.) <\/em><\/p>\n

Ebenezer Scrooge once famously said: \u201cIf I could work my will every idiot who goes about with “Merry Christmas” on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps Scrooge was a school calendar coordinator in a previous life. <\/p>\n

Or, maybe he was an advertising manager for a major retailer. Or, perhaps, he was a city coordinator charged with hanging \u201choliday\u201d lights<\/a> in the town square in December. <\/p>\n

Whatever his situation it seems he had much in common with many individuals in modern society who simply do not like the term \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d. <\/p>\n

As sure as there is an \u201cx\u201d in Christmas<\/a> you can bet that someone, somewhere in our modern world is going to get pushed out of shape by hearing the words \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d. To some people, the term \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d can be worse than the f-bomb. <\/p>\n

The word merry, as otherwise more politely recorded elsewhere on our festive pages, means \u201cjoyous\u201d. (Well…it depends on where you are. If you visit our friends in the UK you’ll no doubt here a lot of “Happy Christmas<\/a>!” instead of “Merry Christmas<\/a>!” because the word “merry” also suggests a drunken state, which would not be appropriate in all circumstances).<\/em> <\/p>\n

So to wish someone a \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d means only to wish them a joyous Christmas<\/a> season. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the problem. <\/p>\n

The problem is the reference to Christ. Some who do not believe in Christ become offended that one would invoke His name in a sentiment of goodwill. <\/p>\n

Think of it this way: you say \u201cHave a nice day\u201d, and no one would be offended by that. But if you say \u201cHave a nice day, in Jesus\u2019 name\u201d \u2013 and you got trouble. That\u2019s the beef amongst those who decry \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d. <\/p>\n

It is a stupid beef. <\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas\u201d, as a word, sure enough has sacred leanings. It is a simple contraction of an obviously religious term, \u201cChrist Mass\u201d. <\/p>\n

But thousands of years later with plenty of congressional debates behind us we also recognize Christmas<\/a> as a secular day, observance, term — and sentiment. <\/p>\n

After all, we have Christmas<\/a> trees, Christmas<\/a> lights<\/a>, Christmas<\/a> candy, and Christmas<\/a> cards. None of these things have anything to do with \u201cChrist Mass\u201d. <\/p>\n

Associated with the word Christmas<\/a> are things like mistletoe, the Grinch, stockings, Santa<\/a> Claus, wassail, and really, really mediocre Christmas<\/a> tunes by a Jewish boy named Neil Diamond. (White Christmas<\/a>, the most popular of all modern holiday tunes was penned by another Jew, Irving Berlin, is also completely secular). <\/p>\n

None of these things had anything to do with \u201cChrist Mass\u201d either. <\/p>\n

So, in essence, the term \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d means joyous \u201csacred\u201d Christmas<\/a> OR joyous \u201csecular\u201d Christmas<\/a>, interchangeably. How convenient, eh? <\/p>\n

In an ironic twist of merry fate many try to placate those who would be offended by Merry Christmas<\/a> by substituting the apparently safe and politically correct term \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d. <\/p>\n

It is only ironic because of the passionate throngs who insist that \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d must be said in order to preserve, protect and defend the right of Christmas<\/a> to exist (because they think there is a terrible never-ending war on Christmas<\/a> staffed by armies intent on pulling the plugs on all the lights<\/a>). <\/p>\n

Their arguments are goofier than those who blanch at the words Merry Christmas<\/a>. <\/p>\n

They build websites, sell buttons and crusade on Fox News about how brave folks need to be in expressing their constitutional rights to say Merry Christmas<\/a> \u2013 and to be wished the same when they shop. They boycott any retailer who refuses to say \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d in their ads (unless they have the cheapest price and then never mind). <\/p>\n

I work in retail and during Christmas<\/a> 2008 I was helping a customer load her purchase into her vehicle and upon finishing I said \u201cHappy Holidays to ya!\u201d I was just being friendly and thanking her for her business. She turned cold and thin lipped. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t say Merry Christmas<\/a> to me? What\u2019s wrong with you?\u201d <\/p>\n

I honestly didn\u2019t think a thing about it when I said \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d. After all, broken down, the word literally means “happy holy days” which would technically make it more of a religious term than “Merry Christmas”. <\/p>\n

For a jolly person buying her loved one presents during a season of peace<\/a> she sure was hostile. <\/p>\n

And that, after all is said and done, is the point. <\/p>\n

Both terms are universally defined as well wishes \u2013 and who could ever be offended by either one?<\/p>\n

For goodness sake, if you see on Facebook or other social media this Christmas<\/a> those snarky graphics that say “Say Merry Christmas<\/a> to me, Not Happy Holidays” please avoid passing them along. One only showcases ignorance and intolerance when they do so. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Westover (Author bias: I\u2019m completely neutral in this debate \u2013honestly. If given the chance, I\u2019d gladly scream \u2018Merry Christmas\u2019 at the most ardent anti-Christmas freak out there, especially if I knew it would turn them purple with rage. It is not that I enjoy making people angry but rather that in my own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98,28],"tags":[154,153],"class_list":["post-15428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-debates","category-christmas-features","tag-happy-holidays","tag-merry-christmas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}