I Wish You a Merry Christmas, NOT Happy Holidays
Apparently, this is a radical political statement. Why? Because people are stupid. They are afraid to “offend”.
Since when is wishing anyone a merry anything offensive? If I was in China and people wished me a “Lucky New Year” in February (which is when Chinese New Year falls), it would be stupid of me to get offended because I’m 1) Jewish and my New Year is in the fall or because 2) I’m American and in America we celebrate the New Year in January! LUNACY, people.
So here’s the deal - to my pagan or even atheist friends, I wish you a Merry Christmas. You, in turn, can wish me a Blessed/Happy Solstice. We’ll both smile and thank the other for the well wishes. African? Give me back a Happy Kwanzaa. Heck, I say “Merry Christmas” and you can say “Happy Festivus” and we’ll laugh and thank each other. It’ll be great! But don’t be foolish enough to expect me to not wish you well during this Christmas season. Next time I see you, I promise I’ll wish you a Merry Christmas AND a Happy Chanukuah/Solstice/Kwanzaa/Festivus, okay? But don’t try to take my celebration of goodness and joy or my desire to share these good spirits with you away. Just be happy a stranger is wishing you well, no matter the religion or holiday.
PS- In the spirit of the season, I’m taking a vacation. You won’t be reading anything new here until Jan 2nd, with exception to a “Dear Miriam” letter next Thursday. (Being sick threw off my schedule and missing last week upset me.) In the meanwhile, MERRY CHRISTMAS, Happy New Year and God bless us, every single one.
December 23rd, 2007 at 12:12 am
[...] Check it out! While looking through the blogosphere we stumbled on an interesting post today.Here’s a quick excerptI Wish You a Merry Christmas, NOT Happy Holidays Sunday, 23 December 2007 Apparently, this is a radical political statement. Why? Because people are stupid. They are afraid to “offend”. Since when is wishing anyone a merry anything offensive? If I was in China and people wished me a “Lucky New Year” in February (which is when Chinese New Year falls), it would be stupid of me to get offended because I’m 1) Jewish and my New Year is in the fall or because 2) I’m American and in America we [...]
December 24th, 2007 at 3:18 pm
Did someone get offended? It seems like you wrote this post after some sort of unwanted confrontation.
Anyway, Merry Christmas!
A sales clerk told me she wasn’t allowed to say “Merry Christmas”, only “Happy Holidays”. That pissed me off. During Chanukuah, I told everyone “Happy Chanukuah! Even if you don’t celebrate it, have a good day!” and people were very receptive. I’m just sick of our culture apologizing for celebrating or believing what we do. *rolls eyes*
It’s a season to celebrate joy, goodwill toward men. That’s my point is all.
- mercurial
December 26th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
Hey MS,
Hope you had a Merry Christmas - and have a good time relaxing on your vacation.
Annie
Thanks, I did. And vacation is blissful!
- mercurial
December 28th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
As requested… =)
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular tradition at all.
And a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make the U.S. great (not to imply that the U.S. necessarily is greater than any other country), and without regard to race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting you are accepting these terms. This greeting is not subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting (whichever comes first), and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish to the wishee by the wisher, at the sole discretion of the wisher.
I LOVE this meme!
- mercurial