Despite all the commercialism, childish greediness, spiked eggnog, and endless gift-wrapped mountains of materialistic extravagance, there's a lot not to like about Christmas.
Number one on this list has to be "Happy Holidays".
"Happy Holidays" is the neutered expression we now have circulating amongst our politically-correct society. Don't get me wrong, I understand the reasoning behind it: Some of the coworkers, supermarket employees, and friends of friends we run into during these winter days might not actually be investing in a Christmas tree to celebrate their particular holiday. Therefore, let's skip the whole "I actually give a shit about you enough to find out what it is you are celebrating so that I can offer you the appropriate greeting", and cut to the chase.
"Happy Holidays, I gotta go, have a nice life."
Personally, the problem I have with "Happy Holidays" is that I don't actually want to wish someone a happy holiday if I don't endorse the particular holiday. "Happy Holidays" is a blank check on holiday endorsement. If you celebrate Kwanzaa, for example, by no means do I want you to have a happy one. If I did, I would have said "Happy Black Power Day". But I didn't, did I?
"Merry Christmas" isn't a bad alternative, but I have problems with this phrase, too. First of all, there's that glaring "Christ" thing sticking out like a sore thumb. (Make that a "sore stigmata".) I understand that Christmas, in essence, is not a religious holiday, which is why I participate in it at all. But can't we just go all the way and extricate Jesus Christ from Christmas entirely? When I bought the big Play-Doh activity set for a particular four-year-old girl in my life, the last thing I had on my mind was the son of God.
I challenge anyone to enter a Toys R Us and hold the image of a man dying on a cross for a duration of more than three seconds.
