Why? Well, one can hardly call a Christmas tree a Christmas tree without someone correcting them and calling it a "Holiday tree." No, douchebag; it's a Christmas tree. School districts are cancelling Christmas concerts, Christmas toy drives and have changed the lyrics to classic Christmas songs have been altered, all in the hopes of not offending people. Well, in a country where almost 80% of its citizens affiliate themselves with a Christian religion, who do the PC police really think they have a better chance of offending? Normally, when the odds are 80/20, betters take the 80%, but not here. To get off the Christmas topic for a second, this past Easter season, the managers of my apartment complex sent out a flyer announcing they would be having an egg hunt for the kids, and that there would be an "oversized bunny there." Are you fucking kidding me? (Maybe I should have put that in quotes, because I think that's how I started off an email to the front office of where I live). "If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck, if it's an oversized rabbit, it's a fucking Easter bunny." (There. That one gets quotations because I know I wrote that in the email). We came to the agreement that I won't be getting any further flyers stuck in my door announcing the presence of any more PC holiday figures.
Now, I am not saying that "Happy holidays" is not an inappropriate greeting during this season. Those of the Jewish faith celebrate Chanukah, and then there is Kwanza, so I get "Happy holidays," - to an extent. If you don't know the holiday someone celebrates, it is fine to wish them and their family "Happy holidays," however; when you know what a person celebrates, don't be afraid to say "Christmas," or whatever holiday the individual observes. One of my best friends is a priest and he told me he was at a Hallmark store once buying a Christmas gift for a relative. He was in his normal priest clothes, with Roman collar, and when he checked out the cashier said "Happy holidays." Someone who does not care would not have said anything. My friend? He cares, and he responded with something to the extent of "If you cannot tell what I celebrate by the clothes I wear, that's sad." And it is.
In New York City right now atheists paid for a billboard to read "Who needs Christ during Christmas? Nobody," and "Christ" has an "X" going through it. Well, since in Old English, "Christmas," means "Christ's mass," it is pretty apparent that in order to have Christmas, one must have Christ. People can have a day to give gifts to others, but that's not Christmas. That's a day.
Do atheists have the right to put up ignorant billboards? Of course. Just like Rev. Phelps and his inbred Westboro Baptist Church congregation have the right to incite everyone and their mothers with what they do, atheists can do the same. That is what is great about our country. We have rights that not everyone else in the world enjoys. I would love to see atheists operate in places like Iran during Ramadan. They would probably find it hard to hold picket signs with stubs where their hands use to be.
Do some believe that Christians took pagan symbols and made them their own, (i.e. Christmas trees)? Sure, but quite frankly I don't give a shit. This isn't an article debating such things, history is written by the winners, and the last I checked, Frodo and company defeated the Witch-king - so deal with it. In the end, I just want people to be comfortable in saying "Merry Christmas," singing Christmas songs without worrying about offending anyone and being jolly.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
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