The American Family Association has released their annual list of businesses that are “for” or “against” Christmas. Basically, “for” businesses say “Christmas” while “against” businesses say “Holiday.” It’s all pretty ridiculous.
Thank the baby Jesus in his manger that my local pharmacies and office supply stores are on the “good” list!
If the Holiday loses its meaning within a family, its because the family lost it. If companies change the wording because some people that don’t believe in anything caused a stink, its because that company just wants to sell. If you are angered by the wording Christmas, its because you don’t understand the reason for the season and shouldn’t be celebrating it anyway.
I long for the days when religious types said christmas was too commercial…now it’s not commercial enough for them. sigh.
I think we all need to shut up and agree that Christmas has pretty much ceased being a Christian religious holiday, and is pretty much a secular American holiday. I mean, my 2 year old nephew pretty much thinks Christmas is Santa’s birthday. So to all you non-Jesus believers, you are welcome to celebrate in Santa’s birthday.
The idea that Christmas is somehow under attack by some pernicious anti-Christian cabal has been around for many years; personally, I do think there’s a heavy anti-Semitic component to it. Henry Ford wrote about Jews conspiring against Christmas in 1921, in his famous tract “The International Jew”: ““The whole record of the Jewish opposition to Christmas, Easter and other Christian festivals, and their opposition to certain patriotic songs, shows the venom and directness of [their] attack…” But, anti-Semitic or not, it’s still a matter of reactionary conspiracy theories. As Michelle Goldberg wrote (back in 2005): “To compare today’s “war on Christmas” demagogues to Henry Ford is not to call them anti-Semites. Rather, they are purveyors of a conspiracy theory that repeatedly crops up in America. The malefactors change — Jews, the U.N., the ACLU — but the outlines stay the same. The scheme is always massive, reaching up to the highest levels of power.” The article where I’m getting this stuff from: http://www.salon.com/2005/11/21/christmas_6/
It took me a while to decided which side to be on, the “holiday” or “christmas” side. Because i feel like its fucking stupid for non-christians to get upset about christians celebrating their holiday openly, and its also fucking stupid for christians to get upset about including everyone. I guess ny stance is pro-“holiday” since it seems to be the side with the best intentions, including everyone.
Yay for fear mongering and the narrow minded! These people are so afraid of things changing… they want everything to be “the way it always was” … and that’s such a load of bull. Members of my own family have complained about Kwanzaa being a made-up holiday. I tried to explain that Christmas is just as “made up” and was co-opted from the pagans, in order to convince them to convert. This did not go over well.
Sadly, Christmas really isn’t what these Christians want it to be about anymore. Krissy made a valid point as well, but anymore….Christmas means presents, merchandising and black friday shopping. For some of us it’s family and friends still….but I think the holiday lost it’s true meaning a long time ago.
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