Posted on 01/03/2005 9:28:06 PM PST by Coleus
It’s Time to Dump ‘Happy Holidays’ 12/23/2003
The phrase has become a way to avoid any recognition of Christmas.
Remember those little yellow smiley buttons that seemed so cheerful at first but then drove everyone mad because of their underlying insincerity? Well, “Happy Holidays” is even worse: It might even be a form of bigotry.
Oh, I know that most folks don’t mean it that way, but hear me out.
The phrase used to be another way to say “Merry Christmas.” Now, it’s a way to avoid any recognition of Christmas.
Everyone knows that the shopping and carols and nonstop “holiday” advertising are about Christmas. Santa Claus is not here to deliver a groundhog for Groundhog Day, or even to preside over Ramadan, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. So why does the word Christmas have to be censored?
Sometime, somewhere, the Grinch pulled the switch and ordered America to cease using the word Christmas. Retailers went right along with it, despite being heavily dependent on Christmas shopping, which puts them in the black at the end of the year. Many would actually go out of business if not for Christmas, the driving engine of America’s consumer economy.
All you hear now is “happy holidays.” The stars and angels signifying Jesus’ birth came off the tops of the mall Christmas trees, replaced by teddy bears or symbols more befitting a Hopi Indian ceremony.
For a time, a few holdouts seemed safe: Christmas trees, Christmas cards, Christmas stockings and Christmas lights. But this year, advertisers shucked the plural “holidays” and began talking about “the holiday” and even “holiday trees,” “holiday cards” and “holiday lights.” A TV ad for a pet store chain shows a young couple amid Christmas stuff discussing how their puppy will spend his “first holiday.”
Enough is enough. Let’s end the “holiday” nonsense and bring back Christmas.
Manual Zamorano, a California activist, is chairman of the Committee to Save Merry Christmas (155 Judah Court, Folsom, California 95630). He has already written to Federated Department Stores, which owns Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and other chains, to urge them to acknowledge the real reason they make all this money at this time of year.
In his December 1 letter to Federated Chairman James M. Zimmerman, Zamorano wrote:
Macy’s and other Federated Department Stores over the past several years have systematically removed references to “Merry Christmas.” We find this to be personally, culturally and traditionally offensive when it is known by everyone your company actively solicits our patronage and purchasing of gifts for the Christmas celebration, and now refuses to acknowledge Christmas in your stores.
Mr. Zamorano is asking to sit down with Federated executives and discuss the matter, and warns that, “We are prepared to launch and maintain a national boycott against Federated Department Stores for as many years as necessary.”
Anyone who wants to encourage Federated to bring back Merry Christmas can write:
James M. Zimmerman
Chairman of the Board
Federated Department Stores
7 West Seventh Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Meanwhile, here are some other simple ideas for putting Christmas back in the forefront of the season:
· When someone says “happy holidays,” respond cheerfully with: “And a Merry Christmas to you!” Very few will be offended, and most will look pleasantly surprised. Some will even glance around conspiratorially, as if they are helping to outwit the dreaded, mythical “holiday” Nazi.
· Ask your local retailer: “Why do you go to such great lengths to avoid using the word Christmas?” Or: “What holiday are you selling all those cards, lights and presents for?”
· Reward those few merchants who unapologetically use the word Christmas in their displays or advertising. L.L. Bean, the giant Maine catalog outlet, has Christmas 2003 on some catalog covers, with Holiday 2003 on others. Not perfect, but better than most. The California fast-food chain In-Out-Burger has its employees wearing “Merry Christmas” buttons. Burger and fries, anyone?
· Pointedly use the word Christmas as a modifier, as in, “We heard some folks singing Christmas carols (not just any carols) at the mall.”
Finally, take solace in the fact that no matter how commercialized Christmas gets, and no matter how much they try to cover it up, they can’t: Millions and millions of people are exposed to the simple good news that Jesus Christ came to earth as God’s gift to us all.
The radio DJ may talk about “holiday music,” but he can’t edit out “White Christmas,” “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” The Messiah’s “Hallelujah” chorus, or even Elvis’ “Blue Christmas.”
Christmas still gets under the skin of nonbelievers, and some of them, every year, want to know what all the fuss is about. “Why is Jesus called the Light of the World, anyway? Oh, so that’s why you have Christmas lights!”
In A Charlie Brown Christmas, made in 1965 and still broadcast every year, Linus had it right, going directly to the Source: “And she brought forth her first-born Son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger.” (Luke 2:7)
Merry Christmas!
Robert Knight is director of the Culture & Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America, which celebrates Christmas, not “the holiday.” A slightly different version of this column was sent out by Knight-Ridder News Service on December 22.
Wise Merchants Say 'Merry Christmas!'
California activist works for a Miracle on 34th Street.
After Action Report--Maplewood NJ "Illegal" Christmas Caroling Protest, 12.21.04
Thank you Coleus...
Already wrote my letter to Federated, (Macy's and Bloomies), and didn't spend a dime of my Christmas money in either.
So many people have become oblivious to this re-programming. I found that when I specifically pointed out to them that the "holiday" was Christmas, they realized how easily they had fallen into the trap.
They now wish me a Merry Christmas.
Hey...Macy's couldn't bring themselves to wish us a Merry Christmas but had no problem advertising "After Christmas" Sales...
"After Christmas" Sales... .>>>
anything for the almighty dollar.
And the same goes for "Seasons Greetings!"
The process is very simple.
When I shop, I just do not boycott the, Happy Holidays" store mentality.
When I have a few hundred dollars worth of merchandise in the cart, when the clerk looks at me and says, "Happy Hollidays," I loogk at her and say, Merry Christmas, you know it is the Christmas Season, correect?"
If she does not respond, "Merry Christmas Mr. Davis;" I ask for my Amex card back, and respond to her --- again, "Merry Christmas," and give her a smile and leave my cart in the line, and walk out of the store.
This approach is truly buying/purchasing by your feet.
If enough folks understood this process and a major retailer had hundreds of full baskets needing to be restocked on the shelves, chaos would occur, and the Division Managers would go nuts.
I worked for Sears back a long time ago. The Christmas Season is hectic as hell.
Now if management can't get it, well F'em. Because they do not belong to be in business.
Same goes for the use of BCE and CE ("Before Common Era" and "Common Era") to replace BC (Before Christ) and AD (Anno Domini "In the Year of our Lord") by the radical secularists who want any reference to Jesus Christ expunged from our calendars and our culture.DON'T LET 'EM GET AWAY WITH IT!!!
Give it a rest, will ya?
The PC police are always out there if it's not Christmas then it's something else. I'll give it a rest after the 12th day of Christmas. My tree is still up and outside lights ON.
My birthday is coming up - let's talk about that instead!!!
We need to keep a list of who wished us a Merry Christmas and who didn't so next year we can disseminate the info and boycott those stores. If they won't wish me a Merry Christmas, they can make it to the black ink without a dime from me. If enough of us do it, they'll never make it out of the red.
We need to inform and educated through the year till next Christmas. Wonderful article.
That should go over well with the PC crowd.
It's fairly easy for me. I don't like Macys. And while others like Costco and Mervyns were not exactly Christmas friendly, I still like the stores quite a bit. I can't say I'll forget 2004, though. There was something militant in this years denial of Christmas. It's left a bad taste, for many people. Wal-Mart, while they allowed the Salvation Army, apparently also outlawed Christmas. I hadn't purchased that much there, in the past, though I thought they did a good job with the stores. But now I'm reconsidering. I think, marginally, a lot of these retailers who 'didn't want to offend' obviously didn't mind offending a whole host of their customers in the process. And I think they're going to pay for it, in 2005.
If the secularists want to ban it- maybe we should give them their way. Let me explain.
Sounds to me like you are killing two birds with one stone.
I like the results.
I personally like the phrase (and song) "Happy Holidays." But as a supplement to "Merry Christmas," not a PC replacement for it.
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