Posted on 11/30/2005 2:46:46 PM PST by pissant
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – The all-inclusive "Happy Holidays" greeting has become an annual December puzzler for towns, public schools, and businesses: How do we respect the holiday traditions of one group of citizens without causing detriment to another? While Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and in some years Ramadan and Diwali, share the same season, last year's polls show around 96 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas.
For a pluralistic nation that prides itself upon embracing both freedom of expression and the separation of church and state, the widespread public celebration of Christmas poses a unique quandary. Guiding public displays of Christmas cheer are a patchwork of inconsistent, local-level policies - the perfect conditions under which litigation emerges.
Successive years of legal action by civil libertarians have effectively curtailed the public promotion of all things "Christmas," giving rise to more politically correct - and judiciously safe - "Holiday" observances. In doing so, public officials and retailers alike have nurtured a well-founded hypersensitivity to the opinions of a minority group.
But just when the scales of political correctness seem to be gaining balance, along comes a new backlash. This year, it's the majority group of Christmas adherents who are alleging a persecution of beliefs.
After nearly two decades of watching community Christmas parades slowly evolve into Holiday parades, school Christmas vacation into winter break, and town hall crèches into snowmen, Christmas observers are revolting.
Among the recent reactionary signs:
• More than 800 lawyers are enrolled for the third year of The Alliance Defense Fund's Christmas Project initiative, which supplies legal aid to towns and schools nationwide that face challenges to their traditional Christmas celebrations. Last year, the initiative successfully defended Christmas displays on public property by the town of Cranston, R.I., and the school district of Bossier Parrish, La.
• During a Nov. 9 broadcast, FOX news commentator Bill O'Reilly launched the first volley in an all-out television-based offensive against retailers which shun "Merry Christmas" for "Happy Holidays," going so far as to list specific offending merchants that should be boycotted.
• After threatening a boycott of Wal-Mart stores in early November, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights successfully won concessions from the retail chain after an employee offered up his own explanation to a customer via e-mail for the store's policy of wishing customers "Happy Holidays" in lieu of "Merry Christmas." Wal-Mart stood by its all-inclusive "Happy Holidays" greeting, but did publicly apologize and promptly fired the offending employee.
• The Rev. Jerry Falwell and the conservative Liberty Counsel have launched a "Friend or Foe Christmas Campaign." Armed with 750 lawyers, the group promises to "reclaim Christmas" by filing suit against anyone who, in their view, limits the public celebration of Christmas. Reverend Falwell recently publically criticized the city of Boston for a reference on its website to the annual lighting of its "Holiday Tree."
• The conservative 150,000 member American Family Association has called for a boycott of Target stores for not utilizing the specific phrase "Merry Christmas" in their holiday advertising.
• A California organization called "The Committee to Save Merry Christmas" has garnered national media coverage with a grass-roots campaign to boycott Sears and Federated Department Stores Inc. for changing their advertising from "Merry Christmas" to "Season's Greetings."
The fundamental message of today's Christmas crusaders is not new; merely the societal context has changed. In the early 1950s, groups of clergy first began organizing against what they considered the disturbing commercialization and secularization of Christmas. While their efforts were largely confined to using the power of the pulpit, today's pleas are most likely to leverage the power of the judiciary and the court of public opinion.
In the end, the balance between sensitivity and celebration may always be elusive. A CNN/USA Today/Gallop poll conducted last year showed that Americans were evenly split on whether the public shift from "Christmas" to "Holidays" was a change for the better.
Such societal ambivalence exemplifies how the masquerading of traditionally held beliefs with insincere modern sensitivity ultimately serves no one well. When towns hold "Community Tree" lightings, do we all - majority and minority alike - not understand on a deeper level that it is really an old-fashioned "Christmas Tree" lighting redefined for the modern, politically correct era? Is it any big secret that the $435 billion dollar "Holiday shopping" bonanza currently under way is comprised primarily of "Christmas" gift buying? And when school children go on vacation for "winter break," do we not accept that it will always occur during Christmas week?
By softening the "Christmas" connection simply for December etiquette, we neither fully show sensitivity toward the views of the minority nor genuinely celebrate the traditions of the majority. We are left then with a sanitized holiday season, fraught with fears of politically incorrect missteps. Then, no one has a truly happy holiday of any sort.
What in the world is "Diwali" I think im starting my own Holiday and making the Government rechognize it...oh wait..damn! Kwanzaa already did that.
I am starting a new one too. Beerfestmas. It will be 10,000 times more popular than Kwanzaa.
I don't give a xxxx about political correctness. Was Jesus "merry"? If so, then by all means, say 'Merry Christmas'. If not, don't.
Because a Christian society will not tolerate unfettered abortions, gay marriages, child molestation, etc.
Uh...like with common courtesy and a little maturity? I wish my Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah. Who am I hurting?
When someone says "Happy Holidays" just ask them which holidays they are talking about.
Store clerk: "Happy Holidays"
Me: "Which ones?"
Store clerk: "Ah, Um, I can't actually say - you know the one about the religious guy, long hair, sandals, etc"
Maybe I'll start saying "Happy Holiday" around EVERY Federal and other holiday. Like Flag day or Presidents day.
I just keep wondering what the the anti-Christians will come up with to replace "Easter Baskets" - maybe "Springtime Basket"???
One last thought - it's always amazing how many Christians there are around this time of year celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. You don't see this for Mohammed or Buddah's birthdays, do you? Seems not too many people really care about those religions - except their actual year-round members!
PCism will soon be flushed down the toilet.
Good points
...Merry Christmas!
Happy Season to you!
THAT is it in a nutshell!
Well done!
This is ridiculous.
It's "Happy Holidays", not singular "Happy Holiday". This term was created long before P.C. It's an alliterative abreviation of "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year." Also known as the "Holiday Season" that is, not just one holiday to be happy about.
The origination of "Happy Holidays" has nothing to do with caution about Kwanzaa, etc.
Now, "Holiday Tree" is not an abbreviation but an attempt to erase Christmas, that's true.
Hurting no one. But the socialists see tearing down Christmas as part of the strategy to tear down are history: The founding fathers were all a bunch of deist slave owners; the constitution is a living-breathing document; the indians were all peace loving spiritualists abused by whitie, etc etc.
And I refuse to buy anything from a store that does not publicly recognize Christmas.
I REALLY do not believe that the Hindu guy shopping for his kids at my local Sams Warehouse would be offended if I or a store employee wished him "Merry Christmas"
Observations of Hanuka and Kwanza fall into the same cateogry as speaking Spanish -- the hallmark of people who are disrepectful of the United States and everything it has give them, which is everything.
The question is, why did we allow these people into our country if we knew they would be so ungrateful?
Well, not sure how much extra cash flows into merchandise stores for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, but I'm guessing it is very small. AND it costs nothing to allow your employees to say Merry Christmas.
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