Oy To The World - One Jew's take on the "Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays" debate. I think the author is being a little misleading when he suggests that it's Christians who are trying to eliminate "Merry Christmas" from the public sphere so as not to offend, but this opinion/humor piece still makes some good points.
I get that I live in a Christian nation. And I'm fine with it. I like
you guys. I think it's adorable that you ring giant, white pipe
cleaners around streetlights and make everything taste like peppermint
and thought the world was going to end when the calendar went to three
zeros in a row. It's like living with children.
By the way, I did get a Holiday card from the White House - I didn't even realize it didn't say Merry Christmas until a big brou-ha-ha erupted. Honestly, I did appreciate that the feelings of non-Christians were taken into account, but the holiday that started all of this is Christmas (which is a national holiday) and I don't think I would have taken it as proselytizing if it had said "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" or something to that effect.
2 comments:
Thanks for the link to the column! I thought it was pretty funny, including the non-Kansas school bit. (I feel really weird about that, I'm related to someone who flunked a football player at that university in Lawrence....)
FWIW, I'm a Christian. And I'm not making a big deal about Santa with my kids. Mommy and Daddy and Grandma and Grandma (both Grandpas have passed away) and Aunt Jan and the uncles give them presents. Dragging some fat guy in a weird red outfit into the equation seems to me to be a bit much at the moment. (I just hope I don't catch it from the other parents when my kids are not-buying the Santa thing in front of their kids.)
What do you do when you go to the mall though? As a Jewish person, I can tell my kids look how pretty, but that's not our holiday and they seem to get it, even at pre-school age.
I don't know if I could tell them no, they can't sit on Santa's lap if we actually were Christian. Besides, the scene in the original Miracle on 34th street when Kris Kringle starts talking Dutch (I think) to the little girl always makes me cry.
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