NOW, GET OVER YOURSELF!
Yes, Virginia, there is a “war on Christmas” — and we’re losing it because we’re too afraid that you might get your feelings hurt.
Just look at the controversy surrounding the release of Starbucks’ “holiday” cups this year. Social media went berserk because the cups had no writing on them. No mention of which holiday they were celebrating.
Of course, we all know the secret code. The overpriced, festive, red piece of cardboard in which I enjoy my caramel macchiato isn’t a reference to Hanukkah. Or Kwanzaa. Or New Year’s, for that matter. It’s about Christmas, hence the shade akin to Santa’s coat.
But we can’t say the c-word.
Now, don’t worry. This isn’t a tirade about the ways our pagan society has turned its back on Christ and the religious overtones of the “holiday.” Frankly, it’s doubtful he really cares whether we celebrate his birthday, and Christmas has become so secularized over the years that we can hardly call it “religious.”
And it’s not the crazy Christians or the pagan left that deserve credit for this angry debate over lumping Dec. 25 with all the other holidays. No, it’s the rest of us — who have fallen into the trap of sacrificing truth to appease worries that we might (gasp!) offend someone.
Humbug to that.
Some 80 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, and no matter how many “season’s greetings” and “happy holidays” you send to us, we know what you mean. “Merry Christmas” — and that’s what you should say.
Christmas is, without a doubt, the largest, most celebrated Western holiday. In this age of multiculturalism, it’s regretful that we can’t keep some of our own culture — a culture 2,000 years in the making — while we fear reporting suspicious activity at our Muslim neighbors’ townhouse on the chance we might be called racist.
It’s even more regretful that we so easily begin to allude to Christmas in euphemism, like the jailbird uncle the family doesn’t talk about — just so we don’t offend the ultra-sensitive, politically correct nincompoops.
Christmas Parades are now “Holiday Parades” — with Santa bringing up the rear, of course. It’s not a Christmas tree, it’s a “Holiday Tree” — because we put lights and candy canes on a douglas fir for Boxing Day, right? Street signs and retail marketing wish us “Happy Holidays” — adorned with Poinsettias, trees and wrapped gifts, presumably to open when the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31.
I am not offended when my Jewish friends wish me “Happy Hanukkah.” And frankly, I doubt you’re really offended when I wish you a “Merry Christmas.” You want to be offended. You look for things to offend you. And the rest of us acquiesce to your infantile disposition.
Well, throw some more rum in your eggnog and get over yourself.
And whoever’s making the rules on political correctness needs to be taken out and beaten with a wet reindeer strap — preferably while wearing a Santa hat and being serenaded by carolers singing “Silent Night.”
Why are we so afraid of offending others for celebrating the birth of Christ?
The vast majority of this country shouldn’t be held captive to some semantic fascism because a small minority of the 20 percent that doesn’t use the c-word is offended by it.
“Separation of church and state,” cry the multicultural weenies. But don’t include Christmas shopping and the company Christmas party as the “state.” And don’t sit all high and mighty while you embrace the minor Jewish holiday of Hanukkah and the made-up Kwanzaa and can’t utter that c-word. “Cooperative economics” doesn’t beat out “peace on earth, good will toward men.”
The only way to stop this nonsense is to use the c-word freely. Go ahead, try it. Throw it out there willy-nilly — no one’s really offended.
Besides, that’s the “holiday” we’re all talking about. We shouldn’t shy away from it, and we shouldn’t let society shy away from it either.
