True story: It really, really, really upsets me when people say holiday instead of Christmas.
I am totally okay with saying "Happy Holidays!" or "Season's Greetings!" when you are in a situation where you don't know if the person celebrates Christmas or not. I'm okay with that. As a side note, I get giddy if and when someone wishes me a Happy Hannukah. I love it.
What really upsets me though is when people say holiday and you know they mean Christmas. For instance, I just got an email that said I had two more days to order gifts to guarantee holiday shipping. Um, Hannukah starts Sunday night, so I doubt I can order gifts until Friday and have ground shipping get them to me by Sunday. They totally meant Christmas and didn't say it!
Last night, Nathan and I made all kinds of Christmas goodies to take into work. I was searching everywhere in the store for bags of Christmas M&Ms. I finally found them in a separate display at the front of the store, but they were labeled holiday M&Ms. Um, it seems to me that holiday M&Ms should be red, green, blue, silver and maybe even brown and orange** if we need to include Kwanzaa (but, seriously, a TENET of Kwanzaa is that you don't buy the gifts!). I was so upset that they actually meant Christmas M&Ms but wrote Holiday M&Ms that I wouldn't buy them. I bought two bags of regular M&Ms and sorted out the red and green ones.
What bothers me is that I actually celebrate Christmas, baby Jesus and all. If you don't, then I feel you shouldn't have ownership over my holiday and get to decide things about it. If you don't want baby Jesus involved, then you should tell people you celebrate beginning of winter gift giving. Make up a better name if you want. Then, come up with colors and ask Mars to market M&Ms to you. That way, we can buy Christmas, Hannukah, Beginning of Winter Gift Giving Holiday and anything else you want M&M blends.
**I think this mix of colors (except for silver which would be an awesome standard color) is a regular bag of M&Ms. Maybe we could solve this by doing away with seasonal blends all together?
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Newlyweds!
See, I sort of hate that too. That's why I send CHRISTMAS cards. With Santa on them and Reindeer and things. Admittedly, no Jesus on them, since I'm not Christian, but crikey, what's the point of a dove? I can send that on June 9th. I'm with you girl.
ReplyDeleteHAPPY CHRISTMAS!
*p.s. and yes, I like HAPPY Christmas, like in England.
That fact that you didn't buy the M&Ms makes me miss you even more!
ReplyDeleteThats right Baba!!! You stick it to the man! Mr. Mars is really gonna miss your $2.98. *As she rolls her eyes in the most loving way!* Now before you huff and call Nathan! You know how much I love you, and see the first sentence of this post! =)
:-) :-) :-) :-)
MERRY CHRISTMAS BABA!!!
Oddly enough, I'm kind of OK with the Jesus-free "Christmas." Obviously, it isn't my personal choice, but I understand it and respect it a lot more than I used to. We watched this History Channel documentary from Netflix a few nights ago, and oh my WORD, we took even more than I already knew from the pre-Jesus Yule/winter solstice/birth of Mithra pagan rituals. We really just popped Jesus himself into the pre-existing story. Now. I do think it's silly that Jesus-free Christmas is still called "CHRISTmas," so I support your irritation with that, but the actual celebration, with ornate indoor trees and gifts and twelve days and the whole deal, except Jesus, makes fine sense to me now. Like, I can understand non-Christians having trees and giving gifts on the 25th if they want to, as it seems to have been our nature as civilized people for a long, long, LONG time. I really don't feel like the secular part of the holiday should be condemend, you know? We seem to need to celebrate family and getting-through-the-dark-cold-scary-times innately. Nonetheless, I definitely see your point on the name. Maybe those folks should call it Yule.
ReplyDeleteI also appreciate that your qualms about "Happy Holidays" are more practical than political, which is to say, you don't get testy when people or public venue/stores wish you "Happy Holidays." That whole argument really puzzles me because I feel like a pleasant well-wishing is a pleasant well-wishing. Wish me a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hannukah, or whatever else you like, and if you have no possibly way of knowing what I individually celebrate (such as in the case of all public venues), by all means, wish me Happy Holidays. I really just fail to see the problem. But! What you've said makes absolute sense. The shipping deadline, the red and green M&Ms--totally Christmas all the way.
Can you tell that this topic has come up recently and frequently for me? Remind me to tell you about the Sunday school class that vandalized my Hanukkah bush, even though our classroom is 99% Nativity/Christmas tree and we have two Jewish students...
the Princess
I am sooooo with you! I've been wearing a button that says "It's ok to say, Merry Christmas" everywhere these days! The other one that kills me is the "holiday" music chanel on the radio that is playing all CHRISTMAS music! And the "holiday or winter" break from school for Christmas!
ReplyDeleteMERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!!!
Merry Christmas Rachel Ann!
ReplyDelete