Happy Holidays? NO WAY

In the next two to three weeks, you might be reading blogs from me referring to the upcoming holiday season, or “the holidays.”  I feel perfectly OK to use those generic terms before Thanksgiving arrives.  It means, to me, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s.  I am NOT using it to save myself from saying something politically incorrect.  With deference to my Jewish friends, let’s call it what it is:

(As an aside, I’m also a stickler about a certain summer celebration:  it is INDEPENDENCE DAY folks, it ain’t “the 4^th of July.”  The 4^th of July is a single date on the calendar.  Independence Day, celebrated ON the 4^th of July, is the anniversary of the birth of the best country in the world.)

Don’t get me wrong.  I like an arrangement of Frosty The Snowman as much as anyone.  Kyla has been raised with the magic of believing in Santa Claus.  But her childhood will be filled with knowing it is Baby Jesus’ birthday.  (When I was young my mom let me light a single candle on a cake on Christmas Eve and sing Happy Birthday to Baby Jesus.  I remember that way more than anything Santa ever brought me.)

In my 20-plus years of working different retail jobs, I would always close my December sales with “Merry Christmas.”  Quite frankly I didn’t care if it made people uncomfortable.  What were they running around for, doing loads of shopping and baking and party planning if NOT for Christmas?  If you’re too uncomfortable to say “Merry Christmas” then you should be too uncomfortable to shop, eat, drink, give or receive presents.

And one more pet peeve:  can anyone explain to me (other than a retail giant’s answer of “marketing”) why we can have Christmas cards in the racks and ornaments in the aisles before Halloween but we take it all down December 26^th?  Why is it so tough to find a Christmas carol on the radio after their marathon music sessions that seem to start earlier and earlier each year?

When I was growing up, it was a special moment to hear that first song “sometime” the day after Thanksgiving.  Back then, they used to start gradually the day after Turkey Time and build to 24 hours for Christmas Day.  Since we’re talking about the Christmas SEASON, let’s get technical:  Christmas does not END for Christians the day after December 25^th.  It STARTS.

They are CHRISTMAS carols.  They are CHRISTMAS cookies.  They are CHRISTMAS cards.  You decorate a CHRISTMAS tree.  You hang up a CHRISTMAS stocking and Santa visits on CHRISTMAS.  (Otherwise he’d be the EASTER BUNNY.)  Celebrate Christmas the way it is meant to be, or please… don’t bother.  Leave it for those of us who believe:

The above intro is all a lead up to this from the White House.

Bravo!

Photo: AP