I love Christmastime, as long as it starts after Thanksgiving. I grew up Catholic so my family had advent traditions that started on the First Sunday in December (or the last Sunday in November, It has been awhile). Christmas is a wonderful time that I remember midnite mass and visiting with family members I would only see a couple of times a year. I loved the feeling of getting gifts as a kid and giving gifts as I got older. I love Christmas.
So what the hell is my problem with “Merry Christmas”?
It isn’t that, as I got older I realized that the Christian doctrine, tradition, and theology (things like- turning water into wine, Virgin Birth, a Savior undergoing a Passion, even a winter-birth celebration) was heavily borrowed from Earlier Mediterranean cultures that spread during the process of Hellenization after Alexander the Great. The fact that Christianity was much more likely a result of cultural diffusion than divine intervention in no way plays into my annoyance at hearing “Merry Christmas” sometimes.
Nor is it living in a culture (America) that appears obsessed with a contradictory tome of ancient propaganda (that promotes slavery, genocide, forced abortion, and child exploitation) masquerading as an historical record of Gods Chosen People, and that the Christmas celebration seems to have originated with this.
So what the hell is my problem with “Merry Christmas”?
It is for the same reason I am annoyed at people who wish me “Happy 4th of July” on June 12th, a “Happy Easter” on Ash Wednesday, or “Happy Halloween” on September 21st. Christmas is a DAY on December 25th, not a two month celebration. The time leading up to Christmas is magical- but it ain’t Christmas, that is the Day that Jesus’ birth is celebrated.
Given the many Holidays celebrated at this time (new years, Christmas, thanksgiving, Boxing Day, etc) it seems Happy Holidays would be the more appropriate December 12 greeting, but apparently using words how they are intended is somehow hostile to the right wing outrage factory many Christians apparently get their information, opinions, and worldview from.
So when I hear “Merry Christmas” between mid November and December 13th, and get annoyed, I guess it is because some otherwise well meaning fellow humans have been so poisoned by hateful, conservative religious nonsense, they think getting the date wrong is some sort of profound stance against a false persecution narrative.
So everyone have a Happy Holiday season
And of course, a Merry Christmas (but only if you want to )
In a couple of weeks