Taking the Christ out of Christmas.

Disclaimer: This blog posting is not meant to disrespect anyone's faith, punish anyone for their views or to necessarily be anti-anything. I am not anti-Christian, I am not anti-Christmas, I am not anti-Jew, anti-Muslim, anti-Atheist. It is simply meant as an education tool to promote awareness, tolerance and education.

Every late November and throughout December for the past few years, you may have seen this little gem or something similar in wording;

We cant say Merry Christmas now we have to say Happy Holidays. We cant call it a Christmas tree, its now called a Holiday tree? Why... because it might offend someone. If you don`t like our "Customs" and it offends you so much then LEAVE, I will help u pack. Dont take CHRIST out of CHRISTmas!!! They are called customs and we have our traditions. If you agree with this...please post this as your status

I've also seen several posts about how people want it to "go back to the way it used to be".

First of all, if you truly wanted it to go back to the way it used to be, you'd have to stop celebrating Christmas altogether. Why? Because the Christian holiday (which, by the way, used to be called a HOLY day, not Holiday) of Christmas was placed over Pagan celebrations throughout Europe as a means of converting the Pagans to Christianity. So, do you mean "go back" to where the Christian celebration was the only one openly observed, or "go back" to the beginning, which would then mean celebrating in the Pagan tradition? Right there, I have shown you a flaw in your "go back" desire.

I find flaws in Christians, not over their beliefs, but of their blatant ignorance, bigotry and intolerance. Particularly Christians in the United States. They seem to forget that we do not have a national religion, as in England (some of the sovereign states that make of Great Britain actually have other religions as their dominant/national religion as Great Britain is comprised of many countries all over the world). All Americans have a constitutional right to practice, or in some cases not practice, any religion we chose. Now, let's not go overboard and say "well my religion gives me the right to sacrifice humans". There are boundaries. As long as that religion does not break any laws, such as murder, child abuse, etc, we are free to practice it. The ignorance comes from either not acknowledging or simply being unaware that there are other religions with religiously significant days at the same time of the year. The bigotry comes from knowing and not caring; it's all about MY religion and MY celebrating and MY religion being superior to everyone elses, therefor, despite others having a religiously significant day during this time of year, it can only be about ME AND MY RELIGION. That's also where the intolerance comes in. All the other religions are supposed to be tolerant of the Christians and simply "put up" with hearing "Merry Christmas" and their celebration is to be ignored? I'm sorry, but I disagree.

Secondly, the biggest ignorance I find in all of this is the fact that Christians are not the only ones celebrating a religiously motivated festival at this time of year. That's right; YOU ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES. The Jewish festival of Chanukkah also happens to be in December (21st-28th this year). Muslim's have the holy day of Ashura, celebrated just yesterday (December 5th). This is to be followed by St. Nicholas Day (Catholicism, celebrated today, the 6th), Bodhi Day (Buddhism), Immaculate Conception Day (Catholicism), Feast Day (Catholicism), Yule/Lithe (for us Pagans/Wiccans and on the 22nd), Christmas, the Fest of the Nativity, Zarathustra Diso for Zoroastrians, and Kwanzaa.

Thirdly, this is supposed to be a time of compassion, giving, love, charity. How is that expressed through angry and indignant posts about how "others" are affecting your holiday cheer? You complain about how you "have" to use X-mas instead of Christmas (surprisingly, using X-Mas isn't a mark against Christianity, go look it up). That is simply not true. You complain how Christmas is too commercialized. Here's an idea; don't buy presents! Or better yet, make something (I have one present made to completion, another almost finished and 2 more at the half-way mark). Christmas only has to be as commercialized as you allow it to be for your family and yourself. No one is mandating that you only say "Happy Holidays". If you are more comfortable saying "Merry Christmas", that's perfectly alright! No one is telling you how to celebrate your holiday. There is no law in place that dictates how one greets another during this season.

In conclusion, I think those who make such complaints and accusations need to take a step back, take a long look at themselves and see if they are truly acting in the spirit of the season. If you expect everyone to be tolerant of your religious preference, perhaps you should exercise some tolerance of others as well. It is in the spirit of the season after all.