You’re (probably) doing Christmas wrong, so quit bitching about “happy holidays”

The below applies to religious western Christian folks.  Non-Christians who just like the holiday are welcome to ignore this and do as they like.

Hey.  You.  Person who’s planning to take down their tree on the 26th…you’re wrong.

Those of you saying it’s the “Christmas season” before the 25th… you’re wrong too.

Because right now – as I’m writing this –  it’s the Advent season.  The Christmas season begins on the 25th and stretches into the New Year.  Remember that “12 days of Christmas”?  It’s referring to the Christmas season, and is a real thing.

Photo by Gareth Harper on Unsplash

The too common American practice of putting up Christmas decorations early (before Advent) and taking them down immediately after Christmas is particularly annoying when it’s religious folks doing this.

Even though I’m not particularly religious now, I think the practices and rites and rituals of religion can have value in getting people to stop and reflect, to appreciate, to cherish, and even to worship.

But instead, we have an over-rushed holiday where reflection and appreciation and thankfulness are the last thing on people’s minds – and it’s largely driven by corporations that sell you stuff.  To them, once Christmas (the gift part, that is) has finished, then you’re not worth anything.  And so there’s a rush to return to the regular drab workaday life.

These are the influences that are truly destroying Christmas – but they’re doing so while giving lip service and saying the right words at the right time.  And so the overzealous pharisees frothing about “Happy Holidays” are distracted while the holiness of the holiday is slowly destroyed by those piping in insipid carols and putting up decorations in November.

I’ll wish you happy holidays – or happy holy days if you prefer.  But before you come frothing at me and mine about what word we use to greet you, perhaps you should see if your own house is rotting from within.

One thought on “You’re (probably) doing Christmas wrong, so quit bitching about “happy holidays”

  1. You know, when you really get right down to it, Christians should be more upset about the generification of Christmas than not having every person they encounter say "Merry Christmas." When everyone is saying "Merry Christmas" every day for a month, the word starts to lose it's meaning. The day is fast coming when kids will ask their parents, "Where did Christmas come from?" and the parents will say, "Uh, err, I think it had something to do with something."

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