In the past few years, I have noticed increased marketing campaigns that omit the word Christmas from its signage. You can see plenty of Happy Holidays and Season's Greetings, but hardly any Merry Christmases. And then I started to notice smaller organizations and companies doing the same. Now, Facebook is filled with status updates from regular people claiming that holiday shopping is complete and to check out the seasonal deals at the mall. It is not popular to say Merry Christmas and the marketing giants of the world are trying to rename December 25th. Christ is slowly disappearing from mainstream Christmas.
I was apart of a debate on this subject that concluded that saying Merry Christmas was simply not inclusive. It excluded those who don't celebrate or don't believe in Jesus as Saviour. Happy Holidays is a more inclusive statement and politically correct, therefore it has been adopted as the official greeting of the Season.
I say bologna. No matter how hard folks want to eliminate Christ from Christmas, He is still at the center of it. I don't intend to exclude someone who doesn't celebrate or believe, but I believe and I am not ashamed to use His Name this holiday. I don't want to offend anyone, but offending someone by using the Name of Jesus is not a new concept (Matthew 5:10-12). It is a phenomenon that has plagued Christians for 2000 years. And this modern day holiday marketing scheme to eliminate Christ from Christmas will only work if you fall for it. Don't be ashamed of the Name of Jesus this Season.
I say Merry Christmas. Will you?
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I agree! When anyone says "Happy Holidays" or "Seasons Greetings" to me, I reply with "Merry Christmas". The cards we mail to all of our family and friends always say "Merry Christmas", too. It isn't to be rude, but we celebrate Christmas and Christ is the reason we celebrate it. I am not ashamed of it either.
ReplyDeleteI always do, and I dont see the big issue. If someone says Happy Hanukkah to me (and since my name has a traditional Hebrew spelling, they sometimes do) I am not offended. Are my beliefs the same as their beliefs? No. But that doesn't change what this season is about to me.
ReplyDeleteI don't go around saying Merry Christmas to strangers, I say Happy Holidays. I don't want to "push" my holiday upon others who may not celebrate the same. I feel as though Happy Holidays encompasses all. That being said, I do say Merry Christmas to everyone that does, indeed, celebrate the holiday.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Its terrible enough how everything so completely over commercialized, but I can somewhat deal with that. I really hate it even when people right X-mas, because its eliminated Christ completely.
ReplyDeleteAgreed :-)...Merry Christmas!! I was gift wrapping at the mall last night and Rylee and I had the job of handing out candy and telling people about the free gift wrap. Wonderful job and we enjoyed it, but do you know that not 1 person replied to my "Merry Christmas." Very surprising but we will continue to celebrate that JESUS is the reason for our joy this season and always!!
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