Taking Christmas away from us
A few days ago in the Stranger Slog, Dan Savage posted an interesting comment on the whole “War on Christmas” thing. The right wing Christmas warriors, he suggests, are making non-right-wing fundamentalists feel awkward about celebrating Christmas, as they’ve already made people feel awkward about celebrating July 4:
“Patriotism is their property—if you’re not a my-country-right-or-wrong, country-music-listening redneck, you’re made to feel like a hypocrite for celebrating the July 4th holiday. So most of us opt out, ignoring July 4th. We’ve ceded patriotism to the right. And now, thanks to the War on Christmas, those of us who aren’t fundies are going to feel awkward about celebrating Christmas.”
Certainly, this “War” has added a subtext to the simple greeting “Merry Christmas” that wasn’t there before. It used to be that I could happily say “Merry Christmas” to someone; now, if I do so, I wonder if they are thinking that I am a fundamentalist.
I don’t feel much Christmas spirit toward you “Christmas warriors,” that is for sure. And I do celebrate Christmas, with great vigor, thank you very much.
I totally agree. When I was out running errands, every time a cashier wished me a “Merry Christmas”, I couldn’t help but wonder if he or she was instructed to do so. It took a lot of joy out of what used to be a simple greeting. Thanks, O’Reilly, I’m sure this is exactly what Jesus would have wanted.
Well, the fundies should be happy: here in China everybody says “Merry Christmas”. (Well, except for the one restaurant that put one part of the decoration up backward and said “Merry Chtsirmas”) Of course, I don’t think how many people here go to church….