The holiday debacle

Every single year since the dawn of time (aka since I was old enough to notice), as soon as halloween passes we are automatically engaged in the American Holiday Season. This includes really great things like shoving your whole extended family in one room over a meal and seeing what happens, and really frustrating things like the whole debate over what we should say to each other during this season. (this ends as soon as Dec 31st gets here, and then its happy new year, and nobody cares anymore.

Here is the solution to the debate over the holidays. But first, a story:

I work in retail. (this story likely is true for all service industry workers). I interact with hundreds of people every day, hundreds of different people with unique lives and stories and families. I usually get one of two versions of the "farewell greeting": "merry christmas" or "happy holidays" or some variation thereof. I don't often get told "happy hanukah" or "happy kwanza" or "happy solstice".

I respond with "you too."  Let's say for example that I didn't celebrate christmas, but none of the less I am wished a merry christmas, it can be assumed the person wishing me a merry christmas celebrates christmas, so by saying "you too" I am wishing them a merry christmas. In fact, no matter what they say to me, I am wishing them an enjoyable whatever holiday they celebrate. Sure, I hope Jewish people have a good day on Dec 25th, it would be weird to wish for someone to have a bad day, but it's equally weird to wish someone a merry holiday they don't celebrate.

There is no war on Christmas. There is a push to be more inclusive, if you don't like that then I guess you have a bigger problem than this blog can solve. Most stores do not have generic holiday seasons, nor do they have CHRISTmas seasons. Most stores have Americanized consumeristic holiday seasons marked with green trees and fat men in red suits. No, it's not weird for your local secular store to not carry a nativity scene. In fact, I wouldn't want or trust wal-mart or target to respectfully represent the religious christmas. I would much rather get that from a store that understands the nativity scene. The job of a store, like it or not, is to make money. Not to celebrate one religious holiday.

There is also not a war on other non-christian religions. (um, that sentence reminds me of the Gaza/Israel thing, so when I say no war, I mean in the way we as Americans trivialize the word "war"). Sure people like Bill O'Reilly say ridiculous things, but he is one guy. And one guy does not make a war. There is less product for those holidays around, because they are less common and less commercialized. Again, a stores job is to make money, and they make WAY more money on christmas than hanukkah.  I think people who are interested in celebrating CHRISTmas should wish their holiday was less prevalent in stores, it might have more meaning.

We are all fighting to celebrate the holiday season our own way, and we are letting the stores dictate what that means. If your best friend celebrated a different holiday than you, what would you say to them? You would probably tell them Happy Hanukkah, and they would say to you Merry Christmas. Since we don't know personally every person we meet, it makes sense to say "happy holiday(s)" because that implies that we hope for them to enjoy whichever winter celebration they have.

Also, if someone says to you the wrong holiday, who cares? Isn't it nice that they care enough to wish you a happy anything? There is no need at all to correct them. "well, I know you said to enjoy my holiday, but I celebrate christmas so you can say merry christmas," that's rude. It's also annoying. And it makes you look like a jerk. And it makes christmas feel like a holiday which is shoved down everyone's throats, not like the enjoyable thing that it is.

The moral of the story: who cares? This should not be a debate. Common courtesy should explain how to act. Just be glad people are wishing you a happy anything and that you have people in your life to celebrate your holiday with. Stop posting pictures on Facebook of how I should know what holiday to wish someone, and also of people telling me it's american to say merry christmas. It's the holidays, not the month of fighting. The election is over, just say have a good day if it's that serious.