I have nominally followed, but don't truly understand, the fierce desire by some christian sects to believe that someone or somebodies are preventing them from saying "Merry Christmas" or are vastly offended by their doing so. The struggles that I have seen seem largely directed at shopping companies that direct their employees, in the interest of appealing to all, to say "Happy Holidays". I"m sure that the companies do so because they have all kinds of people who celebrate a number of seasonally celebrated occasions, such as Hannukah, Kwanza, or even those who celebrate christmas as a purely secular activity. I was thinking about this again today after I read an unfortunate commentary by Garrison Keillor. The context of his musing is because the Unitarians apparently decided to rewrite the song "Silent Night".

If you don't believe Jesus was God, OK, go write your own damn "Silent Night" and leave ours alone. This is spiritual piracy and cultural elitism and we Christians have stood for it long enough.

And all those lousy holiday songs by Jewish guys that trash up the malls every year, Rudolph and the chestnuts and the rest of that dreck. Did one of our guys write "Grab your loafers, come along if you wanna, and we'll blow that shofar for Rosh Hashanah"? No, we didn't.

Christmas is a Christian holiday -- if you're not in the club, then buzz off. Celebrate Yule instead or dance around in druid robes for the solstice. Go light a big log, go wassailing and falalaing until you fall down, eat figgy pudding until you puke, but don't mess with the Messiah.

Two problems with this. One is that Christmas is not strictly a Christian holiday but, as everyone knows, has origins from pre-Christian times. For example, what does a pine tree have to do with Jesus?  Or the date December 25 with Jesus' birth? Nothing. I won't go through the huge litany of xmas origins here except to say that it's pretty simple to google "Origins of Christmas" for plenty of info, including this link, for example.

The second problem with his diatribe, which I assume was meant to be funny, is that it slammed Jews. As Slog says

Yeah, don't you just hate it when Jewish guys mess with the Messiah and trash our Christian holidays—and our sacred malls!—with dreck like this? And this? And this? Damn Jews.

Here's the links from above-White Christmas,

I LOVE that song. Gee, written by a Jew, Mel Torme. Incidentally, I love Mel Torme, too. He was born to Russian Jews.

I got to wondering, is the extra angst about attempting to make vendors say "Merry Christmas" instead of a more inclusive *Happy Holidays* perhaps due to a bit of over-reaction since Santa and non-christian traditions usually take center stage over what could be purely religious? I've seen some groups that avoid Christmas like the plague because it is so intermarried with commercialism, much less it's pagan past.

 I don't know of anyone that forbids anyone else to say Merry Christmas. I mean, if that's the holiday you're celebrating in this winter season that includes OTHER celebrations, then that's what you should or at least *could* say to anyone. Who stops anyone? I also don't personally know anyone that is annoyed by hearing Merry Christmas. Of course if the answer back is Happy Hannukah or Happy Holidays, then the listener should respect the differences.

Tha'ts why I say I like *Happy Holidays* as a greeting. Even though I myself am going to be commemorating xmas as a secular holiday in which I get together with family and exchange gifts, and certainly no one should take offense at anyone that does non-religous activities on Dec 25(if anyone is, let him or her first leave Santa, reindeers, and pine trees out in order not to be hypocrites)  I respect that others may not be and I think about the fact that this is the season for winter holidays. Sometimes I say Merry Xmas, as the mood serves, especially if I know the person I'm speaking to is celebrating Xmas as well. And I like to think no one is offended by me saying Happy Holidays!

So.. Happy Holidays to all. Winter Solstice is tomorrow, the middle day of Halcyon Days, an ancient time of peace for 2 weeks in the middle of the winter, and I like what that signifies.