I had to run to the grocery store this morning — there were a few odds-and-ends I needed to pick up. Things like tea. I’m not a tea person, unless it’s mint tea, but it’s a good thing to have around.<\/p>\n
Also, I needed bathroom cleaning supplies. Thousand Flushes Blue, that sort of thing.<\/p>\n
As I was checking out, the cashier said, “Happy holidays.”<\/p>\n
Those who argue most passionately for the War on Christmas — people like Bill O’Reilly — say that society must stem the rising tide of secularism by using the phrase “Merry Christmas” instead of the more inclusive “Happy holidays.”<\/p>\n
Not to freak out the Christmas Warriors, but it bothers me not in the slightest<\/i> for someone to wish me a Merry Christmas. Hell, I<\/i> wish people a Merry Christmas.<\/p>\n
Christmas is different things to different people. For the religiously-inclined, it’s a religious festival, the birth of Christianity’s Messiah. Hence, of course, the name “Christmas.”<\/p>\n
But there’s a lot<\/i> of Christmas that actually has nothing to do with the Christian religious festival. Things like Christmas trees and misteltoe aren’t Christian. Those are the things I like to celebrate. And Santa Claus Conquers the Martians<\/i> — that’s something else I like to celebrate. \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
It might be the growing perception that Christmas is a generic winter festival that the Christmas Warriors are worried about. If so, they shouldn’t be decrying the use of “Happy Holidays” — they should actually be encouraging it, so that “Merry Christmas” is used by people for whom it actually means<\/i> what they want it to mean – the Christian religious festival.<\/p>\n
For this atheist, I have zero<\/i> problem with someone wishing me a Merry Christmas. It’s the intention<\/i> that matters. It’s the sentiment<\/i> that matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I had to run to the grocery store this morning — there were a few odds-and-ends I needed to pick up. Things like tea. I’m not a tea person, unless it’s mint tea, but it’s a good thing to have around. Also, I needed bathroom cleaning supplies. Thousand Flushes Blue, that sort of thing. AsContinue reading “On Holiday Greetings”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[4104,64],"class_list":["post-1571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism","tag-atheism","tag-christmas","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1571\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}