It’s Time to Dump ‘Happy Holidays’



Remember those little yellow smiley buttons that seemed so cheerful at first but then drove everyone mad because of their underlying insincerity? Well, “Happy Holidays” is even worse: It might even be a form of bigotry.

Oh, I know that most folks don’t mean it that way, but hear me out.

The phrase used to be another way to say “Merry Christmas.” Now, it’s a way to avoid any recognition of Christmas.

Everyone knows that the shopping and carols and nonstop “holiday” advertising are about Christmas. Santa Claus is not here to deliver a groundhog for Groundhog Day, or even to preside over Ramadan, Hanukkah or Kwanzaa. So why does the word Christmas have to be censored?

Sometime, somewhere, the Grinch pulled the switch and ordered America to cease using the word Christmas. Retailers went right along with it, despite being heavily dependent on Christmas shopping, which puts them in the black at the end of the year. Many would actually go out of business if not for Christmas, the driving engine of America’s consumer economy.

All you hear now is “happy holidays.” The stars and angels signifying Jesus’ birth came off the tops of the mall Christmas trees, replaced by teddy bears or symbols more befitting a Hopi Indian ceremony.

For a time, a few holdouts seemed safe: Christmas trees, Christmas cards, Christmas stockings and Christmas lights. But this year, advertisers shucked the plural “holidays” and began talking about “the holiday” and even “holiday trees,” “holiday cards” and “holiday lights.” A TV ad for a pet store chain shows a young couple amid Christmas stuff discussing how their puppy will spend his “first holiday.”

Enough is enough. Let’s end the “holiday” nonsense and bring back Christmas.

Manual Zamorano, a California activist, is chairman of the Committee to Save Merry Christmas (155 Judah Court, Folsom, California 95630). He has already written to Federated Department Stores, which owns Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s and other chains, to urge them to acknowledge the real reason they make all this money at this time of year.

In his December 1 letter to Federated Chairman James M. Zimmerman, Zamorano wrote:

Macy’s and other Federated Department Stores over the past several years have systematically removed references to “Merry Christmas.” We find this to be personally, culturally and traditionally offensive when it is known by everyone your company actively solicits our patronage and purchasing of gifts for the Christmas celebration, and now refuses to acknowledge Christmas in your stores.

Mr. Zamorano is asking to sit down with Federated executives and discuss the matter, and warns that, “We are prepared to launch and maintain a national boycott against Federated Department Stores for as many years as necessary.”

Anyone who wants to encourage Federated to bring back Merry Christmas can write:

James M. Zimmerman

Chairman of the Board

Federated Department Stores

7 West Seventh Street

Cincinnati, Ohio 45202

Meanwhile, here are some other simple ideas for putting Christmas back in the forefront of the season:

• When someone says “happy holidays,” respond cheerfully with: “And a Merry Christmas to you!” Very few will be offended, and most will look pleasantly surprised. Some will even glance around conspiratorially, as if they are helping to outwit the dreaded, mythical “holiday” Nazi.

• Ask your local retailer: “Why do you go to such great lengths to avoid using the word Christmas?” Or: “What holiday are you selling all those cards, lights and presents for?”

• Reward those few merchants who unapologetically use the word Christmas in their displays or advertising. L.L. Bean, the giant Maine catalog outlet, has Christmas 2003 on some catalog covers, with Holiday 2003 on others. Not perfect, but better than most. The California fast-food chain In-Out-Burger has its employees wearing “Merry Christmas” buttons. Burger and fries, anyone?

• Pointedly use the word Christmas as a modifier, as in, “We heard some folks singing Christmas carols (not just any carols) at the mall.”

Finally, take solace in the fact that no matter how commercialized Christmas gets, and no matter how much they try to cover it up, they can’t: Millions and millions of people are exposed to the simple good news that Jesus Christ came to earth as God’s gift to us all.

The radio DJ may talk about “holiday music,” but he can’t edit out “White Christmas,” “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” The Messiah’s “Hallelujah” chorus, or even Elvis’ “Blue Christmas.”

Christmas still gets under the skin of nonbelievers, and some of them, every year, want to know what all the fuss is about. “Why is Jesus called the Light of the World, anyway? Oh, so that’s why you have Christmas lights!”

In A Charlie Brown Christmas, made in 1965 and still broadcast every year, Linus had it right, going directly to the Source: “And she brought forth her first-born Son, and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger.” (Luke 2:7)

Merry Christmas!

Robert Knight is director of the Culture & Family Institute, an affiliate of Concerned Women for America, which celebrates Christmas, not “the holiday.” A slightly different version of this column was sent out by Knight-Ridder News Service on December 22.

(This article was provided courtesy of Concerned Women for America.)

Subscribe to CE
(It's free)

Go to Catholic Exchange homepage

MENU