The (completely fabricated) War on Xmas

Okay, this is bugging me lately. My sociology teacher, for three weeks now, has brought up the "War on Christmas". He keeps insisting that you are not allowed to say "Merry Christmas" anymore and this really offends him. He keeps bringing up the point that Christmas (unlike Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or Ramadan) is a national holiday. Therefore, the only logical thing to do, is to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. He refuses to say Happy Holidays. He refuses to sign his Christmas cards that way and he refuses to return the greeting that way to anyone. If you say "Happy Holidays" to him, he will return with "And a Merry Christmas to you."

What bugs me about this? Well, mostly the fact that he has spent THREE WEEKS bitching about it. And he looks at me every time he says it. When he asked if there were any atheists in the class, I raised my hand. So, now, every time he says he is going to say Merry Christmas, he looks at me and says "Well, are you offended?" What a dope.

Well, in his defense, I do think he is trying to be funny, at least a little bit. But, I have explained to him, many time, that I don't CARE if someone says Merry Christmas. My goodness, isn't it supposed to be a gesture of goodwill, this wishing of a Merry Christmas? Why would I care, or be offended, that someone was wishing me well? If I didn't feel like saying it back, I would just say "Thank you and I hope you have a wonderful holiday, too." How hard is that? For the record, I usually just say Merry Christmas back and I have zero issue with that.

People should be able to practice their religion, for crying out loud. I just don't want my government endorsing one. That means, if a store wants to say "Merry Christmas", that would not be a reason I would pick for not shopping there. Now, if they made their products in China, or used child labor, THAT would be a reason. I don't know anyone who chooses not to shop in a "Merry Christmas" store, but plenty who boycott Wal-mart for all the products made in China and it's lack of caring for how they got those products. (Oh, I could go on about Wal-mart, but not today.)

Basically, saying "Happy Holidays" is saying to someone "I don't know your religion, but I hope you have a nice celebration in this holiday season."

According to some Christians, this will cause you to burst into flames (presumably sent up from hell), your pets will want to get married, and the terrorists will have won. (I'm just kidding, of course. Why would our pets want to get married? Having indiscriminate animal sex is one of the perks of being single.)

So, I guess my point is that NO ONE CARES if people say "Merry Christmas", but people DO care if someone says "Happy Holidays". So, really, come on. A War on Christmas? Somewhere there is a tail wagging a dog.