:-) that's why I said "the war on christmas (for what little of it there is)" - it exists mainly in the minds of people who *think* the rest of us are still fighting them. As for the atheist side of it, well, there are a handful of Grinches who think we shouldn't celebrate *anything* because any celebration merely gives those assholes more power, but from what I can tell, most atheists don't follow *them* either. I know I don't, for the explanation I've just given.
I've never been particularly attached to holidays in general. I don't care what you call the holiday, it's what you do with it that matters to me. I liked the food and the family get-together. I'm much less impressed by the presents and decorations, although chopping down the tree was fun, but not because it was an xmas tree, more like because it was something I got to do with my dad that a "boy" would do and my mom and sister refused to do. My gingerbread house can't be built any other time of the year because the decorations aren't available, so that's why it's a tradition for me, not because it's particularly special to "christmas".
If a few radical wingnuts want to "keep the Christ in Christmas", they're welcome to it, but that would require removing it from all government support (one of my relatives sent me a holiday card with that exact phrase on it this year). Can't have it both ways. As far as I'm concerned, the easiest way to do that is just change the name to "holiday break", so nothing *really* changes in the practical sense, but everyone gets whatever they're emotionally tied to, like separation of church and state. But then the xtians get all pissy when we separate church and state. I was once sent an email from family saying "if we separated church and state, we wouldn't get xmas day off from work". My response? Good! We *shouldn't* have it off from work. We can have a "holiday vacation", but not a religious break. I don't think they were expecting me to be in favor of no paid holiday off. Frankly, the entire country shutting down for a day is rather inconvenient anyway.
But I also think of Hanukkuh at this time, and notice that our Jewish population doesn't get any state-sponsored holiday time off. Sure, Christmas is the majority celebration (secular or religious), but it's not the only celebration at this time of year, and neither is big cozy family get-together with presents or Rankin/Bass specials on TV. Everyone has a different justification for why they're celebrating around this time of the year (and some have a justification for why they're not), so it is *for them* that I prefer to say "happy holidays".
no subject
I've never been particularly attached to holidays in general. I don't care what you call the holiday, it's what you do with it that matters to me. I liked the food and the family get-together. I'm much less impressed by the presents and decorations, although chopping down the tree was fun, but not because it was an xmas tree, more like because it was something I got to do with my dad that a "boy" would do and my mom and sister refused to do. My gingerbread house can't be built any other time of the year because the decorations aren't available, so that's why it's a tradition for me, not because it's particularly special to "christmas".
If a few radical wingnuts want to "keep the Christ in Christmas", they're welcome to it, but that would require removing it from all government support (one of my relatives sent me a holiday card with that exact phrase on it this year). Can't have it both ways. As far as I'm concerned, the easiest way to do that is just change the name to "holiday break", so nothing *really* changes in the practical sense, but everyone gets whatever they're emotionally tied to, like separation of church and state. But then the xtians get all pissy when we separate church and state. I was once sent an email from family saying "if we separated church and state, we wouldn't get xmas day off from work". My response? Good! We *shouldn't* have it off from work. We can have a "holiday vacation", but not a religious break. I don't think they were expecting me to be in favor of no paid holiday off. Frankly, the entire country shutting down for a day is rather inconvenient anyway.
But I also think of Hanukkuh at this time, and notice that our Jewish population doesn't get any state-sponsored holiday time off. Sure, Christmas is the majority celebration (secular or religious), but it's not the only celebration at this time of year, and neither is big cozy family get-together with presents or Rankin/Bass specials on TV. Everyone has a different justification for why they're celebrating around this time of the year (and some have a justification for why they're not), so it is *for them* that I prefer to say "happy holidays".
Uh, sure, you can quote me on that :-)