Dec 23 2008
Putting the X back in X-Mas
Believe it or not, there is one sound worse than the scraping of nails on a chalkboard, and that is the annual screech of angry voices over the proper way to celebrate or not to celebrate Christmas. The yearly debate is more predictable and more mind-numbing than the radio stations that play 24-hour Christmas music from Thanksgiving to New Years. Let me count the ways:
1. I do not care whether the Wal-mart cashier wishes me a merry Christmas, happy holidays, fly Kwanzaa, boring Hannukah, or dark and hellish winter. I just want to pay for my products and go. Anyone who takes offense at being wished a merry Christmas, or not being wished a merry Christmas, needs to call a surgeon to dislodge a very long stick from a very deep orifice.
2. I do not care if any, or how many, Christmas traditions have pagan roots. It is a well known fact that the ancient church tried to Christianize many pagan rituals and traditions, not to paganize Christianity but to Christianize the pagans. A symbol only has as much meaning as we put into it, so who really cares what it meant to Julius Caesar?
3. I do not care if the Bible does not prescribe Christmas or tell us the date of Christ’s birth. We do not celebrate Christmas because we must, but because we want to.
4. Yes, I think the people who try to remove all religious symbols from public display are douche bags, but seriously folks … how much time, money, legislation, and boiling hot rage do we really need to waste on a nativity scene while the country is going to hell in a handbasket? Let’s worry less about the symbols and more about foundational principles and ethics.
5. It is true that the letters for “SANTA” can be rearranged to spell “SATAN”. It is also true that the letters for “GOD” can be rearranced to spell “DOG”. It is equally true that “SANTA” means “Saint”. Yes, Saint. Not Satan. Saint. He is not evil, he is merely a religious legend whose religious content has been largely forgotten.
6. Merry freaking Christmas.
