Merry Christmas. It’s okay to say it.™

Surveys show that 96% of Americans celebrate Christmas.  Yet, due to political correctness, disinformation, and even the threat of lawsuits from the ACLU and its allies, religious expression at Christmastime is increasingly absent from the public square.  Slowly, this holy day is being turned into a secular “solstice season.”   

ADF wants all Americans to know the Truth—that they have the freedom to celebrate Christmas publicly, joyfully, and without fear—for generations to come!  We are launching our annual national Christmas Project™ to spread the message, “Merry Christmas.  It’s okay to say it.™”  Will you join with us?

Comments

[Chris Capoccia]

It's funny how things come full cirle. Christmas was originally a hijacked pagan holiday. For a while the Christian elements dominated. Now a materialistic version of the pagan traditions dominates and the Christian elements are sidelined.

Sure most people celebrate something they call Christmas, but how much of it is truly a holy celebration of Christ?

[Alice Venturi]

Well, heck, I say "merry christmas", and I'm not Christian. You don't suppose they'll swoop down on me with a "cease and desist" order, do you? You know, for not meaning it the way they want me to mean it?

What it comes down to is that these people resent the fact that they have to share the world with people of other faiths.

Well, tough noogies. We're here, and we're not going away just because some small group of whiney-assed, spoiled, self-righteous bullies don't want to share the playground.

I will continue to say "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Hanukkah" and "Joyous Solstice" to whomever I please, just as I will raise a glass to Mithras on December 25th. After all, it was his birthday first.

Slowly, this holy day is being turned into a secular “solstice season.”

Well, at least it can be proven that the winter solstice actually happens. ;)

[Alice Clay]

Last holiday season I worked in retail and was, of course, bombarded with the whole "to say or not to say" controversy. And it'll happen again this year and next and...Because every year, they'll drag out this controversy in celebration of the season of peace and goodwill.

I decided not to say merry christmas b/c so many of my customers were not christians. What if the tables were turned and the majority of Americans were Jewish. Would you want to be wished a happy hanukkah everywhere you went?? Didn't think so.

[John Cannon]

As a believing Christian, I'd have no problem having someone wishing me a 'Happy Hanukkah.' I'd welcome it, because it lets me know they haven't given in to the political correctness of our age. I'd rather have them 'make a mistake' and acknowledge their beliefs than give in to a meaningless 'Happy Holidays' because of some obtuse fear of 'offending' someone.

It's amazing to me how I can be forced to listen to the Lord's name taken in vain multiple times a day anywhere in the USA (freedom of expression, ya unnastan'!), but apparently positive references are deemed potentially offensive and off-limits(!)

We live in interesting times.....

[The Atheist]

"Happy holidays" is not meaningless. Indeed, it's like saying "Merry Christmas, happy hanukkah, jolly ramadan, rockin' kwaanza, and a happy new year," all rolled into one. I say "merry christmas" to those I know celebrate christmas, whether as a religious or as a family holiday. I wish my jewish friends a happy hanukkah. If I want to say something to someone I don't know very well, or to a mixed group, I'll say "happy holidays." It's really not that big a deal to pass up saying "christmas" a few times in favor of sometinging else...christmas in America is inescapable, and not really all that "Christian" anyway, considering that the majority of it's symbols are either pagan in origin or completely secular.

[Alice Venturi]

I agree with Atheist about "Happy Holidays". The term is a rational response to the convergence of end-of-the-year holidays stemming from multiple religious faiths. It's a way to be polite without leaving anyone out.

Unfortunately, a good many of the Christians for whom "Merry Christmas" is a Big Deal just aren't that interested in the traditions of faiths that aren't their own.

I think that, for some, having everyone use "Merry Christmas" provides them with the illusion that the rest of the world (or at least their little part of it) is just the way they'd like to imagine it. They imagine a world where everyone is a Christian just like them, where everyone holds the same social values, that the culture is homogenous, and life looks like the pretty pictures on a Christmas card.

[JoeG]

** Unfortunately, a good many of the Christians for whom "Merry Christmas" is a Big Deal just aren't that interested in the traditions of faiths that aren't their own. **

And that's just the point of it Alice, well said. Those who argue in favor of "Happy Holidays" are usually arguing on the side of multiple faiths and inclusiveness. Those who argue for "Merry Christmas" are almost always arguing for Christianity. There is no interest in other faiths, because for those people, all other faiths are wrong so what does it matter anyway? Christians do not own the season. It wasn't theirs to begin with, and some are upset that others have the nerve to celebrate theirs at the same time. But let's just remember one thing. When it comes down to the holiday season, we all have one item of worship in common: the almighty gift-wrapped present.

[Alice Clay]

As a believing Christian, I'd have no problem having someone wishing me a 'Happy Hanukkah.' I'd welcome it, because it lets me know they haven't given in to the political correctness of our age.

It's not about political correctness, it's about acknowledging that there are other celebrations going on besides Christmas.

And I thought that wishing someone a merry christmas (or happy holidays or happy hanukkah etc) was about extending a blessing to them...not about declaring your personal faith.

[Kevin Powell]

***Surveys show that 96% of Americans celebrate Christmas.***

They celebrate "Christmas" but do they celebrate Christ's birth? 'Tis the season for rampant consumerism. I have trouble seeing the poor child born in a barn in the midst of all the gluttony.

kgp

[JoeG]

You don't see the poor child in the barn? He's the one pictured in all the envelopes sent out by charities soliciting money and toys. He's now a symbol of guilt, and giving money or toys to the poor child in the envelope helps make people feel better about the gluttonous amounts of money they spent on crap for themselves. Religion aside, I wish there were some way to scrap the entire season. I look forward to it less and less every year.

[John Cannon]

Overall, I don't find 'Happy Holidays' offensive.

The issue is simply that it's so generic and now considered the only 'proper' greeting at the time when we celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah. Which is why I welcome somebody wishing me a 'Happy Hanukkah' because I know they haven't bought into the absurdity that everyone is going to walk around 'offended' otherwise. Whether or not I take part in that particular religious observance is irrelevant to me; quite frankly, I'm happy that they do! I don't personally know any Christians who don't have at least a general understanding of other faith traditions during the holidays.

When store owners tell their employees that 'Happy Holidays' is the ONLY greeting that they are allowed to say (and risk termination otherwise); when children at a public school can no longer bring in red/green cookies and napkins to school during the season (several children I know were informed of this) - then, yes, it IS absolutely all about political correctness.

[Alice Venturi]

Kevin:

They celebrate "Christmas" but do they celebrate Christ's birth?

I'm not a Christian, and I celebrate Christmas. I am not celebrating Christ's birth. I know of many others who do the same.

"Celebrating Christmas" is part of modern American culture, whether you are Christian or not. You may actually be celebrating Hanukkah, if you're Jewish, or Yule/Winter Solstice, if you're Pagan. But, in the eyes of the greater culture, you're really celebrating a secularized "Christmas".

"Christmas" has come to be the sematic equivalent of "that party where we give/get presents and eat too much". I have absolutely no doubt that this really pisses off genuine believers no end. All I can say is "Welcome to America; this is the way we do things here".

This is not to be misconstrued as a lack of sympathy; I do sympathize with the folks who want to celebrate a religious holiday with it's religious meaning intact. But this is what comes of being the dominant religious influence in this country; your customs seep into the culture, and the culture takes what it can use, and leaves the rest.

I suggest that you genuine believers do what the rest of us have had to do for years: celebrate your holiday as you please, with the religious overlay of your choosing, and to hell with what other people are doing.

[Deacon Tim]

When store owners tell their employees that 'Happy Holidays' is the ONLY greeting that they are allowed to say (and risk termination otherwise)... it IS absolutely all about political correctness.

John, has it occurred to you that the store owner is making a marketing decision, not a political one? That by appealing to the largest possible number of consumers one has the best chance to maximize profits? You inadvertently revealed the true nature of the modern observation of Christmas (among Christians or non-Christians): to sell stuff.

Technically, most protestant evangelical Christians don't celebrate "the Mass of Christ" at all, since they believe the Mass to be a papist abomination. Following Cromwell, William Bradford and the early Puritans in New England banned Christmas, not because they were anti-Christian, but because they believed the feast day was!

I think it's ironic that evangelicals now want to re-sanctify the old Yuletide feast and even get offended when someone like Lady Alice Venturi points out that the Winter Solstice is a pagan observation.

The truth is, Christmas, especially in its Dickens-Currier-and-Ives-Mall-of-America incarnation is no more Christian than--well, Easter, another great pagan festival we blessed and sanctified. That's why Christians shouldn't get too upset when people of other faiths (or none at all) wish us "Happy Holidays!" For in their non-Christian way they are only trying to share with us the real meaning of Christmas--the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Sharing joy with people who believe differently than we do is the greatest testimony to the incarnation of the Word that I can think of: light shining in the darkness.

Merry Christmas to all!

[John Cannon]

Yes, of course, I realize it's a marketing decision. Most likely, the store owner isn't being 'political;' he or she has just been led to believe that saying anything else might be 'offensive' to someone - the origins of which, I believe, stem from a political correctness pervasive in the popular culture.

'Merry Christmas,' for the forty-four years that I've been on this planet, has been considered a warm, friendly greeting to say to someone during...well, Christmas time. It now, apparently, is considered 'divisive.' To me, that is very sad.....

[Kevin Powell]

Alice V wrote:

***"Celebrating Christmas" is part of modern American culture, whether you are Christian or not. You may actually be celebrating Hanukkah, if you're Jewish, or Yule/Winter Solstice, if you're Pagan. But, in the eyes of the greater culture, you're really celebrating a secularized "Christmas"***

Agreed. But many of the folks who are upset over the loss of Christmas language in the public square are doing so from a loss of Christian priviledge. I've always found it ironic that many of those who get their knickers in a knot over the term "Happy Holidays" completely disregard the hi-jacking of a Christmas festival by consumer capitalism whose agenda is not to celebrate the birth of the saviour, but to make buckets of cash in his Good Name.

So my argument isn't with folks who want to celebrate in their own way. My argument is with fellow Christians who want to force this holiday on non-believers, as if, somehow, that makes the world more "Christian."

***I suggest that you genuine believers do what the rest of us have had to do for years: celebrate your holiday as you please, with the religious overlay of your choosing, and to hell with what other people are doing.***

Again, agreed. While I'm Canadian, the same dynamic exists. It's a free country. People should be allowed to celebate what and how they want.

kgp

[Alice Venturi]

Kevin:

Agreed. But many of the folks who are upset over the loss of Christmas language in the public square are doing so from a loss of Christian priviledge.

You are abso-damn-lutely correct on this; it's the whole "I-want-my-world-to-be-just-like-the-picture-on-a-Christmas-card" view of life. The idealized Utopia these folks are looking for has never existed, and never will.

I've always found it ironic that many of those who get their knickers in a knot over the term "Happy Holidays" completely disregard the hi-jacking of a Christmas festival by consumer capitalism....

Oh, a lot of them whine prefunctorily about it a bit, but then they go right ahead and participate in the rank consumerism that has become the hallmark of the season.

My argument is with fellow Christians who want to force this holiday on non-believers, as if, somehow, that makes the world more "Christian."

Oh, but it does make the world more Christian, didn't you know? It has been my observation that appearance is everything to these sorts of people. The outward appearance of Christian behaviour is indicative of inward belief. If everybody acted as if they were Christian, it means they really are Christian, and the world becomes a bit more like the picture on a Christmas card.

Therefore, when a non-believer like myself uses the term "Merry Christmas" to one of these folks, it means that I'm just like them. I think such appearances of homogeneity add a sense of emotional security to the lives of these people.

I'm not disagreeing with anything you've said, you know; your comments above just sparked my own rambling thoughts. :)

[Carol Jackson]

I was wanting the saychristmas package that I heard on Dr.Dobsons Focus on the Family today.My address is 8321 Hwy 56Owensboro,Ky42301.Thank you!Merry Christmas!!

[think]

ok materailism does not rule christmas. you are not in the minority if you are trying to keep christ in christmas. i agree with your fight but lets not exaggerate the problem.

[Darren Chan]

As a Follower of Christ, Christmas is such a special celebration. Let me make this simple. Just as one would celebrate a birthday of a special loved one for that day, to love honor and respect that special person, multiply that love by infinity. That's what the Christian follower will experience. That is Christianty. When I hear someone say "Happy Holidays" does that offend me? Not at all. As a matter of fact it just encourages me even more to try to live as Christ did. To love others even more, especially those who do not believe. For Non-believers this is not a time for Christians to force feed the Christian faith and our beliefs on non-believers but it is a miraculous time of opportunity to share Christ with those who are in thurst of the way the truth and the life. It may this Christmas or it may be a Christmas 20 years from now. I know of and have personally seen hard-core atheists that have accepted Christ during this special Birthday whom have found an eternal life of GOD's love during "THE HAPPY HOLIDAYS." One of those people was yours truley.

Faith, Hope and Love to All,
Merry Christmas

[Deal With It]

I love Christmas, because I love spending time with my family and celebrating Jesus Christ's birth. What really messed the whole thing up for me was when I went to church this morning and had to listen to my pastor tell me that I had been told I couldn't say Merry Christmas. I have never has this problem. I talked to my Jewish friends a long time ago and we decided that to respect each others views was to respect whatever greeting they gave you. Who cares if they’re Jewish, Muslim, Christian, est.… we’re all celebrating different things and that is ok. This is America for Pete’s sake you can celebrate whatever you want, just don’t hurt anybody. Hanukah, Christmas with Christ, or Christmas with Santa, hey, have both if you want. If I say Merry Christmas (which has lost most of its' spiritual value anyway) others smile and say Happy Hanukah, Kwanza, holidays. It really doesn’t bother me what bothers me that my congregation is taking it so far. They handed out little pins that say, "Merry Christmas, it is ok to say it". When was it not? I have never had an angered response to Merry Christmas. Hearing everyone around me make a big deal out of a problem that isn't even in my community makes me frustrated and I wonder why they are more interested in the national level than their neighbors. I am singing Silent Night in my public school's woman's choir concert this Tuesday. It is ok, we respect everyone’s holiday and none of my Jewish friends freak. So why is the “Christian Community” upset when someone says Happy Holidays maybe they don’t celebrate anything but still have almost two weeks off of school. Maybe they don’t want to hurt anyone’s feeling and their not sure how sensitive the situation is. Maybe a lot of things but why does it matter. I have an opinion and you have yours, since we can’t just disagree and get over it lets agree to disagree. There was never a problem in my community till we made it with the little pins and unneeded sermons. Why are we creating problems when there are so many out there to be solved?

[The Atheist]

Indeed, Deal With It, why make new (and largely trivial) problems, when there are already so many real problems which we are failing to deal with? My thoughts are: 1) the persecution mentality of some christians, and 2) if we invent trivial problems to get all puffed up about, it keeps us from having to think about genuinely unpleasant things like death, war, and hunger, and allows us to think more about ourselves. I firmly believe that most people feel completely at ease with saying or hearing merry christmas, or any other holiday greeting. It`s only the cultural war-mongers who are trying to stir things up and draw lines in the sand. Let`s not allow things to get more divisive than they already are. That is not the spirit of the season, no matter which way you slice it.

Peace, Love, Understanding,Exceptance,togetherness, God bless;
Merry Christmas,Happy Hollidays!

[Johnny Jamisonj]

Peace, Love, Understanding,Exceptance,togetherness, God bless;
Merry Christmas,Happy Hollidays!

[John Cannon]

Fighting for Christmas

Rabbi Daniel Lapin

Remarks by Rabbi Daniel Lapin on December 1, 2005
at The National Press Club, Washington DC

Fighting for Christmas

Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. I appreciate you being here today to hear what I, an Orthodox rabbi, have to say about Christmas. For my great grandfather who lived in a another place and in another epoch, Christmas was a time of terror; a time to hide and a time of suffering and loss. That was at another time in another place but still, Great-grandfather-Lapin is astounded today, to see his great-grandson defending Christmas. For this reason I hope you will forgive me if I address my remarks now to him rather than to you.

You must be puzzled, Great-grandfather, so I will give you three reasons why I believe Christians should celebrate Christmas publicly. You never expected a descendent of yours to stand before newspaper journalists, radio reporters, and television cameras (some other time, I’ll tell you what they are) encouraging Christians to celebrate Christmas. Once you’ve heard my reasons I think you’ll agree with me.

My first reason is going to be tough for you to accept. While you were on this earth, our people were usually threatened by malevolent theocratic regimes where ecclesiastical and political power were the same. The choice you faced back then was between those sinister theocracies and what many of your friends saw as the utopian vision of secular socialism. Naturally you chose secularism and socialism in preference to the theocracies.

However, today in this blessed land, the choice is quite different. My choice is between living among people practicing aggressive secularism or living among benign and Bible-believing Christians. I am not only your descendant, I am also descended from our ancestors who stood at the foot of Mount Sinai just over three thousand years and promised God that they, and their descendents would guard the Ten Commandments. How could I possibly ally myself with those who would make God’s commandments irrelevant to society? Worse, how could I stand by and say nothing, while those Americans who venerate the Ten Commandments are under attack?
What is more, we have now had enough time to evaluate secular socialism. We now realized that contrary to its promises in your day, it has become a sordid stain on society. It has acquired the characteristics of a religion but it is an aggressive religion of intolerant fundamentalists. In the choice between a society of secular Americans or one of Christians, it is not hard to see where Jewish values must guide.
My second reason is that anti-Semitism has been a scourge on the face of the earth for millennia. It is discriminatory and bigoted. Well, so is anti-Christianism. If anti-Semitism is evil and must be resisted, the same applies to anti-Christianism. Rabbi Weinberg, one of the greatest rabbinic scholars of the twentieth century wrote in 1965 that we are entering a period in which there is far more anti-Christianism than anti-Semitism. In order to retain both intellectual and moral integrity, Jewish values require Jews to protest anti-Christianism just as we have so often entreated American Christians to protest anti-Semitism.
My third reason is gratitude. Judaism teaches that ingratitude is the natural human condition. Sadly, most people develop deep seated antipathy toward those who do most for them. That is why the fifth Commandment explicitly counters this human tendency with the instruction, “honor your father and mother.” And we have all noticed how much easier it is to honor someone else’s father and mother. We Jews owe gratitude to America, and particularly to those Americans who venerate Christian values.
We Jews have long enjoyed tranquility and prosperity in America of a kind that we have never been offered by any other society in the past two thousand years. Anyone with an ear for history knows that America has welcomed Jews not in spite of its Bible-based Christian values but precisely because of them. It was those Biblical values that ended slavery in America and it was those values that offered freedom to all immigrants. Judaism would expect all its devotees to express gratitude by standing alongside those Americans who take seriously the words, “And I will bless those that bless you.”
I think that if you could still be with us, Great-grandfather-Lapin, you would be right here alongside me today, cheering me on and doing all you could to help defend the public celebration of Christmas in America.

[Rick Miesse]

I can't believe what I'm reading on here. Jesus Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us, believers or not. To take His holy name out of Christmas is exactly what this country has come to in this generation. It's all prophesized in the Bible. It is because of Jesus Christ that all of you can do what you are doing now, which is having the right to live and having free will to say or do whatever you want. Jesus loves all of us, so much that He died for all of our horrible sins pm the cross. He gave us the chance in this life to enjoy His beautiful creations and miracles and He gives us the wonderful opportunity to serve Him and love one another. Christians are not liked in this country or this world because of sin, and Satan's deceptions. The Lord Himself in the Bible said "Be not deceived by the wicked". This country was founded by our founding fathers based on Christianity and our Lord Jesus Christ. George Washington once said that he did not know how it would be possible to govern this country without a strong faith in the Lord. As a Christian man I am here to tell you that I am far from perfect. None of us are perfect, and I am not judging anyone, that is God's job, not mine.I will however tell all of you who do not believe in our Creator that I will be praying for you and that you are loved.

All of you, have a MERRY CHRISTmas!

Love,

Rick
Dayton, Ohio