Once again conservative media is outraged over people who say “Happy Holidays, and once again I am disturbed by the vitriolic reaction against what is, to my mind, a magnanimous, generous, all encompassing gesture.  Wishing someone Happy Holidays seems rather Jesus-like to me.  I’m not sure if that makes it Christian, though.  An awful lot of Christians today seem to have a real chip on their shoulder, and don’t behave at all like the Jesus whose story is told in the gospels.

The funny thing is, I don’t think Happy Holidays came into popular usage in an effort to be more inclusive.  I’d have to investigate this more systematically to say definitively, but we have examples going back to the 19th century from newspapers and magazines.  For those young enough to remember classified ads and newspapers, you were charged by the word or by size.  Happy Holidays is half the characters and takes half the space of Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  It really gained currency after 1942 with Irving Berlin’s song “Happy Holidays,” simply because it was cool and brief.  You can find depicting nativity scenes on the front, that say Happy Holidays inside.  If you are seeing someone for the last time in December and you know you won’t see them again until January, it’s just easier to say “Happy Holidays” than it is to say “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”

On the other hand, insisting that people say Merry Christmas in reference to a particular holiday that occurs on December 25 could be interpreted as somewhat un-Christian, or at least demonstrable of an ignorance of the diversity within Christian tradition, especially if we consider how commercial and secular Christmas has become.  Though it’s use has been largely secularized in our era, the word “holiday” is obviously derived from “holy days.”  In most Christian traditions Christmas has not been a single day, but a season beginning with the birth and ending with the Epiphany, 12 days later.  This is the origin of the 12 days referred to in the popular traditional carol “The 12 Days of Christmas.”  Each of those 12 days is the feast day of a Saint, or a “Holy Day.” This year the Feast of the Epiphany is January 6, so we are still in the midst of the Christmas season, even if people are taking down their decorations and going back to work.

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Of course, that’s only relevant if you are a Christian and everyone you interact with in your life is too, and that they celebrate Christmas.  (Believe it or not, some of our more Puritanical founding fathers didn’t and, in fact, outlawed it!)    Or maybe you just don’t care, because the fact that you are celebrating is enough.  If you really think about it, wishing non-Christians Merry Christmas is like wishing other people Happy Birthday on YOUR birthday.

Our Town Hall puts a crescent moon on its lawn beside a menorah and a star during the holidays, even though Hanukkah was over on December 5 this year, and there is no Muslim holiday that falls in the Holiday season this year.  Why not also have a statue of Buddha, Vishnu, the Spaghetti Monster, etc.  Though not religious myself, I admire the sentiment.  Happy Holidays stems from the same impulse, a desire to recognize the plurality in our society.  It would be better to put the symbols on the lawn during the appropriate time in the corresponding religious calendar, but it’s a start.

So in that spirit, I close by saying to you all, Happy Holidays!  May 2014 bring us wisdom and understanding!