Christmas was ruined!

[mmcirvin]

The "War On Christmas" hysteria is going full steam again:

Governments that have put "holiday trees" on display have been lambasted, and retailers that wish customers "Happy Holidays" have been threatened with boycotts and pestered with phone calls and online petitions. Started three years ago, the campaign will be the groups' largest.

That these people see their paranoid, joy-killing shaming campaigns about how people celebrate a holiday as a fight against "political correctness" is one of the most extreme expressions of Poetic Justice as Fairness that I've ever seen.

(Especially since, before these campaigns began, the American religious right usually satisfied itself with complaining about the modern celebration of Christmas being too Santa-y and not Jesus-y enough. I have to admit that reframing their annual carping about Christmas in terms of a defense against anti-Christmas forces is a canny move.)

I'll also say what others have said before: my recollection is that all this genericized "Happy Holidays" stuff started not as a sop to Madalyn Murray O'Hair and her religion-averse friends, but as an attempt to be inclusive of Jews. It was perhaps somewhat feeble in that capacity—I know I've heard Jews complain about the ahistorical elevation of Hanukkah as a Christmas substitute—but I sometimes wonder if the campaign against "Happy Holidays" really has easily-offended secular humanists as its primary target.

Comments

War on Christmas?

[swinehund.livejournal.com]

Where do I sign up?

I don't particularly care about religious people celebrating their holidays in a personal manner, as they see fit. The problem I have with Christmas is that it's in the public space, for six weeks or more. It's pretty difficult to not celebrate it. Easter, Ramadan, Yom Kippur, I see very little of those and feel like I'm free to avoid them as I like.

Even the 'Happy Holidays' is kind of a weak concession to people who don't celebrate Christmas, as there are still lights, garlands, and a lot of really annoying music in every public space to make you feel out of place if the spirit is not moving you. I am not celebrating a holiday of any sort around this time (though I don't really mind getting a few days off). It's not that I mind the lights and decorations so much either, they just have unshakably unpleasant connotations for me. Christmas is such an emotionally charged (and especially neurotic) holiday for many families, so for dysfunctional families it tends to involve more drinking and fighting than average. I don't really like everyone I meet rousing those memories for me for six weeks straight. I know that this is the case for many other people too, so even though I support taking the religious connotations out of the public sphere, it's more of an issue of not enjoying having my unpleasant memories rubbed in my face.

Re: War on Christmas?

[darius.livejournal.com]

You can sort of sign up with the Christmas Resistance (http://www.xmasresistance.org/). They appear to be mostly against the gift-buying part, though.

Re: War on Christmas?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Yes indeedy, there's that too: how you feel about this particular holiday has a lot to do with how you get on with your family, and for many people it's fairly painful (http://www.livejournal.com/users/mmcirvin/183998.html). I'd bet this is a larger source of animosity toward Christmas (and Thanksgiving as well) than anything having to do with religion. And the ubiquity of it comes more from the commercial angle than anything else.

As I said in that old post, I typically feel worn out by the season but Christmas itself is OK.

Re: War on Christmas?

[swinehund.livejournal.com]

I see I am repeating myself!

Yes, I'm similarly generally in favour of a quiet time spent with people that you haven't spent as much time with over the last year as you'd like, and it is nice to give and recieve small, thoughtful gifts as long as there is not too much pressure associated with it.

I think you hit the crux of it with the gift escalation being impossible to avoid when retailers stand to benefit, though. It's just too bad so many people let themselves get all in a tizzy over it. It seems to be a kind of token for some people. I get the sense that they think that if they get Christmas just right, it will magically improve their family life for the rest of the year, in the same way that a huge princess-style wedding is supposed to ensure a happy relationship. Focusing on one day is much easier than putting constant care and attention into your relationships, even if it is ineffectual. I bet they'd be more embarassed about it (if confused) if they were accused of having a Christmas fetish.