[GrandmaPatriot]

I ALWAYS say Merry Christmas and never Happy Holidays. If it weren't for Christ, there wouldn't be Christmas. Not very hard to understand.

[Inspectorette]

I was delighted to hear last night on Emeril Live, the Harlem Boys' Choir singing "O Come All Ye Faithful". It brought tears to my eyes.

This morning on the way to work, our local radio station was playing a commercial with "Joy to the World" in the background.

[talleyman]

Merry Christmas!

[netmilsmom]

Merry Christmas and All God's Blessings for a Joyous New Year!!!

We give "Jesus' Birthday Presents" to each other on the big day, besides the Santa presents. We try to keep it Holy!

[hapy]

OMG!

I have already prepared those around me that this year I am not saying happy holidays I am saying "MERRY CHRISTMAS" and I am putting up a manger at work!

F$ck those liberals I am ready to fight them

[onedoug]

"There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the nephew: "Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!"

[Snidely Whiplash]

My favorite has to have been a commercial this year from PetSmart. The Happy Couple are in the house, manifestly decorated for Christmas - lights, tree, stockings on the mantelpiece. The husband makes some comment on how the lady of the house is going overboard a bit, and she says something to the effect of "But honey, it's his [the dog's] first holiday!"

What seems really stupid is that it's not like any Jews, Muslims or Atheists or whatever else are fooled by this, if they've got two brain cells to rub together...they know good and well what holiday the ad is talking about! Grrrr.

All that said, I don't have a huge problem with, say, personally wishing people a "Happy Holiday," since oftentimes Chanukah coincides with with Christmas (as it does this year).

Snidely Snidely

[steve-b]

In the '50s that dreadful "Xmas" popped up but it was so blatant an assault on the name of Christ that it fell out of favor eventually.

A clever conflation of the Greek letter chi (the first letter of "Christos") and the cross is a "blatant... assault on the name of Christ"?

Somebody needs to ease up a bit.

[Adder]

Its folks censoring themselves...its not a government action. No one is telling you that you or your business can't say "Merry Christmas".
That said, I do find myself pointedly saying Merry Christmas to all and sundry, no matter who they are....even Arab looking folk...if they take offence, tuff. They might get a Felice Navidad tossed in for good measure.
But ya know what? No one does! This offence bs is just that! Very few take offence at anything! Its all these control freaks running around pretending that all sorts of people are running around tearing at their hair in an agony as if splashed with Holy Water. Like they have some insight into every culture in the world....except their own. And thats just not true.
So the guy IS right. Say it loud and Proud.
Ha'fter all, its Christmas, Mr. Scrooge.

[kevao]

My boss likes sending Xmas cards to clients. Although he's not anti-Christian by any means, he always goes with the wishy-washy "Season's Greetings".

Last year, I suggested "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" He passed.

[AlaskaErik]

Now, instead of wishing everyone "Merry Christmas", we are subjected to "Season's Greetings", "Happy Holidays", and "Winter Festival" to name a few drippy, gray, generic tags dreamed up by the Take-Christ-out-of-Christmas crowd. I've actually heard the word "holiday" used without any reference to what is being celebrated.

The following is an actual letter to the editor and was printed in yesterday's rag. Read the last line. And this from a man of the cloth.

Alaskans can help beat spears into plowshares this holiday season

Did you know that 80 percent of those killed by land mines are innocent civilians and one-third of land mine victims are children younger than 15 years of age? Today marks the sixth anniversary of the opening for signature of the 1997 International Mine Ban Treaty. By honoring this treaty, you can beat spears into plowshares and save lives of innocent victims! Currently, 150 governments have signed or acceded to the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty -- more than three-quarters of the world's nations. Forty-four governments, including that of the United States, are not a part of the treaty.

According to Pentagon records, a significant percentage of total U.S. casualties from the Vietnam conflict and the 1991 Persian Gulf War were from anti-personnel land mines. Ninety percent of those mines were originally made or laid by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces. Current reports indicate that land mines are still causing havoc throughout Iraq and Afghanistan.

Consider honoring the intent of the 1997 International Mine Ban Treaty by visiting the U.S. Campaign to Ban Land Mine Web site, www.banminesusa.org. The site represents a nationwide coalition of nearly 500 nongovernmental organizations. Since the early 1990s, the number of mine-producing countries has dropped from 59 to 14, and more than 34 million anti-personnel land mines have been destroyed.

Consider honoring this holiday season by "Beating spears into plowshares" (Micah 4:3)!

-- Dennis Holway

United Methodist minister

Anchorage

[meowmeow]

Yesterday I went to the post office and asked the short, foreign accented guy behind the counter for “Mary and Jesus stamps.” He scowled, opened the drawer, hesitated, then started to pull up the snowman stamps. I said, “NO! The stamps with Mary and Jesus on them – those right there!” He looked angry and informed me they were “Madonna and child” stamps. I said, “Well that would be Mary and Jesus! I’ll take two books of Mary and Jesus stamps.” He slammed them on the counter. I should have wished him Merry Christmas, too. So if you want to annoy the postal people…

[MattAMiller]

then all you have to do is see the all-out assault on the very holiday of Christmas this year.

This seems to be the theme of the week for some conservative columnists. Saying "happy holidays" does not constitute an assault on Christianity. It's merely an acknowledgement that some people celebrate something else.

[freemama]

I only use Happy Holidays when I know the person I am talking to is of a different faith. I say Blessed Christmas as often as I can to sales people and the like. If they choose to correct me because they are of a different faith, so be it.

As for cards, we have 2 Jewish friends we send a faith appropriate card to. Everyone else gets religious Christmas cards. No little teddy bears or Santa's on our cards!

[Johnny Gage]

On the Mike Gallagher show, Mike called on everyone to send religious christmas cards to all the ACLU offices.

[kb2614]

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!


I feel all counter-culture now,,,,,,,Cool!!!!

[presidio9]

Happy Kawanzaa to all on this thread.

[ConservativeStLouisGuy]

Say it loud and say it proud: MERRY CHRISTMAS! - A. E. Huggett

If anyone ever doubted the veracity of David Limbaugh's latest book, Persecution (How Liberals Wage the War Against Christianity), then all you have to do is see the all-out assault on the very holiday of Christmas this year. I don't know if you've noticed it or not but the word "Christmas" is being used less and less as time goes on, and I'm not only talking about public school programs. I'm talking about corporate culture and media programming. It's not just kids getting the full court anti-Christmas press but now it's each and every one of us. No matter where we look, whether it's on HGTV or ABC, you will rarely if ever, hear "Christmas" said in reference to what we celebrate the world over in December.

For a country whose Founding Fathers acknowledged the great debt owed to Christianity, and who understood that freedom of religion was a vital right for everyone, we are being systematically stripped of any Christian reference in the name of religious tolerance by the highly intolerant left. As stated in the Communist Manifesto, "Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion, and all morality." To accomplish that goal the leftists hooked onto and hyper inflated a hypothetical "Separation of Church and State", which is now so beloved by the professional Constitutional penumbral rights hallucinators of activist judges and the ACLU.

Now, instead of wishing everyone "Merry Christmas", we are subjected to "Season's Greetings", "Happy Holidays", and "Winter Festival" to name a few drippy, gray, generic tags dreamed up by the Take-Christ-out-of-Christmas crowd. I've actually heard the word "holiday" used without any reference to what is being celebrated.

Don't believe me? When popular FOX News host, Bill O'Reilly, recently interviewed NYC Public Advocate, Mark Green, on The O'Reilly Factor about the assault on Christmas, Green actually refused to even say "Christmas" until O'Reilly verbally bludgeoned him into saying it. Take a look at your corporation's Christmas displays or party invitations and just try to find the word "Christmas" anywhere. You'll see "holiday" this and that or maybe "Winter" so-and-so but "Christmas"? No way! How about on TV? I'd estimate that 85% of all commercials and programming are in the "Season's Greetings" vein rather than "Merry Christmas". Newspapers are no better although small, family owned shops, which purchase advertising, still speak of Christmas.

In fact, I can't remember when the very name of Christmas was so reviled. In the '50s that dreadful "Xmas" popped up but it was so blatant an assault on the name of Christ that it fell out of favor eventually. However, this did not stop the secularists. They have an agenda and Christmas has got to go right down to attacking the quasi-religious Santa Claus. Thanks to the formerly family-friendly Disney studios, which owns Miramax, Billy Bob Thornton is hammering that right jolly old elf, Santa Claus, in ugly obscenity in Bad Santa.

The most blatant example of anti-Christmas corporate advertising is Target. In their TV ad this year you see the usual frenzy of gift giving for them but without any reference to why the buying orgy is taking place. The music, lest it be identified even subliminally as a Christmas carol, is instead Toni Tennille singing, "Love will keep us together". So...what event are we celebrating? Valentine's Day?

Things are no better over in the UK either. The International Red Cross, which was founded to show Christian charity on the battlefront by the devout Henri Durant, who also founded the Young Man's Christian Association (YMCA), banned Nativity scenes and any reference to Mary, Joseph, and the Magi in their stores during the Christmas season lest they "offend" minority sensibilities. As one wag put it, "Does that mean the Red Cross is now the International Plus Sign?"

What is so sad about all this religious censorship is that nearly every aspect of Christmas has a religious meaning. This means eventually the very celebration of Christ's birth will have to be destroyed. The New York public school system is doing just that by claiming that Christ's birth never happened!

So let's look at Christmas and its symbolism. The very word "Christmas" is a shortening of Christ Mass, celebrates the birth of Christ, and is a holyday of obligation for Catholics. That word "holyday" was secularized to "holiday" so since "holiday" has a religious basis, we better get rid of that word too. The Christmas tree, which is a fir to show eternal life because it does not "die" by shedding its leaves like a deciduous tree, is a symbol of the Tree in the Garden of Eden and the various sweets and ornaments represent the apple from the Tree of Knowledge. Better get rid of the tree too just to be safe. Poinsettias are a relative newcomer to the Christmas scene in Europe but these Mexican plants' blood red leaves symbolize the blood shed by Christ, and their tiny center flowers, which look like spikes, represent the nails used to affix Christ to the cross. Can't have that in the secular house!

The holly wreath symbolizes Christ's crown of thorns so that's gone. Candy canes are sugary representatives of Christ's staff as Good Shepard and therefore St. Nicholas' Bishop's staff. Good-bye candy canes! Don't even think of using stars or bells since the Star of the Nativity guided the Magi to Christ's crib and church bells peal out the glad tidings to all men. Way too religious! And angels? Hah! They simply reek with religion, goodness, and spirituality. No, no, no, no, no.

Speaking of Magi, they were the original gift givers presenting the Christ Child with presents fit for a king. That's why we exchange gifts on Christmas and it's also why gifts are also exchanged on January 6th, which is the 12th day of Christmas when the Magi found Christ, and is also called Ephiany. The Magi were Zoroastrian astrologers and their acknowledgement of Christ's birth showed that Christ was for all men. Guess that rules out gift giving...oh, wait...that will never do...the corporations won't allow that. Their greed factor is greater than their fear of religion. Guess gift giving can be retained.

As for all that snow, everybody talks about the weather but no one does anything about it. Christ's birth historically was in the spring but Church fathers moved the date of celebration of Christ's birth to rival the Roman Saturnalia festival held on December 21. The snow can stay since how else can you rationalize all those cute polar bears and penguins that are popping up everywhere this time of year? Mistletoe is a European pagan symbol carryover, which has harmlessly morphed into an excuse to get a kiss. Atheists need love too so mistletoe can stay.

After all this editing nothing is left but snowflakes, mistletoe, and consumerism so voila! The Target Christmas ad for 2003 as mentioned earlier singing about showing love, love, love by buying yet another poorly made sweater imported from that bastion of secular humanism, the People's Republic of China. Now why should I indulge in a meaningless orgy of consumerism at the end of the year when I have pretty much everything I want already and show my love to my spouse and family year round? In that America which is a shopper's paradise, what motivation is left for December 25th once it's stripped of all true meaning? Are we supposed to gather round a pile of crumbled gift wrapping in the town square and sing ersatz love songs a la the Whos of Whoville in an aftermath mirror image of our culture once the irreligious Grinch like left has stolen the blessedness of Christmas?

In a sense Christianity has come full circle in its history. In its earliest years, Christians were persecuted because they refused to acknowledge or worship the Roman Emperor, who was considered the ultimate human manifestation of the state, as a god. Because modern moral and religious people do not recognize the state as higher than God, the state, and those institutions perverted through socialism, is setting about persecuting Christianity in increasingly unsubtle ways. The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the state from interfering in the free exercise of religion but the state over and over again does just that. It's just now instead of one Nero we have thousands of petty bureaucrats doing the persecuting. Those adherents to non-Christian religions need to understand that once the secular humanists destroy one religion they'll go on to the next.

___________________________________

BRAVO! Worthy of a full post! MERRY CHRISTMAS FELLOW FReepers!!

- ConservativeStLouisGuy