Happy Holidays

The Muzak carols started before Thanksgiving this year. The decorations went up the day after. A meeting reminded us of the dress code. We can wear holiday-themed items for the two weeks before Christmas.

They've got it all wrong.

There's quite a bit of buzz about the supposedly secular term "holiday season". Don't we mean Christmas? There's some truth to that. "Holiday trees" is a stupid term. Should we start calling "Silent Night" a "holiday carol"? Christmas is a religious holiday. We should be honest about what we're celebrating.

They're celebrating the Christmas season at the wrong time.

The four weeks leading up to Christmas are not the Christmas season. It's the season of Advent, a time of preparation. The actual Christmas season is the time between Christmas and Epiphany, January 6th. Those twelve days inspired the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas". Yet during that time, the decorations will come down. Our dress code will go back to normal. The only "holiday-themed" items will be half-off in the gift shop.

Perhaps it's a good thing for us Christians. The commercialized holiday ends Christmas Day. Then we can ignore the decorations. We can forget the commercials and sales. We will focus on the religious meaning of Christmas during the religious Christmas season.

I still wonder about those fighting the secular "holiday season" labels. Don't they know it's not the real Christmas season yet? Besides, there are other holidays in December. Yule, Solstice, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Boxing Day, and occasionally Ramadan all fall in December. Saying "Happy Holidays" includes them as well.

Our faiths - all of them - are strong enough to share the month with others. Our manners should be as well.

Happy Holidays, no matter which ones you celebrate.