Taking The Merry Out Of Christmas

Tis the season to be politically correct. Well, it seems that way. The old days when communities loved and shared Christmas have been replaced in many places with a politically correct approach to celebrating Christmas. It seems that now, if you are not Christian any sign of Christmas is "offensive to you because it isn't "inclusive". So the approach now is to change Christmas celebration to a holiday celebration. It's not stressful because of the furor of activity and obligations, no Christmas is is now full of holiday related controversies and things to fret about  because even saying "Merry Christmas" to someone today might offend them.

Here's a few examples of the un merrier approach to Christmas in the new world order of political correctness.

- In Montgomery County, Md., in response to a request from Muslim community leaders, the education board voted this fall to change "Christmas break" to "winter break". After all, if you don't believe in Christmas your feelings are hurt and they must change the whole holiday to soothe your wounds.

-  Some workplaces and social circles are calling their gift exchanges "secret snowman" rather than "secret Santa," as if the gift bearing fat man bore too close an association with Christianity to make his presence palatable. I'm not sure why Santa is even considered a Christian affront, but Christmas haters have made him a religious rather than secular figure.

- The U. S. Congress is another "workplace" where holiday politics are getting weird. The congresswoman in charge of House mailing standards, Rep. Candace Miller, R-Mich., has reminded members that it's now OK to use greetings such as "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Hanukkah" in mailings to their constituents, thanks to a rules change enacted last year. So now Congress has to give permission to even utter the word "Christmas". But there is a catch. This applies only if the greetings are "incidental with  no Christmas references as to "colors, illustrations and greetings" on the calendars some members like to send out.

- In towns all over America there are legal fights over manger displays or references to Christmas at a county courthouse or some public facility somewhere. It seems that even the phrase 'Have a Merry Christmas" on the side of a public building is offensive to those who don't like Christmas. It's a case of changing the meaning of majority by putting the preference of one non believer ahead of the sentiments of the rest of the community.

- Rhode Island's governor has drawn protests for insisting on calling the State Christmas tree a “holiday tree”.

- In some stores employees are told to never use "Merry Christmas" when speaking to a customer. Instead, it has to be "Happy Holidays" or the unemployment line will be the store gift to the employee. Ho Ho Ho.... I mean, Ha Ha Ha.

- “Ho Ho Ho”, the traditional laugh of jolly old St. Nick is now considered obscene in some politically correct circles. Some business, schools and other institutions are cautioning about that merry laugh. They say that  smiling and uttering a “ho ho ho” could frighten children and be derogatory to women.

- Some schools have a "holiday tree" instead of a Christmas tree and holiday instead of Christmas play performances.

- City councils across the country are banning Christmas to avoid offending Jews, Muslims, pagans,  atheists and other non Christians because..well it hurts their feelings, I guess.

- A number of commercial establishments in the empire have removed the word Christmas from their greetings in an effort to comply with political correctness.

Had enough! Well, those are just a few examples of how the crazy politically correct crowd is hijacking Christmas. If you want a few more try one of the sites that monitors it site http://www.akdart.com/christmas.html

 Modern society seems to produce an endless collection of inanities, absurdities and just plain idiocies. Changing Christmas into a politically correct one is a sure sigh of that. All I can do about it is to just smile and utter "Merry Christmas" to everyone I meet.