Tuesday, December 15, 2009

The reason for the season?

So the debate has again been about what to wish people during this time of year, "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays." People that use the justification that "Jesus is the reason for the season" are just plain wrong. He may be the reason for the Christmas season, but there's a lot going on during this time of the year, including Hanukkah, which, by the way, was the holiday that Jesus and his family practiced as they were Jewish. I am not familiar with the Islamic New Year which begins at sundown on December 17th (according to my pocket calendar)but that is certainly happening soon, as well as the beginning of Kwanzaa which (again according to my pocket calendar) begins on December 26th. And we can't forget the winter solstice that begins on December 21st. I am a big fan of the winter solstice because that means on December 22nd, the days are getting incrementally longer and there is more daylight than not.
Personally, I'm a "Happy Holidays" person. I don't want to offend anybody and I think this includes just about everyone who is celebrating something during this time of year. Just once I want to turn to someone who says to me, "Merry Christmas" and say, "I'm Jewish." I just REALLY want to see the look on the face of someone wearing a "Jesus is the reason for the season" pin and find out what they have to say to me. Because again, Jesus didn't celebrate Christmas.
Then there's the issue of what type of cards to send. I go for the vanilla "Happy Holidays" because I have Jewish friends I send cards to. I do the photo cards which this year included a separate picture of Peanut, Angel, and then me and Mark at a baseball game this July. It's my understanding that Jewish people do not as a rule send out Hanukkah cards to each other, but mostly get them from their gentile friends who send out cards to everyone. Have you ever seen a box of Hanukkah cards for sale at the Hallmark store? I thought not.
Don't even get me started on buying stamps from the USPS with all of the different holidays on them. I tried to buy some Hanukkah stamps at my local post office and the gentleman behind the counter told me that this particular post office doesn't order them because they don't sell well. Well how about that.
Whatever you want to wish someone at this time of year...
Enjoy.

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