Photo by Gil Jimenez

I was chastised the other day for using the term “Merry Christmas” on the company website. My director strongly recommended that I update the expression to a more all-inclusive one: “Happy Holidays.” Of course, I well-understood the reasoning behind this recommendation—I was part of a generation of American children who grew up with the Disney Channel not only wishing us “Merry Christmas,” but “Happy Hanukkah,” and “Happy Kwanzaa” as well. Nonetheless, I grew quite frustrated at this recommendation. To me it was just one example of how modern society has disrupted and destroyed culture.

I might say “Merry Christmas,” but I’m not a Christian, and I don’t pretend like Jesus was born on December 25th instead of in April. I’m just partaking in the same cultural phenomenon of winter celebration that began with the pagans, which Christians later hijacked for themselves. Perhaps if I thought into it, I should decide that I’ve been disingenuous, and that I should more appropriately refer to my holiday as Yule or Saturnalia, but I’m cautious to call myself a pagan since that makes it sound like I’m a polytheist that sacrifice’s animals in his backyard, secretly worships idols and partakes in ritualistic orgies.

Christmas, and the communal winter festivity surrounding it, is first and foremost a cultural event and always has been, and when I use the term “Merry Christmas,” I don’t mean to convey any message besides a reference to that shared culture. Yet as we continue to find ourselves disintegrated into institutions and workplaces among people that do not share even this most basic element of culture, our culture is dissipated and our ability to relate and communicate sincerely is disrupted by political correctness. The warmest expression of winter greetings suddenly becomes an actual act of discrimination.

But really, how fair is the use of “Happy Holidays” anyway? Even this secular and acultural expression doesn’t take everyone into consideration. What about my Jehovah’s Witness friends? They don’t celebrate any holiday. If we were really to get serious about nondiscrimination we should prohibit all public communication whatsoever of holiday greetings. It would only be fair that public discourse should be exclusively limited to practical and productive things, and culture references be removed all together.

I may not be a Christian, but I accept the cultural term “Christmas” because that is the cultural name that has come to represent the traditional winter celebration in my culture. The name is arbitrary, just as culture is arbitrary, but culture retains importance and meaning because it represents what a community shares. So as we live in a world where culture is being displaced by the mechanism of a modern and global society that does not recognize community, forgive me if I cling to what little sense of culture there is left.

Tags: Community, Culture, The Church Beat, The Work Place