Merry Christmas guys! To those of you celebrating at least. I hope your day is full of presents and tasty food and family time and Christmas lights. I like Christmas lights, they’re so shiny and pretty.

I think my favorite spot for the Christmas lights this year had to be Greesnboro, NC. I loved the glowing balls of Christmas lights people had filled the trees with. As it got dark, you could look down a street and see nothing but these patches of sparkly color, seemingly floating magically above streets and homes. It’s lovely. I meant to take a picture but failed… it was cold and I was horribly under dressed and there was Star Trek to watch… good reasons, right?

I also enjoyed Lake Charles, LA (I took a picture there!) and Austin’s Christmas tree around the Moonlight Tower. We stood under it and spun in circles. There were lots of little kids falling down.

I love Christmas lights and peppermint (schnapps) and Egg Nog. As I drove through the pitch black that is Florida’s highway 60 at night, I was listening to Christmas music (and Delilah but I blame that on Katie. Even if she wasn’t with me). Charlie Brown Christmas makes me infinitely happy and for a long time The Grinch was one of my favorite cartoons ever.

But so hey, here’s the thing. I don’t celebrate Christmas.

I’m a Jew. I celebrate Hanukkah. Hanukkah makes me happy. Yeah, I love presents as much as the next kid but it also has religious significance and meaning for me. It’s not the most important holiday of the year, it’s not even my favorite (those would be the High Holidays as most important and Passover as favorite). It’s just the one that happens to fall around the winter solstice and Christmas time.

And now check this out. Hanukkah and Christmas aren’t the only holidays that happen this time of year! There’s also the oft mocked Kwanzaa. Which, make fun of if you will, means something to people. There’s the winter solstice itself, celebrated by pagan religions. Then there are even people who don’t celebrate anything.

What’s my point? I have a point here!

There’s this little thing that happened in our country’s history called The American Revolution. And then this other thing, The Declaration of Independence, was written. AND THEN these other things, the Amendments, came along!

Whoa history, right?

So we fought this war and the point of this war was kinda to have some freedom and stuff. And one of those freedoms that our country fought for was a freedom of religion. And then we went and wrote that down in the First Amendment.

Okay, cool, we got this religious freedom thing! Rad! We can celebrate what we want! And even how we want! How awesome is that?

But then, you know, this other stuff started to happen. First of all you have all of these companies realizing that “Hey! People buy stuff during holiday times! Let’s run with that!” and you start having this whole commercialization of religious holidays. You get Macy’s and Sears and Best Buy (Best Buy came later, seriously) putting out these ads and having these sales and trying to get people to BUY BUY BUY.

Hanukkah got in on the game and we started giving presents eight days in a row. A couple of weeks started to not be enough advertising time so we started to hear about Christmas as soon as the pumpkins from Halloween went away. By Thanksgiving we’re inundated.

And people realized that Hey, Hanukkah is giving presents too! Maybe “Merry Christmas” isn’t the best marketing strategy! Let’s make it “Happy Holidays” and then everyone can buy more stuff!

We went from fighting to have the freedom to PRACTICE what we wanted when we wanted to having the freedom to BUY what we wanted when we wanted.

And judge our consumerist culture how you will (yuck?), at least it’s all equal. Stores want the Jews to buy crap just as much as they want everyone else to. When I walk into a store and see “Happy Holidays” I maybe cringe a little on the inside but at least I feel included in the nonsense.

You look at things like Rasmussen Reports and Christmas is still the number one holiday. But like it or not, it’s still not the only one. Which I think is a good thing. Diversity is great! Diversity leads to culture and being open to different view points leads to a richer life experience.

There’s this thing that’s started happening though. It’s been going on the last few years but it became even more obvious this year by the overwhelming return to “Merry Christmas” banners in the stores. Apparently “Happy Holidays” means Christmas is under attack. We hear it all over the news, especially on Fox (shocking!), and OMG!!! The Heathens are coming! Our good Christian neighbors are being corrupted!!!

Culture is apparently attacking religion. Yes, the way we practice is changing. I mean here a global “We” not just an American one. There’s globalization, technology, etc. that serves to make the world become more of the same. Is it a good or bad thing? Does that matter? Maybe (I’m not getting into it today) but it’s happening whether we like it or not. And whether we like it or not, we’re a part of it.

So what do we do? We react by pulling back from the world. We retreat into traditions and values that we feel are under attack. We rant, Christmas is under attack! It’s fear that’s speaking. Fear of change and difference and anything that makes us uncomfortable.

It’s cultural.

It’s political.

We need to take steps to protect Christmas and good Christian values!

Really, shouldn’t the Speaker in Texas be replaced by a good Christian because incumbent Joe Strauss doesn’t share good Christian values?

Wait. What?

Okay, so that maybe seems unrelated to “Happy Holidays” vs. “Merry Christmas” only, it’s kinda not. It comes back down to the same exclusive, everyone-must-be-the-same-as-me-or-they-belong-to-the-devil fear mongering mentality that’s been running rampant through our media for the last ten years rather than the ideals that this nation was founded on.

I don’t mean to be all ranty and Grinch like on Christmas. I want you all celebrating to have a lovely day and I really do mean that! I enjoyed my Hanukkah, I want everyone else to have a happy holiday season too.

Which is my point. I don’t really want to go into a store and be made to feel like I’m wrong to not be celebrating Christmas. I don’t like being left out! I like being included! Although, really, maybe I should be okay with being left out of the over spending on crap no one really needs…

I just want to know, since when did trying to make everyone feel welcome mean we were actually trying to attack a group of people’s beliefs? Saying Happy Holidays to someone doesn’t mean I don’t want them to have a good Christmas, it means I respect the fact that their beliefs, like my own, may not be that of a majority. It means I’m acknowledging our right, all of ours, to practice (or even NOT practice) religion as we will.

I want everyone to be happy this time of year. If you’re celebrating Christmas today, I hope you have a Merry one.

I’m not attacking Christmas. I’m spreading the love to us all.

In the vein of spreading the love, as we all should do this time of year, why not think about spreading the love to a local food bank? If you’re in LA check out the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank. Tis the season for giving, right?

Merry Christmas. To my Christmas friends. Happy Holidays to the rest of you suckers. Hope everyone has a great weekend. I’m gonna go watch A Christmas Story. Cause that movie is awesome.

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