Merry Holidays?

As mentioned by bipolarfrenzy yesterday, it is pretty frustrating that Christmas is being erased by our
society.  I can remember my parents getting a “Christmas Club” account from the local bank only a few years ago.  This past year when I decided to start one, the bank only offered a “Holiday Club” account.

To be fair, some companies must believe something about the way people are or what will happen if they continue to recognize Christmas:

1. That if they do recognize it, they will be sued, boycotted, or denounced  by the ACLU, AUSCS, etc.
2. That by recognizing all the holidays they will somehow get customers that may stay home due to the fact that they don’t celebrate Christmas.
3. That the grinches at the top of their companies that want to stay in touch with what they believe society is doing will not be pleased.

Probably, the profit one (2) is the biggest excuse they have.  There’s nothing stopping said stores from setting up departments for the different holidays– you know, one for Christmas, et al.  Even the Christmas displays usually emphasize Satan– I mean, Santa– and the elves more than Christ.

I guess the question that we as Christians have to ask ourselves is, is the change from Merry Christmas
to Happy Holidays really a bad one?  Stay with me here, and think this through.

One of the major complaints that I have heard lately is how commercialized Christmas has become.  The emphasis is more on the gifts than The GIFT.  The time is full of hectic mayhem, defined more by how much profit is made than what is given.  Just look up how many articles are written about WalMart and its profits Black Friday and what it did to the stock market versus how much your local church has done for those in need in the community– or churches anywhere for that matter.

Could the silver lining of the ignoring of the true meaning of Christmas really help to purify the thing?  Could Christians recapture Christmas to mean Christ’s birth, and start a trend where companies that don’t want to recognize it, but want our money are forced to stop the way they are treating Christmas.

I’m not saying that we should give up the holiday.  What I am saying is that we have the power at our disposal to change events regardless of stores ad campaigns or town parades.  We can organize food distribution programs.  We can get groups together to go out caroling.  We can proclaim Merry Christmas from our houses and offices.  I always get this evil type grin when my company has a “Christmas luncheon” knowing that the secularists haven’t won here yet.

If we could, each one of us, witness, spread the word about Christ, and actually changed people’s hearts about this thing, then society, parades and stores would follow.