By Matthew Swihart, Opinion Editor
‘Tis the season to fight an imaginary war on Christmas, the continual battle over whether the U.S. should treat the holiday season as a strictly Christmas-only season. This “war” is perpetuated by many evangelical groups and even our very own president, Mr. Trump.
The main reason this war exists is that many right wing activists, time and time again, claim America is taking the Christmas out of the “Christmas” season. As America becomes more culturally and religiously diverse, it would make a whole lot of sense that the “Christmas” season becomes a more inclusive “Holiday” season. There are a few points to be made about a war on Christmas, so let’s just knock them off one by one.
So should Americans say “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas”? The obvious answer is “Happy Holidays,” unless you know what holiday they celebrate around this time. If you know someone celebrates Christmas, then there’s no reason not to say “Merry Christmas”. If your best bud celebrates Hanukkah, then why not give him a more personal Happy Hanukkah e-card. If you don’t know, you just don’t know, but don’t assume they celebrate Christmas.
Is it wrong to use Christmas imagery, like say, on a Starbucks cup? Not entirely, but it’s better to be inclusive so as to not offend anyone who doesn’t support Christmas. There was the big Starbucks “scandal” a few years back where they made their annual holiday cups red, and just red. This was just fuel to the propaganda fire as supporters of the war came out of the trenches and ran head first into battle, only to have no noticeable damage done on their part.
Well, if you get rid of Christmas imagery, then why not call Christmas trees, holiday trees? A Christmas tree is a Christmas tree. They are mass produced specifically for the Christmas season. If it’s mass produced for the Christmas season, it’s a Christmas item. It’s the same reason that we call it a dreidel, just a dreidel, and not a holiday dreidel.
Is saying Xmas a declaration of war on Christmas? Absolutely not, Xmas is nothing more than shorter way of writing christmas, why use five letters when you could use one.
Does the war on Christmas actually matter? Not one bit, the war on Christmas is continually brought up year after year for more and more ridiculous matters. But there really is no war on Christmas, it’s simple logic really to include as many holidays as possible to make an inclusive environment for our country, a country where we can allow people to celebrate however they feel appropriate.