When I was in Kentucky for Thanksgiving I saw this thing on the news about a billboard in Ohio that read
"I miss hearing you say Merry Christmas" signed Jesus.
To be honest it made me laugh. I understand the intentions of the ladies that raised the money to display the billboards, but personally I wouldn't quote Jesus on things he didn't say and out of all the things that he misses hearing from people I don't know that Merry Christmas is his greatest concern, although I am not implying that I know better, because I could be missing the mark on this one.
Since this controversy has come up I feel like by saying the word holiday I am taking a stand against Christmas which is absolutely not true. Since we have to travel we often celebrate Christmas at Thanksgiving with my family, and then there are all the festivities in the month of December, finished off with New Years so for me it makes more sense to say holidays. If I say Christmas then it means December 25, and that's not what I am talking about.
That's not to say that I think we should censor Christmas and if there is one thing that does get me a little riled it's the whole Merry X-Mas thing. I mean really, is it SOOOOO terribly long of a phrase that you can't write it out? We don't do that with other greetings. Allow me to demonstrate
Merry Christmas= 14 letters
Happy New Year= 12 letters
Happy Thanksgiving= 17 letters
Happy Birthday= 13 letters
All of these things have the same amount of syllables if not more than "Merry Christmas" and the same amount of letters give or take a couple, but yet I've never seen the other holidays abbreviated. That would just be weird!
"Happy X-day" or "How was your X-giving?"
It doesn't work. I say keep, the birth in birthday, the thanks in thanksgiving, and Christ in Christmas, that and Happy Holidays Everyone!
Updated December 30, 2009: Well, thanks to blogging I have learned something new and even though I still feel the same way about the usage of xmas I did learn the origin of the abbreviation and it isn't anything derogatory at all, so I guess I will cancel that billboard I had ordered for next year. Read the comments section for more information.
4 comments:
good post - i totally agree with all of it :)
but as a tid bit - my sister informed us this year that "X" is the greek symbol for Christ, so it may not necessarily be a bad thing to replace. but majority of people don't know that, so i'll keep Christ in Christmas. :D
Ha ha! I agree, too! Well said!! I've heard about the "x" being a symbol, but I also agree that it isn't widely known!
Yeah, I looked into the symbol and I have bragged on here before about knowing the greek alphabet, but I don't know the symbols ;) After doing some research, and by research I pretty much mean wikipedia, it would be the same as saying C day, considering the X is the first letter in the greek word for Christ, but the usage of xmas has been considered more or less informal and inappropriate since around the 1940's. It looks like what it boils down to is an ancient abbreviation that doesn't translate into the modern English language. Interesting history lesson though.
I like this! I too feel like, if we are wishing each other joy and good cheer, in whatever words, why would anyone pick a fight with that?
And amen on let's not put Jesus's name on things he didn't say. This covers most of what I see on billboards. LOL.
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