Holiday Madness

As a man who was a Christian for a fair share of my life, I have always been out raged by the constant attack on the use of Christmas in our culture. It is appropriate to say "Happy Holidays," but not "Merry Christmas." The reason I was always given was because it may offend people with other views. This bothered me. I would think that that is un-American, people with different beliefs need to just shut up and take it. I just received from a friend an email about the difference in Christmas trees versus Holiday trees. The statement that came with it was that this holiday is Christmas, and we need to stand up for it. I was taken aback. Not because of Christmas and what ever holiday the Church decides is better that those given by G-d Himself, but by the denial of the authenticity of other holiday celebrations. I do not mind being wished a Merry Christmas as long as I am wished a Happy Hanukkah and I would even except Happy Kwanzaa even though I do not know what the holiday means. The key to this is that as a Jew, I will wish you a Happy Hanukkah whether you celebrate or not, because it is the reason for the season to me. I hope that the Christians will share thier holiday wishes and everyone else to. We do not need to be afraid of wishing people happy holidays, we need to be aware of the cross-cultural celebrations.