Tag Archives: War on Christmas

Thank Goodness That’s Over

I am not a lover of Christmas.  It’s a good thing my wife is, or I’d just discontinue the tradition altogether and my kids would be  seriously pissed off.  The trees and the lights are kind of pretty, although I worry about killing off such a huge number of trees each year.  I really don’t like most traditional Christmas movies and even the ones I once thought were fairly good films (Love, Actually) I’m  sick of seeing every  goddamned year regular as clockwork.

Happy Yule!

Happy Yule!

Here in the Czech Republic, we celebrate on the 24th and it’s now over.  The nicest thing about this  Christmas was that Helena’s grandmother was there, which was not a foregone conclusion.  She is old, and pretty much never gets out of  bed any more.

In her cheerful, old person’s way of speaking, she said “Oh, this is so nice, my last Christmas” and my father in law said “Herr Gott! (he  uses that phrase a lot) You’ve been saying that for 10  years!”  Which is true, come to think of it.

Anyway, I was glad she made it to this one.

One reason I’m glad it’s over, though, is that we can now have a year long truce in this war on Christmas bullshit.  So, these are my final thoughts on the subject for this year: it is perfectly  fine to say “Merry Christmas!”  It is a traditional greeting and people throughout the English speaking world have been saying it for a couple  of centuries, at least.

It is not O.K. to say “I say Merry Christmas.”  When you say that, you are staking out a position, you are adding a bit of Christian ideology to what used to be a pleasant and harmless greeting.

I hope we don’t have to have this argument again next year, but I’m not holding my breath.

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Happy Fucking Holidays, Christian Assholes

I just defriended somebody on facebook.  Not somebody I knew personally, so I don’t feel too guilty about my jerkiness.  She’ll get over it.

There are 3 main reasons why I might defriend people.  Number one, of course, is teabagger

Santa or Jesus - Which one would you rather have a beer with?

political viewpoints.  I’ll argue with them over at Huffpo,  or on the other sites I occasionally visit, but it does get tiresome, and a  man’s facebook page is his castle, right?

It would be different if they were actually, logically and coherently defending a legitimate point of view.  But seeing a hundred cognitively challenged people a day saying “Obummers  gowing too loooooose!!1!”  is just a time consuming pain in the butt.  So, they’re gone.

Number 2 is people who post too many pictures of cats, or similar.  I mean, it’s OK if it’s your own cat, and it’s genuinely a cute photo (Hi, Joy!) but there was a lady the other day who put like 20 photos up  from that extremely unfunny site which puts  big block text next to the cat as if they’re saying something that matches their expression, totally anthropomorphizing the poor animal and besides, I really don’t like cats that much.  Houseplants with legs.  So, she was gone.

The lady who was exiled from my cyberworld today violated tenet #3.  Obnoxiously Christian.  I don’t mind an occasional God bless you.  One AA friend of mine talks a lot about how prayer helps him in his struggles to overcome addiction and that’s OK.  It’s one of the reasons I stopped going to AA meetings, but it’s no biggie.  I’m an atheist, but I try not to be a fanatic about it.

If your religion tells you not to eat pork, don’t eat pork.  If your religion tells you you can have as many wives as you want, you won’t get any objections  from me.  If you are a Rastafarian, spark up and be  blessed.

But don’t tell me I can’t say Happy Holidays.  Don’t tell me that “Jesus is the reason for the season” because it’s factually, historically and culturally incorrect.  It’s three days after the midwinter solstice, the return of the sun after the darkest days of the year, of course there’s going to be a holiday then.  The Romans had Saturnalia and I suspect they borrowed it from the barbarian tribes in the north.

Also, you can’t have it both ways.  If you want to refuse to take your kids to see Santa Claus, not have a tree in your house, and spend the whole season of fun going to church and singing religious songs, knock yourself out.  But don’t expect the rest of us to go along.

Some of us aren’t Christians.  Some of us have no intention of becoming  Christians.  So, Happy Holidays, lady.  And,  while we’re on the subject, don’t come knocking on my door.

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