Yes, Bevvie, there is a Merry Christmas!

Every year, as the joyous holiday season approaches, I seem to get involved in arguments with people from all over Ontario, who are outraged that saying  “Merry Christmas” has been banned by big corporations, government, and generally by people of “other faiths” who are exerting pressure everywhere to crush the Number One Christian holiday. They say Christmas Trees are no longer accepted, and Nativity scenes should be suppressed.
Personally I think this whole thing is a krock. It’s a tempest in a teacup, conjured up more by happy Christians looking for a fight, than by the ‘outside forces’ listed above.
If you are a clear-thinking person, with one of the many Christian beliefs in God, you should have no concern if your “Merry Christmas” is met with a “Happy Holiday”.
Sure, we live in a society in which government and corporations try desperately to be as politically correct as possible, and sometimes this translates into policies for their employees, in which “Merry Christmas” can’t be bandied about lightly.
If they actually had some Christmas balls, this would not be the case. But it is.
Here’s a letter I received from my friend Bev:
“Wow! Everything we are hearing is getting worse, especially with all the stuff about not wishing folks a ‘Merry Christmas’. We have so many emails related to it. We even heard that software companies are considering following the same thinking by taking it off features like Clip Art.
“I hope people totally revolt! For the past few years we spoke our minds to stores about it … and this year we just decided to flat out refuse to buy or deal with that ridiculous mentality. Our friends are trying to plan a shopping ‘walk out’ before Christmas to drive the point home by the $$ in their pockets around Ontario.
“In the US, Publix store employees were told that they are not allowed to say anything but Happy Holidays and we didn’t hear or see one Merry Christmas anywhere from Florida right thru New York State. What’s going on?!!”
There was also an attachment about Target stores denying Salvation Army and a Veteran’s group from setting up collection points outside its stores.
And here’s my reply:
Don’t get too upset about this.
First of all, not all of these e-mails are based in fact. A lot of them are pounded out by bent people who want to create a sense of social alarm – just to get the very reaction they are getting from you.
Usually they point the finger at some other group who is ‘getting ahead of you’, building a fire in your belly because a Jew/Muslim/Hindu/black/
gay/lesbian/immigrant/woman seems to have more rights than you. Take your pick from the above list – everybody has someone to blame for their perceived loss of rights.
Personally, I’m not worried.
What you’re seeing is the same corporate and bureaucratic stupidity that has been growing like a virus throughout Canada, the US and, in fact, the world.
They are lemmings running to the sea … so terrified of being associated with something that might cause them trouble that they blindly run away in a mad panic, toward the sweet peace of eventual suicide.
They’re terrified of being attacked by non-Christians on the basis of a simple greeting. They’re edgy about being associated with veterans due to the anti-war crowd. Why they refused the Salvation Army is something of a puzzle. I suspect they are afraid of liability issues, in case the clear plastic ball of money should fall and crush someone. Or that they will receive complaints from customers about being solicited at the door.
Why am I not worried?
Because we are not them.
Witness the revolts around the world. It’s a classic case of us against them. They hold the bulk of any country’s wealth, and the weight of their self-imposed responsibility – and the constant pursuit of money – is killing them.
The average folk are waking up, and they’re not taking this crap anymore. Corporations run the world, and sometimes run it into the ground. Even though they hold the bulk of the dollars, they are filled with fear that their money could disappear at any minute.
Check the stock market … it is now run by fear, and not by hope.
The corporations’ and stockholders’ fear of losing money now trumps the hope of making money, and building a better and more stable future.
And, as long as that attitude lasts, we will stay in recession.
But we still hold the ultimate power.
We can choose where to shop, and we can choose to shop with local small businesses, instead of Big Box stores. In my experience, the prices are not that far apart and, if you factor in your gas and the time it takes to walk 1.5 km through the Big Stores, you’re probably money ahead. Who cares about the miniscule price difference anyway? If you buy it local, you’ll maintain that ‘grass roots’ business. Without them, the Big Guys will soon run everything.
I don’t care if someone is banned by their company from saying ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah’. Say it, and no-one can stop you. Though they can’t respond, the corporate slaves will get it, and they will spread the same feeling of the season in other places where it is not allowed.
Put up a big honkin’ nativity scene on your front lawn, and throw a pile of lights up. Because that’s what we do.
And, keep in mind that, despite the horror of hearing the words ‘Merry Christmas’, corporations make pantloads of money off the Christmas season market, which apparently starts right after Halloween now.
The important thing to know is this: People will do what people will do. This is a big pain in the ass for governments and corporations, who think that they are the ones who decide what we do.
But they don’t, and they never will.
So yes, Bevvie, there is a Santa Claus, and Christmas should be Merry.
And it will take more than a pile of nervous money-hungry corporate and bureaucratic dorks to take that away from us.