Tired of People Dancing Around "Merry Christmas?" You're Not the Only One

"Sorry to offend you…but Merry Christmas anyway!"

That blog post expresses a remarkable idea: that it's okay to acknowledge a religious holiday, even if it's Christian.

I think there's a cultural sea change happening in America.

For decades, we've had to pretend that

• Celebrating Christmas is oppressive
• Hannukkah and Eid aren't religious holidays (they're "cultural")
• And, very nearly, that red and green lights should be banned

I'm not making that last item up. Fort Collins, Colorado decided to keep their discriminatory lights, on a vote of 6-1. I harangued, briefly, in "Happy Thanksgiving Eve!," a post in another blog.

This aversion to the C-word and C. decorations on public (and sometimes private) property has affected everyone. The small Minnesota town I live in has nice, safe, "Happy Holiday" banners on both ends of the main highway. Happily, no one has objected to the banners' lights being red and green.

A little surprisingly, nobody's objected to the word "happy:" even though it arguably discriminates and victimizes people with chronic depression. By the wild and wacky standards we've come to expect in American courts, anyway.

Now, after decades of determining public and corporate policy on the preferences of some the most brittlely sensitive people, officials and business leaders seem to be cautiously approaching the idea that "Merry Christmas" is no more offensive than "Happy Hanukkah" or "Happy Eid."

I don't think it's the Sixties any more.

Okay, that's enough ranting for now. The next post will be a little different.