MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
There, I said it. 
Over the past several years, there has been a inexorable movement away from the holiday-specific “Merry Christmas” towards the more general and politically correct “Happy Holidays”. Proponents of this give many reasons why they do this: they don’t celebrate Christmas, it’s offensive to them, Christmas is a pagan holiday, their religion observes a different holiday, yada yada. Whatever.
It’s rare nowadays to go anywhere during December and hear a heartfelt “Merry Christmas”. I even heard a mall Santa Claus say, “Happy Holidays” recently. He just didn’t seem as jolly to me after hearing that. When I was a kid growing up in Maine, you couldn’t go anywhere without being met by friends and acquaintances offering a good old, “Merry Christmas” and a wave or a handshake, or even a kiss and a hug. Happy Holidays was rarely seen, or heard. No one would even consider saying it, because it was Christmas, and we went out shopping for Christmas gifts to put under a Christmas tree, a real tree, smelling all piny and oozing sticky sap that got on your hands when you put it up. Your parents always had the obligatory party on Christmas Eve and you gathered around the old, out-of-tune upright piano and sang Christmas carols until your voice was hoarse, or Aunt Ethel couldn’t play any more because of her arthritis or the six cups of spiked Christmas eggnog she drank.
You went to bed that night with dreams of the new bike or sled waiting for you under the tree, and you got up on Christmas morning and ran downstairs, yelling “Merry Christmas” as you whizzed past your parents on the way to a skidding stop beside the pile of presents under that shining tree. Later your Mother fixed Christmas dinner and you waited for Dad to say Grace before you hastily said “Amen” and then plowed into a heaping mound of mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing and turkey. You went to bed that night stuffed, but happy.
Back in the day, you said “Merry Christmas” to everybody, and nobody was offended even if they didn’t celebrate Christmas, because they knew what you meant when you said it. It didn’t mean you thought you were superior to anyone else or had no respect for them, it was simply a way to say you wished the best for everyone, regardless of race, creed, skin color or religious persuasion. It brought people together and brought out the best in people, no matter what their own situations might be, and no one was offended.
So much for the old days. But, I still want to go out on a limb and risk offending someone, throw caution to the wind and political correctness be damned. I will, therefore, close by saying the same thing I said at the very beginning:
MERRY CHRISTMAS !!
