Happy Holidays! (Please Don't Get Butthurt Over Me Not Saying Christmas)

Tis' the season for freezing...as in your arse off. And being jolly. That as well.

It's that time of year again! It's the Happy Holidays! (Christmas for those who aren't aware of inclusive terms such as this)

Unfortunately, I didn't receive any presents whatsover. T_T
Fortunately, I did spend a great Christmas (Yes, I'm calling it Christmas now) with my family, plenty of good food, and good old-fashionsed TV watching. And I have to say, even after watching it several times from my youth, How The Grinch Stole Christmas is still one of the most heartwarming animations I've ever seen. Even more so as I've gotten older.

He's a mean one, Mr. Grinch...

Now, I'll come back to the reason for this, later on, I'm just going to talk about how I've not got much ideas for this post. While I could talk about how Christmas was originally a holiday celebrating the winter solstice, or that the suggestion that Santa Claus wears red because of Coca Cola advertising is patently false, since a number of people are doing that already, I think I'll make a quick mention about something that pops up every year around this time by fervently religious people and that's the so-called "War on Christmas". Don't worry, this is a short post.



Every year, there's been this claim that the true meaning of Christmas has been taken away by secularists, or a politically correct society of sorts, because they dare refer to it as "Happy Holidays". In the U.S.A., it's pretty bad because there's obviously a high numbers of evangelists, priests or any other Christian religious authority coming out of the woods and appearing on TV to spout this nonsense. And in the U.K., the same occurs, although not to the extent in the United States. And even if the "War on Christmas" is mentioned, the Daily Mail would be the first to tell us. Basically, the argument is that they're trying to remove Jesus, or its Christian roots from the holiday, and somehow attacking their religion by doing so. A few reason as to why this is rubbish:

1. Christmas is but one of many traditions that are pagan in origin to eclipse the rival religion, Mithraism. The church leaders felt threatened enough by this religion to use it to comemorate Jesus' birth. I should've really called it Mithrasmas. This is also partly why Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate Christmas.
2. Four centuries after Jesus was (supposedly) born, nobody cared when he was born (as in which month), and more focus was placed on after his birth. And by that, I mean what he did in his life. As common with founders of religions, legendary tales of the person's birth are assigned to the figure to make him seem more extraordinary. This has also been done with Muhammad, (Gautama) Buddha etc. 
3. If anything, he would've likely been born in the spring if the descriptions of his birth is anything to go by. Of course, I already pointed out that the tale of his birth may have been made up entirely.
4. The holiday, while having Christian influences to it has long since been secularized with the phenomena of commercialization associated with Christmas. In other words, people buying lots of crap they don't really need, many of which they use only for Christmas. Even if it was Jesus' holiday, if you're not using it as an oppurtunity to make charitable deeds, you're doing it wrong. Jesus above all else was opposed to greed. He would turn in his grave (Oh right, he's not in there) at the sight of this:

And 4. alone has proven there isn't so much a War on Christmas anymore. Those who claim this have technically already lost before people supposedly started fighting. The reason why "Happy Holidays" is used to refer to Christmas is not because of people hating on Jesus. It's because it's understood that during this period, there are several holidays in different cultures. They include Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule and funnily enough, even Hallowe'en. This imagined warfare on Christmas is merely an expression of the prejudices that they hold for other cultures. I mean seriously guys, are you going to stop worshipping Jesus if you don't hear the term Christmas? No! So stop getting all butthurt over it. I don't believe in Jesus, but I personally don't care if they call it Christmas or not. It's a holiday for festivities and giving.


 This brings me to my next point; It's rather hypocritical to claim the holiday on behalf of Jesus, and then spend massive amounts of money only for your own amusement, on decorations and expensive gifts to flaunt in your neighbour's face. If you wish to uphold the spirit of Christmas, then focus on the unity and togetherness it brings, spend time with friends and family and if you can, give to the less fortunate in any way you can either through things you own or even their company.

That is why I loved the movie of How the Grinch Stole Christmas so much: The Grinch believed that the citizens of Whoville were just celebrating their wealth and materialism so much during Christmas. while he had nothing. Which made him very envious. So out of spite, he stole every single gift out of the town believing that he would end Christmas once and for all. However, even after everything was gone from the Whos, the true spirit of Christmas never disappeared among them, and they sang together in unison celebrating the festive season. Upon seeing their warmth, the Grinch finally realized he could never truly steal Christmas, and the gifts alone would never bring him joy as he realized the error of his ways. His heart grew warm, and finally, he returned everything he ever stole to them (as promised to the little infant), and they were hospitable enough to share their joy, company and food with the Grinch during Christmas. And that to me, is the true meaning of Christmas.