"You should call a spade a spade, not a 'Useful garden implement.' "

Has anybody else noticed the disappearance of Christmas? While I don't fully subscribe to the idea of a "war against Christmas", it is interesting to note that "holiday" or "season" seems to have replaced "Christmas" in many venues. When I was growing up, we had "Christmas break" between the semesters of school. It's now "Winter break." The movie "White Christmas" featured the song "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" not once, but twice. And the songs "I'll Be Home for Christmas" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" were perennial favorites. Now we have movies like "Holiday in Handcuffs" and "Holiday in Your Heart" both of which are Christmas movies, but without Christmas in the title. Where we once had Christmas season and Christmas shopping, sent Christmas cards, had Christmas trees, and even said "Merry Christmas" to passersby, we now have "holiday shopping" and "the season" (WHAT season exactly, noone says. Perhaps it's the "holiday season"!). We say "happy holidays" and our annual cards say "Seasons Greetings."

It reminds me of professional wrestling. No, really. (For those of you who disdain it, yes, I know it's fake. That's not the point. So stay with me here.) Anyway, years ago, it was called "Professional Wrestling." Then one of the promoters, a man named Vince McMahon, who subsequently gained a practical monoply on the business, decided that he didn't like the negative connotations of the term "professional wrestling." So, he decided to call it "sports entertainment." Of course, it was still professional wrestling, but gradually, the word "wrestling" was used less and less. Of course the biggest event of the year is still called "Wrestlemania" and the company is still called "World Wrestling Entertainment." However, the wrestlers are now called "superstars", or "performers" or, if they are women, "divas"--but never "wrestlers." And they don't wrestle, they have "in ring action." And whenever the wrestling industry is spoken of, it is called "this business" without specifying what business that is. Of course, none of this changes the fact that the people involved are wrestlers, who wrestle, in what used to be called the "professional wrestling business."

My point is that just because it's called "the holiday season" doesn't obscure the fact that it is "the CHRISTMAS season", and everybody knows it. Santa Claus, mistletoe, evergreen trees hung with lights, eggnog, and the tradition of giving gifts all come from the tradition of the particular holiday called Christmas. And Christmas originated as a Christian holiday. I don't want to get into any discussion of the winter solstice and the fact that the date is probably wrong. The point is, like Thanksgiving, Easter, and a great many of our holidays, Christmas has several hundred years of Christian celebration behind it. And countries without a predominant Christian influence in their past, like China or Japan--or Iraq--don't celebrate it. Nobody is fooling anyone by pretending that all of the traditions we celebrate this time of year don't have their root in a particular holiday called Christmas, that is celebrated this same time every year. So, why don't we just call it that?

And please don't give me any folderol about Hanukkah and Ramadan, and Kiss your Secretary Day. Can anybody imagine if all of a sudden nobody talked about Easter anymore? But intstead, every spring we hid "Spring Eggs" and talked about the "New Life bunny." What if churches, instead of having "Easter Services" suddenly started having "Memorial Sundays" every spring, but never mentioned what they were memorializing? And everybody tried to pretend that it was actually all about Passover and remembering Buddha? People would think that was strange. So why do we do this bob and weave over "Chistmas?"

So, this year, during "the holiday season" why don't we all just drop the charade and celebrate the particular holiday for which "the holiday season" was named? Let's have "Christmas break" and Christmas shopping", Christmas trees and Christmas carols (As well as "A Christmas Carol"), Christmas gifts and Christmas cards, Christmas sales (and after Christmas sales!), Christmas cookies, and "going to Grandma's for Christmas." Even if you're not a Christian, you can feel free to celebrate with us. We've never minded sharing our day. Just don't try to pretend that you aren't celebrating Christmas. And don't try to ban "Away in a Manger" and "Silent Night" from "Winter Recitals."

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is,

"Peace on earth, goodwill to man (kind)" and

"Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"