The Christmas season is here once again and with it comes the annual battle over two simple words, "Merry Christmas". That's right, every year the American Family Association engages in a culture war over this divisive issue. We actively monitor businesses that have decided to profit from Christ's birth but refuse to acknowledge it in their advertising and promotional materials. (My emphasis)
One way you can join us in this yearly battle is to purchase our "Merry Christmas" buttons. When you decide to wear our button, you have decided to engage in this timeless battle between the culture of the world and Christianity. Join with AFA and others like us who have decided to be a witness for Christ and share the good news of "God With Us".
Imagine the impact that a tiny little button could have if shared with the right person at the right time. Please don't let this opportunity to be a witness for Christ slip by. Won't you partner with us in saying "Merry Christmas" to everyone you meet?
Order your buttons Today!
No, my readers, no link. If you want the Christmas button to say "Merry Christmas" to everyone you meet, you will have to find it on your own. And it's not a bit too soon to wear it, because, not only is Christmas upon us in early November, the battle to save Christmas has begun, and good Christians are arming themselves with their buttons beginning right now. Of course, just because you're fighting the battle to save Christmas by wearing your button, you're not off the hook from wishing everyone you meet "Merry Christmas" starting today. Remember Big Brother AFA is watching you.
Merry Christmas, y'all!
Enough with Christmas already AFA. The Christmas season is NOT here again. It isn't even Thanksgiving yet. I particularly love Advent and its time of quiet, reflection and anticipation. It is 75 degrees out there today and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" is blaring on the store Muzak. If I see a "Merry Christmas" button on anyone at this stage, I'll have to resist the overwhelming urge to snatch it off the person who is wearing it and stomping that sucker flat.
ReplyDeleteBooCat, next time, don't hold back. Tell us what you really think.
ReplyDeleteI realize the folks at AFA don't like the idea of a pluralist society but isn't it time they dealt with the reality?
ReplyDeleteOh. Never mind.
BooCat and Paul, I am compelled to call you both to account. You failed to sign off with "Merry Christmas".
ReplyDeleteI work across from Radio City. The Rockettes are kicking and the decorations are up. Too early.
ReplyDeleteAs for the AFA, let me wish them "Bonnes Fêtes".
Ueber-G, you did the right thing. I have a question: Do the folks at AFA understand French?
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I got on the AFA email list, but their emails have provided me with entertainment over several months, so I have not yet unsubscribed.
It is my practice to wish people Merry Christmas between sundown on December 24 and sundown on January 5. I can, however, wish y'all a blessed feast of St Leo the Great.
ReplyDeleteThe greetings I might give AFA do not belong on so distinguished a blog as this.
'their emails have provided me with entertainment'
ReplyDeleteNot heartburn???
Caminante, I confess that the emails provide me with more entertainment than heartburn, however I should take the AFA more seriously, because, our state legislature and our guvna are greatly influenced by them.
ReplyDeleteThere has been a goodly amount of heartburn on this side of the Atlantic over local city/town councils mandating the use of "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" during the "Festive Season". (Don't get me started on how dire the Christmas/New Year period is in the United Kingdom, please. I could go on for pages on that one...) One of our home-grown racist white "christian" groups has written to every council in England saying that if it hears that any council has forbidden its staff from wishing people "Merry Christmas" this group will come to the area and demonstrate. It concludes by reminding each council that policing their demonstrations often costs more than £900,000.
ReplyDeleteNow I don't believe in forbidding staff from wishing each other or other people "Merry Christmas". I rely on their discretion to refrain from wishing "Merry Christmas" to a staff worker in a headscarf. And people who are Wiccans, or atheists, or whatever, still get time off at Christmas/Boxing Day and New Year's Day, whether they celebrate Christ's birth, the Winter Solstice, or National Get Drunk Day (I made that last one up).
The "Merry Christmas" wish comes from the heart of the giver, and should be accepted in that spirit. "Merry Christmas" is not a curse, nor an invitation to baptism, but (at its best) a genuine wish that in a season where life, weather, and the light of the Sun are at their bleakest, some ray of light (whether cast from the Star in the East or by your SAD lamps) might fall on a people who are broken, tired, annoyed, or just plain fed up. It's also a lookout for the New Year, when beginnings are planned, endings are nostalgically remembered, and lots of people imbibe on what I believe is "Amateur Drinkers' Night".
If someone wishes me "Happy Holidays" I am similarly reminded that the word "holiday" comes from "Holy Day" and also take that greeting in the spirit in which it was given.
So, Happy Holidays, everyone! Merry Christmas to All! Have a wonderful joy-filled Winter Solstice! And may the New Year 2011 bring us a bit more joy than 2010 has! Hurray! (I forgot, though: Happy Chanukah as well and may the lights of the menorah remind us of summer lights past and to come!)
What's the profit on the buttons, do you suppose?
ReplyDeleteChris, I believe you give comprehensive coverage to holiday (holy day) greetings.
ReplyDeleteI have no strong feelings one way or another, and I don't think we need a lot of rules, just simple sensitivity and politeness. Nor do I think we need promotions urging us to use greetings which should come from the heart. And I'd prefer that the greetings not start as early as a month and a half before the actual holiday.
Susankay, a small number of buttons costs just over $1 apiece, but the price drops as you order larger numbers. And, according to the online order page, you don't actually "buy" the buttons. You send a "suggested donation". Are the "suggested donations" is tax-deductible? Surely not.