Merry Christmas.
Did that offend you?
If it did, I am sorry – that I offended you, not that I wished you a Merry Christmas.
If I knew the religion you practice or what are your core beliefs, I would have wished you a Merry Whatever is Appropriate.
What I am doing is wishing everyone well. But it is December. And a lifetime of Christmases just comes out. It’s all I know.
I have decades of wonderful Christmas memories. I just can’t help talking about them. And come December, I just can’t help writing about them. They are the memories I have.
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I come from a Christian family. A Roman-Catholic family. So, when I write about my memories of a holiday in December, I write about Christmas.
Had I been born and raised Jewish, I no doubt would have written about my Hanukkah memories. Had I been born Muslim, I would have written about Ramadans past. And so on.
The only holiday experiences I can write about are those holidays I experienced. And in December, that’s Christmas.
But just because I go about with Merry Christmas on my lips, don’t for a minute think I subscribe to this war on Christmas paranoia that always surfaces come December.
A couple of Christmases past, a reader wrote to thank me for using the word “Christmas” in a column. She wrote that the word “Christmas” has become politically incorrect, that retailers, for instance, now use the word “holiday” instead of “Christmas.”
She said I wrote with “unmitigated courage.” Believe me, I’d like to take credit for unmitigated courage. But, as I said earlier, I wrote about Christmas memories because they are the only memories I have.
As for substituting the word “holiday” for “Christmas,” there probably are some corporations that don’t want flak from those out there who see every mention of Christmas as an attempt to either convert or humiliate non-Christians.
On the other hand, perhaps some people use the word “holiday” because there are other holidays in December besides Christmas.
I don’t know. I have no window into people’s souls.
And I’m sorry, I see no war on Christmas because Starbucks redesigned a coffee cup.
Come on, can’t we all stop snarling at each other, at least for one month?
I hope so. Because next week, I’ll probably write about some favorite Christmas memory I have.
I just can’t help myself.
Paul Sassone is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.