What's so Scary About Christmas?

Sometimes I'm fascinated with the word phobia gripping the people in this country. I thought I'd heard everything when the term "road rage" became a recognized excuse for someone losing their temper while driving. Next thing you know insurance policies will have to include another fee in your policy just in case some lunatic loses it on a public street and bashes your car with a tire iron.

Being the season of good cheer, I've been hearing the news here and there about some people again belly-aching (a good old Southern term) about the word "Christmas." I caught a little piece on Fox News the other day where Philadelphia every year had a replica Christmas German village. Someone was offended, of course, by the word "Christmas" in the title, so to appease them, they changed it to "Holiday." Excuse me, but isn't holiday a generic term?

Then there was another little tidbit about some bank getting word from the home office that they would not put up Christmas trees in their branches (don't you love that play on words) because some customers might be offended. I say hang some poison ivy up there, wrap a little garland around it and see how they feel about that.

The crazy thing to me is that these people are offended by having a holiday at all. If you take the Christmas out of December 25, it wouldn't be a holiday. I don't necessarily celebrate several holidays throughout the year, but I always like having them. I especially liked it when I worked in an office and had the day off. I don't remember doing much labor on Labor Day.

It's easy to see why people might be offended, though. After all, it is a season where retailers make more money than they make all year, people tend to be a little nicer to each other, and families actually get together for a day and make a point to try to be civil to each other. Sounds like we're on a slippery slope to me. Just think how dreadful that could be for us all if we got so carried away that we lived like that all the time.

But to keep peace among our fellow man, I say we just stop using any names for holidays, and we'll just declare one day a month "Holiday Day." We'll have holiday parades, holiday speeches and holiday gifts. For that matter, let's just do away with bright decorations and wrapping paper. That plain brown wrapping paper is cheaper anyway.

As for the word phobia creeping over this country, I say the medical community designate it a syndrome, prescribe a pill for it and make us not responsible for our actions anymore. Symptoms would include fear of saying anything out loud, always hearing subtexts in what others say to us and complete disregard for common sense.

Source:

Fox TV News