The deholiday-ization of the Happy Holidays proceeds apace. Where once it was “Season’s Greetings” and a kiss under mistletoe, now it’s “Merry Christmas” and a manger. The nonsecularists are taking over, trampling underfoot our grand Happy Holiday traditions.
You can see it in the stores. Last year I shopped for presents. This year it’s Christmas shopping. Where once I sang, "Fa-la-la-la-la," now it's “What Child Is This.” I used to put up a Holiday tree. Today they call it a Christmas tree.
That’s not how it used to be.
When I was growing up, the Holiday Season wasn’t about Christmas. It was about toys and elves and sliding down chimneys. The Season announced itself around Thanksgiving. TV advertising about breakfast cereals suddenly gave way to a blizzard of ads featuring one great new product after another from Mattel, Wham-O and Kenner. We made our lists for Santa Claus, we trouped down to Jordan Marsh to sit on his knee, and we stood in line for hours to see a 19th century version of the Happy Holidays at the Enchanted Village.
We learned about the intricacies of the Season: the helpful Mrs. Claus, the eight tiny reindeer, the busy workshop at the North Pole, the magical sleigh that somehow managed to hold enough presents for every boy and girl in the entire world. We watched the shows -- the Nutcracker, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Scrooge, Babes in Toyland, Frosty the Snowman and, of course, It’s a Wonderful Life. We spent an evening trimming the tree. We festooned the house with blinking lights and plastic snowmen lit from within. On nights and weekends, we’d go shopping, part of an energetic mass of humanity desperate to get that last-minute gift.
And then we’d wait, counting down the days until that special night when, tucked in our beds, we’d all swear we heard prancing on the roof overhead and we all dreaded the real possibility of coal in our stocking.
And now? Now it’s all about virgin births and swaddling clothes. We’ve allowed religion to trump commerce, church to trump toys. And in the process, we have started to let the real meaning of the Season slip away.
So tell them loud and clear. The trees were never about Jesus. Santa Claus has nothing to do with salvation. And we'll drink egg nog whether or not the Magi ever show up. We want our Happy Holidays back!