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Back when I was a smug liberal, I used to make fun of FOX News for saying there was a war on Christmas. And in my defense, FOX and Conservatives did a terrible job of making their case (which will become clear later why). I was recently shocked to learn that Hanukkah isn't even an important Jewish holiday. From WaPo :
It seems pretty clear that the only reason Hanukkah is even celebrated like an important holiday in Christian countries is because it is close on the calendar to Christmas. From that same article:
The of course there is Kwanzaa, which is a made up holiday by Black Activists and the New Left in the 1960's. It literally wasn't even celebrated until 1966. It is a straight up made up holiday that shouldn't even be mentioned alongside Christmas and Hanukkah. I know this is not charitable but to me this is trivially true. I have never seen a single person celebrate Kwanzaa in my entire life and I am in my early 30's and have lived in cities with large black populations. So we can throw out Kwanzaa without any consideration.
That brings us back to Hanukkah, which again, is not an important Jewish holiday. This would be like if Christians in Israel started demanding if a minor random Christian holiday near Passover be given equal standing to their most important holiday. Obviously this is absurd on its face and would never be taken seriously.
I don't want to blame this on "da Jews" because secular gentiles played a role in this as well. In fact, they were probably the biggest drivers of this because I actually know many Jews who celebrate Christmas (more on this later). The argument that they would make is that they want to say "Happy Holidays" is because if you make Christmas a big deal it makes non-Christians uncomfortable. This would be one thing if it was still a very Christian holiday, but the bottom line is that Christmas is pretty much a secular holiday at this point that anyone can celebrate. To give some context for this. the Bay Area town I grew up in had a street that was famous for having an amazing Christmas lights celebration. People would come from all over to see the cool Christmas lights people on this street put up. This area also had a huge Indian population and about a third of the street was Indian by the time I moved. Instead of getting butt hurt about it, they kept up the tradition. Some even incorporated some Indian culture into theirs to make it look pretty cool and unique. Plus, a lot of Jews I know celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday and don't seem to have any problem with it. So I don't see how anyone could make a credible argument that as long as it's just Santa and basic benign Christian decorations that it makes anyone feel uncomfortable. But this is all subjective.
The number one reason why it is ridiculous to say "Happy Holidays" though is that there are literally no other holidays that are important during that time period for any major ethnic or religious group in the US. If it wasn't for Christmas, it would literally not be the "holiday season". It would just be a time close to New Years. There is no reason to say "Happy Holidays" other than to diminish the role of Christianity, even in its most benign and secular form, in the United States. In my opinion, Left wing activists used identity politics (Kwanzaa), "inclusivity", and guilt about the Holocaust and Jews (Hanukkah) to make up a fake "holiday season" so it wouldn't be the Christmas Season anymore. I'd love to see someone counter this, because I really don't see how this isn't more or less 100% true.
And I actually have a much better post I'm working on now about how academia and first wave feminism conspired to create the fake Wicca religion and the modern idea of witches. And if you want a taste, here is a good summary that inspired me: https://youtube.com/watch?v=7tz-PBkF720&ab_channel=GreshamCollege
The biggest attack on Christmas happens because of capitalism not any particular group. It’s really strange to think about but Christmas wasn’t destroyed by people saying happy holidays, as it was already moribund before that. It was killed by having Santa and reindeer and presents, thus as the marketing took over, any aspect of the holiday that doesn’t revolve around parties (which means buying fancy food) and decorating (buying stuff that matches the season) and media (wherein they sell ads) and of course presents (do I even need to say it) was stripped out and replaced with saccrine sweet smalls about peace, love, joy, and wonder — with no reason for those emotions. The reason is that for big companies, obviously don’t want people to see the holidays as primarily religious, as about Jesus, because going to church interferes with the buying of crap.
I have less hate of the phrase happy holidays because Christmas is already secular, and there are other holidays like Hanukkah and New Year’s Day. And at this point, the horse is twenty miles up the road. Closing the barn door now doesn’t matter. I think for those who want a religious Christmas, the best you could do is pick another date (orthodox Christmas is January 6) and ignore the marketeers.
Except when you strip all that stuff away, what do you have left? A liturgical festival that no one cares to much about except the extremely religious. If you're looking for holidays like this there's no shortage of them—Pentecost, The Ascension, The Immaculate Conception, The Annunciation, All Souls Day, Ash Wednesday, etc. Maybe there are some traditions associated with these that aren't strictly religious in some places, but I'm not aware of any. They also aren't very fun, since the most exciting thing that happens is maybe a special liturgy, and some of them don't even have that. I'm no fan of the excessive commercialization of Christmas, but if the alternative is dealing with religious prudes telling me that I can't have any fun, I'll deal with it. If I didn't want to celebrate holidays I'd become a Jehovah's Witness.
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I wouldn't object so much to "Happy Holidays" if it hadn't been made explicitly anti-religious. I agree that the commercialisation has destroyed a lot of past traditions (and jumbled up time so that this year the Hallowe'en and Christmas branded confectionery were on shop shelves at the same time, and as soon as the new year comes the Easter eggs will be out on the shelves, then by the end of summer the Hallowe'en stuff starts).
But when it was pushed that "oh we must say holidays because Christmas is religious and we can't be prioritising one religion over others and lots of people aren't Christian, you know", that brought the religious element roaring in.
It's possible to have both; we have a local 'celebration' (more a desperate marketing event to get shoppers/consumers into the city centre at the start of the 'shopping season') called "Winterval" (God help us) but it certainly hasn't replaced Christmas as a greeting or celebration.
If you let people have both "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas", without getting offended (on behalf of others, which is where the real objection comes in) about wishing people either, then it isn't a culture war event.
If a Jewish person says "Hey, I don't celebrate Christmas, so while I appreciate your good intentions, please don't wish me a Merry Christmas", that's okay. It's when somebody who isn't Jewish or anything but white secular liberal from a formerly Christian background goes "Well this is offensive to non-Christians and I'm speaking up on their behalf" that you want to throw a snowball at their nose.
I've never been wished "Happy Diwali" or "Happy Eid" or the likes, but if I were, I wouldn't get bent out of shape about it, despite being a Catholic. Unless the person doing it were very ostentatiously doing it to show off how they were being a good ally using their white privilege to centre the marginalised.
I’ll agree that the white knighting around such things are annoying. It’s just that I find it hard to understand how Christmas is still considered religious when almost everyone celebrates 90% of it, and the religious message of the holiday — specifically that Jesus was born to bring salvation to humanity. It’s barely religious and only religious if you make a special effort to make it religious. So when people try to claim that modern Christmas celebrations outside of churches and religious homes is somehow a religious thing, I ask them which part. I sometimes jokingly refer to the largely secular tradition as “giftmas” simply because that’s what most people are actually doing.
I do think that's what they're trying to do with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", to expunge the last lingering link with the original religious roots. Like new Puritanism, the way Cromwell did away with Christmas because it was too secular a merry-making holiday. But the Calvinist-inclined didn't make Christmas Day a church holiday, either, they enforced that it was just an ordinary day (presumably because even keeping that much of the roots was too Roman Catholic for them), and I think that's what always happens with Christmas: if you try to shape it to your preferred new model, you have to end up eliminating it completely because there are too many echoes. So yeah - Giftmas or Festival or 'the Holidays' because "Christmas" is still a term radioactive with its religious meaning.
I think it would be better all round if everyone agreed "Yeah, it's Christmas and not 'the Holidays' and yeah, it's all about Santa and gifts and big traditional meal and boozing and having fun, not prayers and commemoration, nowadays for most people".
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Agree, but I don't think it's entirely correct to just blame capitalism, although obviously the profit motive and marketing play a big role - capitalism or not, modern technology would produce an abundance of consumer goods and enjoyable experiences, and also drain away the practical function of communal rituals about seasons and harvests and group purpose.
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