Happy holidays!

I occasionally use Mrs. Curmudgeon's Facebook account to spy on congregants and others, and was not too surprised at the beginning of December to see several posts announcing a stand against the greeting "Happy holidays!" in order to wage a counter-offensive in the alleged war on Christmas. However, I was also pleased to see this decision tree also making its rounds on The Facebook:

That really says it all, but since I'm a pastor and saying more than is absolutely necessary is an occupational hazard, I will venture a few more observations on the issue.

First, let us observe that, since "X" has always been an abbreviation for the Greek word "Xristos," translated as "Christ" in English, those who use "Xmas" are not taking Christ out of Christmas, but are doing the best they can under space constraints. Relax.

Second, "Happy holidays" is a relatively polite greeting in a pluralistic society in which various faith communities celebrate different holy days during this time of year. Last time I checked, Jesus allows Christians to behave relatively politely.

Furthermore, even if ours was not a relatively pluralistic society but were instead monolithically and universally Christian, the Church calendar is just packed with holidays. Not only do we have the entire season of Advent, but there's Christmas Day, the twelve days of Christmastide, and Epiphany, on top of which many also mark the New Year with worship services. Of all people, Christians have the most reason to wish each other "Happy holidays!"

My middle sister, whose taste in popular music is almost as impeccable as mine, a few years ago gifted the family with a Christmas playlist which concluded with Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters singing a song called "Happy Holidays." Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters. If that's not the apogee of American Christian civil religion, I don't know what is.

Now that we've got that settled, let's get down to putting the X back in X-Mas!