I love the Fall. There’s a sense of calming. The air is different. The light being lower in the sky offers a softness to the landscape. The leaves changing color bring along with it the scent of wood fireplaces, peppermint, and warmer clothes.
Unless you live south of the equator.
As much as I enjoy Fall, I really love Christmas. Christmas invokes a happiness for me. The heartwarming commercials. The lights going up around town. The Christmas movies, old and new. Christmas is all about joy, family, friends and just all-around good feelings.
There was a gloomy period in our recent history when Christmas had been looked upon as something bad. You could say it was the early stages of wokeness clawing to the surface to bring its voice of hate.
The war on Christmas as it was known.
We can recall when malcontents decided to launch a campaign against the most wonderful time of year because of… what? They didn’t like religion? They didn’t like a particular religion? They didn’t like how people celebrated either the birth of Jesus or recognized the fat guy?
Christmas had become the flavor of the season to shut people up, like how a microscopic virus was used to control the masses. Retail jumped on the “hate Christmas” sleigh and went so far as to make sure employees only said, “Happy Holidays,” if anything at all.
It became a big deal for way too many who avoided saying “Merry Christmas” for fear of being chastised. It was as bad as calling someone by their wrong pronouns during the Biden period. This battle against such a wonderful celebration lasted a few years.
It metastasized in our schools, public nativity scenes, our government, and our homes. Even going after private homeowners for their Christmas displays.
Doing All the Wrong Things
I’m not sure how we let such stupidity gain as much traction as it did. Like how we allowed the mutilation of children or men exposing themselves to women and kicking their butts in sports.
All of it wrong.
When pressed, the media denied anything was going on. It was all made up. Just like Biden walking into the jungle was fake video. Another conservative conspiracy. It was an effort by the whacko left to prevent people from practicing their religious beliefs. The left has no issue with Muslim or other Middle East dogmas, but they really hate people believing in a Christian God.
That revulsion of Christian principles resurfaced in a fury with the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Charlie’s movement was as much about God as it was and is about American freedom and free speech. Three things the left recoils at, like the scratching on a chalk board. And because they hate it, they do all they can to try and shut it down. Their opinion is the only opinion, and violence is their chosen solution.
However, like football, religion, free speech, and Christmas are too big to smother.
It took a few years, but slowly Americans began to push back and announce loudly, “Merry Christmas!” My wife and I made a point early on, during the Cold War, when a clerk or waitress wished us a Happy Holiday, we responded clearly with a Merry Christmas. We got the looks and saw others give their elitist nose snubbing, but tough cookie. We stood our ground.
Eventually retail realized the error of its ways and conceded by slowly reintroducing Merry Christmas into their businesses. Without fanfare, commercials and corporations once again had Merry Christmas in their marketing slogans. And much more slowly Holiday Trees began going back to being called Christmas trees. Though even today, liberal holdouts in cities leaning way over to the left, still won’t give in. I won’t name names but one of them begins with an S and a B. Thanksgiving identifies with a turkey, New Year’s Eve identifies with champagne. The only holiday out of the three that identifies with a tree is Christmas.
Once again, we can all wish each other Merry Christmas, and you are likely to get a pleasant Merry Christmas in return.
Never Again
We should never, ever allow any more wordplay to take over our country. We are emerging from the worst abuse of language to dictate our lives. We’ve learned the corruption of words to satisfy someone’s twisted way of thinking is an extremely powerful weapon.
I put up my Christmas tree before Halloween. I know, some of you think I’m crazy. Only, it’s now nearly Thanksgiving. In a blink, Christmas will be upon us, and another year will have vanished. I want to milk the season of joy for as much and for as long as I can.
I love sitting down every night clicking on the tree lights, pushing the gas button to turn on the fireplace (again, I know) and appreciate the wonderful decorations my wife puts up every year. She turns our home into a Santa’s village. It is so wonderful and comforting. I love her for a lot of reasons, but I really love how she creates such a visual delight.
However, even today we still have hold outs who keep complaining Christmas is too commercial or it’s about a birthday they don’t believe in or the guy in the red suit.
You can find fault in anything. And many people do. Let it rest. Christmas is what you make of it; smiles, greeting each other more pleasantly, getting together for parties, laughing and exchanging gifts. Not because you want gifts, you want to give gifts. And gifts can come in many forms; visiting the elderly or ill children, give the gift of yourself. A show of kindness, helping the less fortunate or just sitting down with someone listening and sharing stories can be incalculably rewarding.
Let’s begin the Christmas season early and start wishing everyone a “Merry Christmas.!”
It’s not hard to do and you won’t get any snobbish or disdainful looks for it.
Not anymore.
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AMEN!
So well said! Where do you find a “Christmas Tree” prior to Halloween?
I want one!
Love the sentiment but putting the Christmas tree up at Halloween is too early for me
Have a merry Christmas one and all