Emily Brennan
Managing Editor
Many Americans believe Christmas is under attack. In fact, 4 in 10 people in the U.S. are under the impression politicians remove the Christianity aspect behind the holiday. Believing phrases like, “Happy Holidays,” are meant to cancel the Christian roots behind Christmas. Fairleigh Dickinson University poll shows that Christians, especially evangelicals, believe that there is a war on Christmas.
The idea behind the “war on Christmas” is highly popular among extreme conservatives. The idea first took off after Bill Riley promoted a book on Fox News in 2005 that accused liberals of wanting to kill Christianity and remove it from Christmas altogether. Dan Cassino, executive director of the FDU Poll, defined this bizarre movement as “the belief that politicians and society are trying to remove Christian elements from the holiday and replace them with secular or non-religious elements.” The question remains, is there a war on Christmas?
Of course not. The term “Happy Holidays” does in fact have a Christian background. The use of “Happy Holidays was used to describe the celebration of the Advent season. In the present day, I use Happy Holidays as a means of covering Thanksgiving, Christmas, and the New Year. Happy holidays can be used to incorporate all religious holidays celebrated, such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
The term “Xmas” bothers many extreme conservatives as well. The phrase is seen as negating the “Christ” part out of the word and replacing it with an x. However, X-mas is a Greek term used that also has deep theological roots as well. The letter X in the Greek alphabet does stand for “Chi.” The X is not meant to denote Christ at all.
This holiday season, use whatever term you feel is appropriate for you. The term “Merry Christmas” is not meant to exclude other holidays. A Gallup Poll in 2019 showed that 93% of people in America do in fact celebrate Christmas. The term “Happy Holidays” is not taking the religious aspect out of Christmas or destroying it regardless of what conservative biased media has to say. This made-up media war on Christmas simply just is not real. This holiday season, use the term you are most comfortable with and do not scrutinize people for using one or the other. Celebrate your own way.