Whats the big deal?

I know I might be starting a firestorm, but something has been on my mind the last few weeks and I really feel I need to address it.

Merry Christmas VS Happy Holidays

To most of my friends and family this isn't an issue but it seems to be creeping into my life almost daily lately and its bugging the hell outta me. The media, facebook, emails, people in stores-everyone seems to be getting their panties in a bunch about how and what we call the holidays. To me, it's a stupid debate.

There is a time of year that has a lot of holidays. Late fall to early winter has 5-7 major holidays with a few more thrown in depending on your culture or religious preference. This, obviously, is a season of holidays...hence the term holiday season. For some reason this offends a large part of our country (Yes, just ours. The rest of the world could care less) and now has started a campaign to make everyone feel guilty if you say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. But why? If I said "Happy Halloween" on Thanksgiving Day, I would be looked at like I'm insane. Its not Halloween and so why would I say it? If I said "Happy Chinese New Year" on the first day of Hanukkah I'm pretty sure I'd get at least a few 'WTF' looks. Here is my point. On Christmas Day I say "Merry Christmas". On the first day of Hanukkah I say "Happy Hanukkah". On Thanksgiving I say "Happy Thanksgiving". But all the days in between I say "Happy Holidays". I hope that all of your holidays during the holiday season are happy. From Halloween to New Years Day...I hope your holidays are joyful. To me that is logical.

Ok lets look at it from a different perspective. I'm one of those gals who believes that everyone should be treated with kindness. Unless you've done something to be personally that makes me think you should be thrown in the middle of 10 tigers wearing a raw rump roast covered in bbq sauce, I believe you deserve as much love and respect as the next person. So unless I know you are a Christian, I'm not going to say Merry Christmas to you on any other day than Christmas. So, logically, of course it would be appropriate for Happy Holidays to be commonly used in public. Its an inclusive greeting instead excluding a large portion of people. Why is that wrong? Even if you believe the entire season is all about Jesus and celebrating his birth, try to remember what his teachings were about. Loving everyone. If he could see the way his name is being used to exclude people...well lets just say I think the magnet on my fridge says it best "Jesus would slap the shit outta you."

All I'm asking is please take a moment and think about what the season is all about. Family, friends, love, giving, happiness. How about instead of the slogan "Keep Christ in Christmas" how about we change it to "Keep Politics out of the Holidays".