On Sunday Mornings, I like listening to Weekend Edition Sunday ^[1]. I like trying to do the puzzles with the Puzzlemaster Will Shortz, getting the news updates, the commentary and editorializingthe human interest stories, and the interviews with novelists and artists. It’s good to listen to while relaxing and making breakfast, putting away laundry, or just reading the paper.

This morning, there was an essay by Diane Roberts, Have a PC Holiday, Ancient Rome-Style ^[2]. It was a funny commentary on the mental illness that people have every year regarding Christmas. This year, it’s Bill O’Rielly with FAUX News (of course) who is carrying the torch, along with Pat Robertson and a few other conservative types. I’ve seen many articles, editorials, and letters to the editor regarding this subject.

Most people who insist on saying “Merry Christmas” and proclaim “the reason for the season” are pretty lost. They forget, or don’t know, that most traditions dealing with the holiday season are based on so-called pagan festivities and activities: the Christmas tree, Yule log, festing, giving presents, making merry, even the date of Y’eshua ben-Miriam’s birth was changed to coincide with a major pagan festival. But that’s for others to hash out ^[3].

My point is that thsi issue is really kind of stupid. I remember, when I was a kid some 30 years ago, people saying “Season’s Greetings”, “Happy Holidays” and other such phrases at this time of year, and no one got up in arms over it. Now, you have to be careful. You can’t tell if someone will correct you for saying one of those phrases by saying “No, Merry Christmas“.

It isn’t that I am overly religious. Rather, I am non-religious. Nevertheless, I do like the season. I like the general goodwill, the happy spirit of the season, the general niceness that people tend to exude. the traditions, the gatherings, the parties, the gift-giving, the TV specials, the cookies etc. etc. etc.

But then you get some religious nut who starts crying, “Waaah! Waaaaah! You’re destroying what Christmas is all about!” It gives me another reason to be turned off to religion. It’s enough to make someone like me just not give anyone a holiday greeting, period. And that sucks. All it takes is one nutcase to destroy something good in the world. And as is often the case, it’s someone who claims to know “what it is all about” that ruins it for me and so many others.