It’s Christmas! So let me wish you all a very merry Christmas! And I want to stress that I am wishing you all a happy Christmas!

What is the big deal with using the word Christmas? I’ve seen a number of stories on the TV news here about whether or not the use of the word Christmas should be used when greeting someone this holiday season. Should we say “happy Christmas” or “happy holidays?” – WTF??

Now I’m not going to rattle on about the ‘reason for the season’ because this isn’t so much a religious question but more a question of plain old common sense. I mean it’s Christmas time for goodness sake, so why say happy holidays? This question of whether or not saying “Christmas” offends people, I’m curious as to who the hell is offended by the word Christmas? It seems to me like the only people who are ‘offended’ by that word are the suit wearing ‘pc’ type who take pictures of romeo and juliet off the walls of registry offices because it might offend gay couples who want to get married there.

Heck, even Georgie boy Bush can’t bring himself to officially say the word Christmas (despite the fact God apparently chats with him about invading countries half way across the world). It would seem that the President doesn’t want to mention the C word because by doing so he might upset someone. He spent years swaggering around and pissing off the entire world and now he worries about upsetting people? That’ll be another empty stable firmly secured then.

Happy holidays is so nondescript, I mean that could work for any holiday surely? I mean I’m an Englishman and I am often in the United States on the 4th of July, would anyone seriously suggest that you tone down the stars and stripes because it might offend an Englishman?

The argument that the word Christmas should be avoided because it’s a religious holiday is rubbish! Yes Christmas is of course a religious celebration, but the Christmas season is more focused on the shopping, gifts, food, drink and parties than the birth of Christ.

I very much doubt that people of other faiths are truly offended by the word Christmas. If anything you’d think that it would be the Christians themselves who should be offended by the use of the word by the Gods of consumerism. Surely if anyone should be campaigning for the removal of the word Christmas from shops, bars and restaurants it should be those who actually see the day as one of religious significance?

Could you imagine the outrage if we started to campaign for Ramadan to be renamed. Perhaps we should change the focus for the religious festival from fasting to feasting and rename it ‘ram-it-down?’ The Hindu festival of Diwali didn’t offend me when I was in India and neither would it offend me if someone here wished me a happy Diwali.

So once again, HAPPY CHRISTMAS!! I hope you all have a great day, and for those of you who aren’t returning to work on Monday, you can celebrate ‘boxing day’ like us Brits, Aussie’s and Canadiens. Though don’t ask any of us what boxing day is actually about. I’m thinking it might have something to do with beating members of your family after the Christmas truce?

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The cheesy home-made postcard style ecard features picture I’ve taken here in Oregon. From left to right starting at the top:
The area around Mount Hood, Mount St Helens, Timberline Lodge ski resort.
Rockaway beach (just got back from this place), Tillamook rain forst, Pioneer Square – Portland.