The occasional, often ill-considered thoughts of a Roman Catholic permanent deacon who is ever grateful to God for his existence. Despite the strangeness we encounter in this life, all the suffering we witness and endure, being is good, so good I am sometimes unable to contain my joy. Deo gratias!


Although I am an ordained deacon of the Catholic Church, the opinions expressed in this blog are my personal opinions. In offering these personal opinions I am not acting as a representative of the Church or any Church organization.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays?

In case you haven't noticed, or have spent the past few decades on one of Jupiter's moon, there's a definite trend in the retail and service industries to avoid greeting customers with such politically incorrect phrases as "Merry Christmas." We are instead subjected to a barrage of safe, insipid greetings with "Happy Holidays" being the most common. It has become so irritating that I actually try to avoid patronizing stores that tell their employees to use one of the more politically correct greetings.

Well, it seems that many others also object to this removal of Jesus Christ from Christmas. It is, after all, the celebration of His birthday and a significant majority of our citizens consider themselves Christians.

A recent Rasmussen poll of American adults determined that 72% prefer to be greeted with "Merry Christmas" while only 22% prefer "Happy Holidays." Perhaps the results of this poll will cause at least some retailers to change their policies and allow their employees to reinsert the word, "Christmas," into their customer greetings. Their motives for doing so might not be particularly pure, but that's OK. God can still use them to spread the good news of the Incarnation to all.

To see a full breakdown of the poll's results, click here: Rasmussen Christmas Poll.

Have a joyful, expectant, and repentant Advent.

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