1,405 words
Translations: Czech, French, German
It was about twenty years ago when I first noticed that the greeting “Merry Christmas” was being replaced by the bland, neutral “Season’s Greetings” and “Happy Holidays.”
I asked a school teacher of my acquaintance, a benighted liberal who is an infallible barometer of the latest currents of political correctness, why this was happening. I was answered with another question: “If you were Jewish, wouldn’t you feel offended if someone wished you a Merry Christmas?” The tone communicated that this was self-evident, that we must avoid giving such offense at all costs, and that I was stupid for even asking. Obviously she had spent too much time talking down to students.
I thought to myself, “I would not be offended if a Jew wished me a Happy Hanukkah. That would be small-minded. So why should a Jew be offended if I wished him a Merry Christmas? What makes Jews different? Why do people cater to such small-mindedness?”
I also thought to myself, “Wouldn’t a pluralistic, liberal attitude imply many different holiday greetings, rather than one bland, characterless, homogeneous one?”
I also began to notice the proliferation of the abbreviation “X-mas,” even in greetings cards, store displays, and advertisements. Abbreviations are perfectly OK in hand-scrawled notes and emails. But they are gauche in more formal contexts, so I wondered what was driving this lapse in taste and style. Why are people literally “X”ing “Christ” out of “Christmas”? Is it merely another symptom of the secularization and commercialization of Christmas? But who is behind that trend? And is there some anti-Christian malice at work here?
Recently, there has been a proliferation of news stories about the destruction of Christmas in England and the US to cater to the tastes of anti-Christian minorities. For instance, in 2002 in Mobile, Alabama, the annual Christmas parade, celebrated since 1945, was to be renamed “The Jolly Holiday” parade. According to the organizers, “They said they wanted a name that was more inclusive, since the parade this year would include Hanukkah and Kwanzaa floats along with the usual Christmas fair [sic].”
Are we losing Christmas to pander to celebrators of Kwanzaa? The answer is no.
Kwanzaa is the ersatz African holiday invented in 1966 by an American Negro who goes by the name of Maulana Ron Karenga. Kwanzaa is supposed to be a Negro alternative to Christmas. It is a seven-day feast, celebrated from December 26 to January 1. Each day of Kwanzaa commemorates a different concept: unity (not diversity; unity is for them, diversity for us), self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.
Up to this point, most people will give Kwanzaa a respectful hearing. But wait: To commemorate each day of Kwanzaa, a candle is lit in a seven-branch candelabrum called the “Kinara.” Now “Kinara” is supposed to sound like “Menorah,” but with a “k” for Kwanzaa. Get it? (I know, you thought that the Kinara was a rank in the Ku Klux Klan, somewhere between the Kleagle and the Kligrapp.) The Kinara reveals just how infantile, contrived, and derivative Kwanzaa really is. Even the most patronizing liberals roll their eyes.
But stupidity is no bar to advancement in today’s America, so Kwanzaa is slowly on the rise. In 1997 the US Post Office released a Kwanzaa stamp. Merchandisers see the potential for Kwanzaa profits, and so do politicians. Bill Clinton began issuing annual Kwanzaa proclamations, a practice continued by the “conservative” president George W. Bush.
But Kwanzaa is not destroying Christmas. Most Americans still have never heard of it, and no White American can think of it without embarrassment. Even White liberals probably prefer not to think of it at all, so it is not likely to be in the back of their minds when they wish you a hearty “Happy Holidays!” Besides, most Blacks who celebrate Kwanzaa probably celebrate Christmas too, so it is unlikely that they would bristle to the defense of Kwanzaa if wished a “Merry Christmas!”
No, it is the Jews who stole Christmas. Kwanzaa merely apes Hanukkah. Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday that celebrates, like most Jewish holidays, the massacre of tribal enemies. It is primarily in the US that Hanukkah has been promoted as a Jewish rival to Christmas.
The motives for this are unclear. One may be crypsis, the desire of some Jews to blend in among their host populations. Crypsis is certainly a motive in Reform Judaism. Reform synagogues have even adopted stained-glass windows and organ music to give the impression that Judaism is just another “Judeo-Christian” denomination.
Another motive may be rivalry: Jews recognize the appeal of Christmas, and want to keep their children busy doing something else during the Christmas season.
Malice probably also plays a role.
First, there is the resentment of the eternal outsider trying to make himself feel comfortable by breaking down the distinction between inside and outside. To do this, he has to efface the host culture’s defining symbols. A Jew feels outside when you say “Merry Christmas,” but he feels comfortable when you say “Happy Holidays.” Indeed, he feels pleased with this concrete token of his cultural and political power.
Then there is the particular resentment that Jews nurse toward Christianity. There are at least three reasons for this. First, Jesus was an apostate Jew, and nobody likes an apostate. Second, Jesus rejected Judaism for its tribalism, inhumanity, and intellectual dishonesty, and the truth hurts, so Jews hate Jesus as a bearer of bad news. Third, although today Islam is the religion most resistant to Jews and Christianity the most embarrassingly apologetic and subservient, this has been the case primarily since the foundation of the state of Israel. Before that, Jews lived securely in Muslim lands while they were being expelled from virtually every Christian country in Europe. Chapter 5 of Israel Shahak’s Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years (Pluto Middle Eastern Studies)
Jew Philip Roth is the author of dreadful novels that are nonetheless extremely revealing of the operations of the Jewish mind. In Operation Shylock: A Confession
So how do we take back Christmas? First, let me say something about my motives. I was raised a Christian, but it never took. I would prefer to keep Christianity out of politics, and I would hate to live in an intolerant Christian society. Frankly, I wish that our ancestors had held onto their old pagan religions. Indeed, Christmas incorporates many old European pagan elements, but note that multiculturalists make no attempt to cater to the celebrants of Yule, Saturnalia, and the birthday of Mithras. Nothing White is promoted by the multiculturalists.
But, still, I like Christmas a lot. When the days grow short and the weather gets bad, it is nice to create an environment of cheer and good will. At bottom, my objection is not religious, but cultural. I hate to see the homogenizing, secularizing, leveling forces of modernity at work, even on a religion that I do not profess.
So what is to be done? First, although Jews are the driving force behind the destruction of Christmas, they are a tiny minority, unlovable and unloved, and all the pushiness in the world would not have triumphed if Whites were not such pushovers. Second, the Mobile “Jolly Holiday Parade” incident is instructive. The gentiles pushed back: “citing e-mail and telephone threats from residents opposed to a parade without the word Christmas in its title . . . Mobile Christmas Parade Inc. . . . announced there would be no parade this year. . . . Three hours later, volunteers with Main Street Mobile, a city-staffed organization formed to promote downtown, announced that a parade will roll . . . . It will be called the Mobile Christmas Holiday Parade.”
This year, I have been pushing back in a subtle but steady way. Every chance I get, I wish people a “Merry Christmas,” most pointedly when I am wished “Happy Holidays.” I have even been wishing a “Merry Christmas” to the atheists and Odinists I know.
So, with that long preface in mind: from one infidel to another, “Merry Christmas!”
12 Comments
Merry Christmas, Greg!
I grew up on Long Island, New York, graduating from high school in the mid 1970’s. I may not be as perceptive as you, because I don’t think I noticed the dilution of Christmas on my own, but may parents noticed it and when they pointed it out to me, it was pretty obvious. In New York “Merry Christmas” was becoming a politically incorrect expression already in the early 1970’s. I think I’m older than you. Ask your parents about the 1960’s. Television had many Christmas shows on in December during the 1960’s. Not all were religious, some with Bing Crosby I believe and beautiful woman singing and dancing, but Christmas was big. I first heard of Chanukah in the early 1970’s (I was already in my teens), but it was almost immediate that we were told that it was insensitive (or offensive?) to Jews to say Merry Christmas to them. Then the Chanukah cards started appearing in the stores. I recall my parents complaining about the same things you mention above, writing X-MAS instead of Christmas, the constant playing of non-religious Christmas songs like Jingle Bells, Chestnuts Roasting, White Christmas and many others. Silent Night was one religious song they still played, but now you rarely hear it anymore. I’m in a coffee shop as I write this and Rockin Around (a fairly new “Christmas” song I believe) just finished on the radio. My parents came here from Germany after the war. There are many beautiful German Christmas Carols but I believe probably all are religious.
Many of our neighbors and many of my friends were Jewish. The area had a big Jewish population. I remember receiving a Christmas card from a Jewish friend or family or having a Jew say Merry Christmas occasionally to me. I felt awkward, because I didn’t want to say “Happy Chanukah” to them or send them such a card and I felt a little embarrassed about the expression. I don’t think they were embarrassed though. Chanukah was obviously being promoted to compete and bring down Christmas a few steps. My father pointed out to me that Chanukah was a minor Jewish holiday – they had more important ones.
One of my Jewish “friends” was (and I’m sure still is) a bigot. When we were sitting in my family’s backyard he spit on the ground in front of him when I told him my parents were from Germany. His hatred spewed out in subsequent conversations as well, but I always kept him as a “friend.” It would be normal to ask why, but it’s difficult to answer. The answer is probably because I was weak. This is the same guy that said “what about the poor little Jewish kid” when I said I thought prayer should be allowed in school. I should have said “because this isn’t South Africa where the majority is oppressed by the minority. We have majority rule here.” This thought came to me in later years when I recalled a conversation I had with another Jewish friend who got very excited and aggressive when I defended South Africa. I didn’t know much about things there and he was very eager to show me what an evil country that was. Both these guys were supporters of the “Jewish Defense League” which used violence and when I criticized the JDL they were quick to claim its a good group that “protects” Jews.
Greg, the other day I had a conversation about this same “Happy Holidays” thing with a very Christian man I know (Protestant, biblical literalist!). I wanted his opinion, so I asked if he thought Hanukkah or overly sensitive Jewish people had anything to do with it and he was rather quick to say it was really all about atheism. I’m not sure how much I buy that. Atheists have been known to go all in for keeping Christianity out of school, but I don’t typically think of them as being hostile to Christmas greetings. What’s your take on the atheist vs. Jewish role in this?
There are plenty of petulant and aggressive non-Jewish atheists involved in the war on Christmas. But as with every phenomenon, there is a hard core and a flabby periphery, and Jews tend to be heavily represented among the hard core.
Check this out: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/04/atheist-group-take-back-christmas-from-christians/
Ha, yes. David Silverman has a double-dose of Christmas hate.
I do think it’s funny, however, that they offer up instead the Germanic heathen past. No, Yule is not “for everybody” either. Say no to Jesus, and yes to Odin doesn’t seem like something an ardent atheist would advocate. I think they just got a little too carried away with the anti-Christian message and picked up whatever was easiest to hit the Christians with at the moment.
By the way, Happy Yule!
In communist Hungary there was no problem with Christmas greetings in the eighties (the 1950s might have been different, though), and it was an officially and quite aggressively atheist regime. It’s just that Christmas mostly means a family get-together with nice decorations and giving of presents instead of a religious holiday.
I have mixed feelings about this. The Judeo-Christians stole Yule and Easter from our ancestors and perverted them.
I feel that instead of trying to preserve a bastardised Yule, we should be trying to revive the real Yule.
Merry Christmas Greg! Have a card…
For years I’ve noticed a trend in media to denigrate fruit cake. I figure they got trounced badly in their war on Christmas. Then they retreated to attacking symbols related to Christmas such as fruit cake.
I love fruite cake and it’s hard to find the last ten years.
The local Dollar General stores tell me they had to return their shipment of fruit cake because of some defect with the batch. Me thinks there may be a khoser rat in there some where.
Did Klaxton fruit cake (Klaxton Georgia) neglect to pay their khoser tax this year?
Hope the Klaxton Kliegal Kicks up a fuss.
Well, I am a Christian and a WN. I find no conflict between the two. Of course, my Christian beliefs would be similar to those of the early American settlers and not the PC-encrusted versions of today.
Merry Christmas, crackers.
The PLAIN TRUTH About CHRISTMAS!
WHERE did we get Christmas? . . . from the Bible, or paganism? Here are astonishing FACTS which may shock you! Do you know the origin of the Christmas tree — of “Santa Claus” — of the mistletoe, holly wreath, — custom of exchanging gifts?
Does Christmas really celebrate the birthday of Jesus? Was He born on December 25th? Did Paul, the apostles, and the early Church of the New Testament celebrate Christmas? Do you know what the BIBLE says about the Christmas tree? Stop and think! Very few know WHY we do the things we do — WHERE our customs came from! We were born into a world filled with customs/traditions. We grew up practicing them, taking them for granted, but NEVER QUESTIONING WHY!
A PAGAN, Not Christian, Festival
We have supposed CHRISTMAS to be the chief of the Christian holidays. Without asking questions, we have blindly assumed its observance must be one of the principal teachings and commands of the New Testament. We have supposed Jesus was born December 25th, and that the New Testament set this day aside as the chief Christian festival. We have supposed we exchange gifts because the wise men presented gifts to the Christ-child. (The wise men did present gifts to the Christ-child, but not at the manger!) But let’s quit supposing and look into history and the Bible for the FACTS! The word “Christmas” means “Mass of Christ,” or, as it later became shortened, “Christ-Mass.” It came to us a Roman Catholic Mass. And where did they get it? From the HEATHEN celebration of December 25th, as the birthday of Sol, the SUN-GOD! It is, actually, an ancient rite of BAALISM, which the Bible condemns as the most abominable of all idolatrous worship! It is not so much as MENTIONED anywhere in the New Testament. It was never observed by Paul, the apostles, the early true Christian church! The idea Jesus was born December 25th is one of the FABLES the Apostle Paul prophesied (II Timothy 4:4) would deceive the world in these latter days.
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The Jews want Jesus out of Christmas but they want to keep the commercialism of Christmas because it means big profits. I say we get rid of both of those and Hanukkah!
The original “horoscope in the stars” tells the tale of Israel. The feasts of the OT were forerunners to Christianity (pre-vatican 2 and even pre the screw up at the reformation). No. Jesus wasn’t born on the 25th December. It doesn’t fit. But Jesus was born and we honor his birth on that day just as the Queen’s birthday is celebrated on different days in the different countries of the old empire.
The church is a bit like the Republican party in that it has been infiltrated, penetrated and taken over to the extent that the White People’s party no longer represents Americans.
Christianity is ingrained in so many Western Men in every which way that we really have to focus on how Christianity relates to the survival of Western Man (the sheep) rather than allowing it to be further used against us.
The minor god Odin from that small northern country has more faithful adherents in the NANR than Christ has so I hope you are going to stick around and encourage the Christians to pull their weight in “saving the sheep.” We have generations of Christian lore to adapt to our struggle. Welcome aboard Virginia.