You can’t even spell CHRISTmas without CHRIST!

Despite that undisputed fact, there seems to be an increasingly strong move to change the traditional Christmas greeting of “Merry Christmas” to the “politically correct” terminology of “Happy Holidays.” Some say, “While the use of “Happy Holidays” has become more common, particularly in retail and corporate settings, the goal is to include all holidays in the season, not the exclusion of “Christmas.” That makes about as much sense to an Ole Seagull as a tourism marketing piece for Branson saying “Visit southwestern Missouri” instead of “Visit Branson” because the city of “Branson” is part of southwestern Missouri.

Seagull, “But one wouldn’t want to offend those who are celebrating Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or something else, would they?” “Absolutely not, but don’t most people wishing to honor or recognize specific holidays, other than “Christmas,” do so by saying, “Happy Kwanzaa,” “Happy Hanukkah,” or “Happy Whatever?”

How many people wish someone a “Happy New Year” by saying “Happy Holidays,” particularly during the week after Christmas and before “New Year’s Day?” In the majority, it seems that “Christmas” is the only holiday that loses its specific identity under the “Happy Holidays hocus pocus.”

Do most say “Happy Holiday” when wishing someone a “Happy Easter” or Happy Thanksgiving?” Does U.S. law specifically designate “Christmas Day, December 25” as a “legal public holiday?” It does the way the Ole Seagull reads U.S. Code § 6103.

What does “Christ” have to do with the celebration of Kwanza, Hanukkah, Santa Claus, presents, office parties, red-nosed reindeer, decorating trees, wreaths, holly, sleigh bells, retail sales, booze, atheism and feasting? Not much, not much at all!

What does Christ have to do with CHRISTmas? Everything! Without Christ, there can be no CHRISTmas. There can be holidays, seasons, festivals and religious observances of every persuasion. Still, without Christ, there can be no CHRISTmas. One cannot even say or spell the word “CHRISTmas,” let alone explain its actual history, meaning, or origins, without CHRIST.

The Concise Columbia Encyclopedia states that Christmas is “Christ’s Mass in the Christian calendar, the feast of Jesus’s Nativity.” The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language defines “Christmas” as “A Christian feast commemorating the birth of Jesus.” Jesus who? Jesus, the Christ Child, the only begotten Son of God, was born of the virgin Mary in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago!

First, there was Jesus Christ. Because of Christ, there is the celebration of His birth, CHRISTmas. Secular customs and traditions have developed since, but first, there was “Christ.”

Even the most notable current secular symbol, the 19th-century “Ho, Ho, Ho,” jolly old Santa Claus seen everywhere during the Christmas season, was first made famous in New York. The European traditions of “Sinterklaas” and “Saint Nicholas” go back hundreds of years, but first, there was “Christ.”

There are even those who would try to replace the bright guiding light of the Star of Bethlehem with the red glow of the nose of “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Rudolph’s nose has been guiding Santa’s sleigh since 1939, when Robert May wrote a verse for a Montgomery Ward promotional comic book. In the late 1940s, his brother-in-law adapted the verse and used it in the song “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” which the cowboy crooner Gene Autry made famous, but first, there was “Christ.”

When someone says “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas,” would it be inappropriate for those wanting to share their testimony as to the true meaning and spirit of “Christmas,” to kindly and lovingly respond by saying “Merry Christmas.” What better way to create or reinforce awareness of the “reason for the season,” that very first Christmas when “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life?”