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Yep, it’s that time of year again. A time when Americans are given the opportunity to gather with family and friends to enjoy a gluttonous occasion of excessive self indulgence. From turkey to stuffing, to cranberries and every kind of potato you can imagine. There is no better day to celebrate Thanksgiving than on a day when we can watch 12 hours of football while we see the leaves turn to colors.
As the holiday season approaches, many of us will be celebrating events that make us think of happier times and give us hope for the future with the ringing of the New Year.
Hopefully, maybe some of us will take a moment to remember what it was like growing up during the holidays through the eyes of our innocent years. An innocence that was more worried about savoring school vacation days instead of being preoccupied about politically correct holiday greetings.
A school like Pepperdine misses out on the regular changing of seasons as other schools see back east during this time of the holiday season. Right now, people in my hometown of Chicago, are experiencing 30 mile per hour autumn winds that blow the leaves from trees into piles that make a Sunday afternoon of yard work unbearable. And not too soon from now they will see the first snowstorm that gives every young student the hopes and prayers that school will be canceled for a snow day.
Snow days were the best days. I don’t think I prayed and hoped enough for snow days because we didn’t have as many as I would have liked to have when I was in school back home. Snow days were days when I would thank the snow for falling so hard and fast, or God (if he had anything do with it). Then I would proceed to spend the day away from school doing whatever I wanted to do with the thanks of a fun day that was different from most other regular days. It was a time when kids would get together and have snowball fights while trying to see who could do the most dangerous sledding trick without breaking an arm or cracking open his or her head. Unfortunately, I was not always successful at avoiding those mishaps.
The special qualities of the holiday season for the United States is the thanks and fun we have on days that are different than most other regular days. Just like the snow days that bring young kids together for a day of fun back home, America’s celebration of Thanksgiving along with Christmas and Hanukkah are days when fun is supposed to be had together.
So in the spirit of fun and togetherness, let’s try to spend this holiday season not arguing with each other and realize we are all trying to celebrate joyous occasions that represent our nation’s history along with religious holidays that mark important moments in our Judeo-Christian society.
It seems the nation continues to have an argument as to whether department stores should greet their customers with “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.” Some people have become angry with stores that have changed their greetings to “Happy Holidays,” and in the past have organized unsuccessful boycotts to protest the changing of their holiday greeting. These protesters claim companies who change their greetings are taking the spirit out of the holiday and are “waging a war on Christmas.”
I sure do not see a war being waged against Christmas or any other holiday for that matter.
All I see is some companies feel it is more appropriate to greet their diverse customers with a general holiday greeting that includes people of all faiths as well as acknowledging our nation’s holiday season.
All this fighting about what to name a holiday season and how to greet shoppers who seem more crazed about buying gifts rather than celebrating the virtues of these beautiful days seems like a waste of time to me.
And, it replaces those good memories of innocence with ones of bickering adults who can’t figure out we have more in common than in our differences.
And if we can’t come to an agreement of what to call our holiday season, we could always just go with, snow day.
Submitted 11-06-2006
MALIBU, CA
