The holidays

Christmas is an annual Christian festival. It begins on Christmas Day, December 25, and ends on January 6, the Feast of the Epiphany. The activities that characterize it include the singing of carols, religious services, and large dinners with lots of eating, drinking, and music. Such public merry-making reflects the joy that Christians feel in contemplating the birth of Jesus.

Xmas is an annual Mammonite holiday season. It traditionally begins a few days earlier each year (this year: October 24) and ends at the beginning of prime time on December 25. The activities that characterize it include shopping, watching sentimental television specials, decorating houses and yards with lights, traveling to family reunions, and exchanging gifts. Such activities reflect the gratitude that merchants feel in contemplating a commercially successful retail season.

Americans who celebrate other holidays in December -- such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yule, Festivus, the Flying Spaghetti Monster's Birthday, or New Year's Eve -- often integrate some of the features of Xmas into their celebrations. Consequently, retailers have begun to use “Happy holidays” as a generic customer greeting. Recently, some right-wing political commentators have criticized this trend, apparently seeing in it some disparagement of Xmas. But I think that it simply reflects the fact that, although Xmas is, historically, loosely derived from Christmas, almost no one in the United States continues to celebrate Christmas, and it's simply more cost-effective for retailers to pitch Xmas in a way that includes as many customers as possible.

Perhaps we could come up with some compromise greeting that expresses the essence of Xmas and reflects something of its origins in Christian mythology, while still not excluding non-Christians -- something like “Joyous Good-News End-of-the-Year Sales Event.”