Tis the Season !

'Tis the season to just be nice
By Ken Ellsworth
December 11, 2005

As if there weren't enough reasons to be grouchy at this time of year, we've now made the words ''merry Christmas,'' and ''happy holiday'' and ''seasons greetings'' code words that affirm one's faith or one's secularism.
For Pete's sake, aren't we all sick of this word war?
There are plenty of other things to be grinchy about - rising gas prices (again), hungry children, toyless children, cold families, failing families, drug and alcohol addiction, corruption in politics, international terrorism, suicide bombers, a war, brave American soldiers losing their lives, torture, AIDS, disease, crowded malls and long lines at the post office - without worrying about ''happy holidays,'' which apparently they no longer are, because we use the expression to bicker about words instead of celebrating.
Being a writer, I consider myself to be a word-sensitive person. For example, I get icy chills when I hear anyone constantly mispronounce the word ''nuclear'' as ''nuculer.'' My icy chills are icier yet when the man who controls our nuclear arsenal, President George W. Bush, who should know better, says the word as he does.
Despite, my sensitivity to word use and pronunciation, the debate over merry Christmas and happy holidays on radio and television talk shows, opinion pages, blogs, letters to the editor and on the political scene, leaves me cold, if not freezing.
Both merry Christmas and happy holidays once were merely hopeful, warm expressions of goodwill, peace and happiness. Now they are code words, with both expressions bound to offend somebody, but they don't offend me. You can say ''happy Hanukkah'' to me, too, and I'll consider the expression to be one of kindness, not secret code in a cold war of words.
We should lighten up and fight our wars over things that matter. ''Sticks and stones ... but words ... etc.'' I don't like it when people make judgments about other people, or businesses, based on the flimsy evidence of merry Christmas or happy holiday greetings. I'm certainly not about to boycott any businesses that prefer to use the term holiday in their advertising. Nor, would I boycott a business that prefers the word Christmas.
I wouldn't boycott a business that sells ''holiday trees'' either, though I don't like the term. A Christmas tree is absolutely a Christmas tree, like a rose is a rose is a rose by any name. But if the store wants to sell holiday trees, it won't lose my business for that petty reason alone.
For one thing, the commercial use of the term happy holidays allows the season to begin at or near Thanksgiving and extends it to New Year's Day. It's good marketing. I don't object to that. Like probably 99 percent of us, I'm a capitalist, too, though not a pure one like Libertarians profess to be.
I'll say this for people who say happy holidays: In most cases, they are probably not saying ''I'm secular,'' but merely trying to be respectful of others' beliefs, whatever they might be. They are just trying to be considerate and thoughtful, not politically correct.
It's a shame that some are offended by that.
For goodness sake, let's all be nice again. It's the season for it.

Contact Ken Ellsworth at ellsworthk@reporternews.com
source: http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/nw_lc_columns/article/0,1874,ABIL_8856_4306866,00.html