Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays 3387

Well that backfired in a HUGE way, then. You are no doubt arguing from the position that Christmas only existed in a time after Christ is said to have been born, though. Actually, the holiday "Christmas" is much older than Christ is thought to be. Many Christmas symbols and traditions have taken on Christian names in relatively recent history, but the holdiday NOW known as Christmas was celebrated for many centuries before the Christ child is thought to have been born. It's easy to get confused though, as the pagan holiday does bear a Christian name currently. ("how could Christmas be non-Christian?" is an obvious question, until you realize that everything EXCEPT the nativity scene that is buttociated with "Christmas" actually pre-dates Christ by many years)

The holiday celebrated in late December pre-dated the birth of Christ by centuries. Early Christians wanted nothing to do with this late December holiday, as it incorporated many traditions-symbols-beliefs that were objectionable to Christians. So it was OUTLAWED in many cultures. That worked about as well as prohibition did in 20th Century United States of America. So some Christians took the atbreastude of, if you can't beat them, join them. December 25th was declared to be the birthday of the Christ child, and it was now OK to celebrate, as the pagan celebration was now supposedly about the birthday of Christ. This bastard mix of pagan and Christian holiday peeed off many pagans and Christians alike. In fact, some of those Christians were so peeed-off about the pagan holiday being buttociated with Christ that they left their home and established new colonies in North America so that they could AGAIN outlaw Christmas. Yes, the Christians outlawed Christmas (just the latest attempt of many by Christians to outlaw Christmas), because it always was and always will be a mostly pagan holiday, even if you call it "Christmas".

But eventually those puritans who were so peeed at having pagan traditions dictate how they should celebrate the birth of Christ decided that Christmas wasn't so bad, even if it was 99.9% pagan in nature. Again, it is SO ironic that many Christians now say "Keep Christ in Christmas", when Christ almost end Christmas. It took many centuries for most people to get comfortable with the concept of having a pagan celebration which included Christ at all.

As I wrote before, you might as well say "Keep the Easter Bunny in Kwanzaa", if you are going to say "Keep Christ in Christmas". How long do you think it would take for people to get used to thinking of the Easter Bunny buttociated with Kwanzaa??? You're too low, Guess again. Even TODAY, many Christians do not observe Christmas in any manner at all, as they do not like the fact that Christ is buttociated with the pagan holiday currently called "Christmas". -Dave