Now that it's December, the holiday consumer madness has begun. On every street corner holiday wreaths and lights hang. The odd thing about this though, is that all of the advertisements seem to be directed towards Christmas shoppers. Check-out clerks make it a point every year to say "Happy Holidays," versus the singular and discriminatory, "Merry Christmas," "Happy Hannukah," or "Happy Kwanza." At the same time in our towns the street lights have a christmas wreath tied with a red ribbon. A wreath doesn't say "Merry Chrannukwanza" but solely "Merry Christmas." Why is this okay?
If there has been controversy in stores over the superiority of the phrase, "Happy Holidays," why is it that the JCPenny ad
(and their entire website) is written in entirely in green and red writing?
I understand that a larger percentage of Americans celebrate Christmas, but why begin to try to send a univeral seasons greeting that is directly pointing to one religious sect and holiday?
When I typed in "Happy Holidays" into Google images the first image that popped up is above. Does it seem to be favoring a certain holiday to anyone?
Carolyn- I have noticed this too, stores and greeting cards want to seem like they are endorsing universal "holidays" when really, all they care about is Christmas.I think there are several reasons for this. One is that, while someone will get gifts for Hannukah or Kwanza, the main purpose of Christmas is giving and getting gifts, so it is in a store's best interest to be supportive of Christmas shoppers. Also, (I could be wrong here), but from what I've heard from my friends who are Jewish, Hannukah is not as big of a deal as Christmas is for Christians.
ReplyDeleteIts actually very interesting to read this and now comment. Christmas was actually not a Christian until the Roman emperor Constantine became Christian. The midwinter feast was a pagan holiday celebrated in honor of some kind of deity that people believed in back then, and they put up a tree and decorated it. That's how we got the Christmas tree, by the way. Then the emperor decided that the people shouldn't worship that god anymore, only Jesus, but the people still wanted the holiday, so he just changed the meaning. It went from pagan to Christian. It has been celebrated for hundreds of years. We give gifts because of this actual man named Nicholas, who gave gifts to people who were in need. The Catholic Church made him a saint, and then somehow we ended up with Santa. History aside, the main point of Christmas is to celebrate Jesus Christ's birth. It is a very old religious holiday, celebrated by millions of people every year. Hanukkah is not as important of a holiday, and not as many people celebrate it because the ratio of Jews to Christians in America is small. Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by this guy who wanted African Americans to have their own holiday. It is very new compared to the other two, and I believe that even less people celebrate it.
ReplyDeleteSo, Christmas is the holiday that stores pump up the most because the most people celebrate it, it has been around for a very long time (I admit Hanukkah has been around longer) and our country is made up mostly of people who claim Christianity as their religion of choice. It is a simple case of trying to please the most number of people.