Whatever Happened to “Merry Christmas”?

Excuse me, but isn’t there something special happening in the next couple of weeks?

We’re almost halfway through Advent, and you know what I’m missing?

Christmas lights!

I miss colored lights on all the shops, as we drive through the business district.

I miss music–I miss singing along to the strains of “O Holy Night” wafting through the department stores and blaring from speakers along the sidewalks.

I miss Santa’s boisterous “Ho, ho, ho!” in the mall, the smiles of shoppers with their packages, and clerks ready with a smile and an enthusiastic “Merry Christmas!”

And oh, how I miss the manger scene on the town square and at the neighbor’s house, the carolers gathered over hot chocolate, the candy canes.

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Even if it’s too early–even if, as my husband reminds me, it’s still Advent–I want to hear sleighbells and carols and bells.  I’m shopping NOW, and I want to think about Christmas NOW.

In my city, there is an embarrassed hush at Target and TJ Maxx and the local dress shops.  No lights.  No music.  No Christmas tree.  Oh, there are decorations (not manger sets, but bulbs and lights at least) for sale in a rear corner of the store.  But in the store’s entrance and in the window displays this year, it’s as though Christmas doesn’t exist.

Oh, there are some places you can go to have a holiday experience.  There’s downtown Rochester’s Big Bright Light Show

and Olde World Canterbury Village in Lake Orion

and Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, up north a bit in Frankenmuth

Maybe things are different in your town–but most of the time, as I’m shopping in the strip malls and the department stores here in southeastern Michigan, it’s as though Christmas didn’t exist.  Our society has fallen into an embarrassed silence.

Last time I checked, a Gallup poll showed that 77% of Americans self-identify as Christians. Many others are secular but are happy to celebrate the holiday.  Only 13% are atheists.

Why have we let this small minority usurp the holiday, demanding secularism and stealing the joyful anticipation of the Savior’s birth in the public square?