{"id":1805,"date":"2005-11-22T06:06:00","date_gmt":"2005-11-22T06:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/orthodixie\/2005\/11\/the-merry-wars-of-christmas.html"},"modified":"2005-11-22T06:06:00","modified_gmt":"2005-11-22T06:06:00","slug":"the-merry-wars-of-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/orthodixie\/2005\/11\/the-merry-wars-of-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"The Merry Wars of Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>With Walmart announcing that it\u2019s now \u201cHappy Holidays<\/a>\u201d instead of \u201cMerry Christmas,\u201d some Christians are, to use the tired and over-used term: OUTRAGED. God love him, Pat\u2019s always peeved<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I heard a caller on a talk radio show say: \u201cChristians should boycott these stores<\/a>. If it weren\u2019t for our money at this time of year, they would go out of business.\u201d This is probably true.<\/em> <\/p>\n

But he goes on to say, \u201cIn the Bible, the Apostles don\u2019t talk a whole lot about Christmas. For them it was mostly all about Easter.\u201d He then went on to rant about Constantine introducing the Feast of Christmas. Poor Constantine, he gets blamed for almost as much as W.<\/p>\n

Then, the Houston show host actually said, \u201cWell, the Apostles also celebrated Christmas \u2026\u201d That\u2019s when I had to turn off the noise. I shouldn\u2019t have been listening to it anyway, as I was on my way to church for the Feast of the Presentation of the Theotokos in the Temple. Wonder what they would say about that Feast<\/a>?<\/p>\n

I started to wonder if the caller had ever been to a Mass (as in Christ\u2019s-Mass). I doubted it. If that\u2019s so, why is he so upset about retailers not ushering in the joy of the Feast? Perhaps, as a friend used to posit, the malls and shopping centers have become the new Temples of the day. The shop-keep is the priest. <\/p>\n

Oh, did I mention the caller actually compared retailers\u2019 not saying \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d to the persecutions against believers foretold in the Book of Revelation?<\/p>\n

Gosh.<\/em><\/p>\n

Last year I posted the common understanding of many<\/a> about the origin of the Feast. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s another take on the origin of the Feast<\/a> by the scholarly William Tighe.<\/p>\n

I also wrote about becoming a Christmas Reactionary<\/a>; the often unexpected \u201cmiracles<\/a>\u201d surrounding the Feast \u2014 oh, here\u2019s a cute story<\/a>. Then there was the article that got some good \u201cair time\u201d around the Blogosphere: Christmas & Culture<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But, ya know, when it comes to Santa, I can become like a child again<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I really don\u2019t want to get caught up in the Merry Wars of Christmas this year. If, as Frank Schaeffer says, we are to \u201cwork out our salvation selfishly,\u201d then I guess it\u2019s up to us to wish folks a Merry Christmas, not vice versa. Better yet, perhaps we should quietly prepare to enter into the Feast of the Incarnation of our Lord by prayer and fasting. <\/p>\n

Ya think?<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With Walmart announcing that it\u2019s now \u201cHappy Holidays\u201d instead of \u201cMerry Christmas,\u201d some Christians are, to use the tired and over-used term: OUTRAGED. God love him, Pat\u2019s always peeved. I heard a caller on a talk radio show say: \u201cChristians should boycott these stores. If it weren\u2019t for our money at this time of year, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1691,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Merry Wars of Christmas<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"With Walmart announcing that it's now "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," some Christians are, to use the tired and over-used term: OUTRAGED.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/orthodixie\/2005\/11\/the-merry-wars-of-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Merry Wars of Christmas\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"With Walmart announcing that it's now "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas," some Christians are, to use the tired and over-used term: OUTRAGED.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/orthodixie\/2005\/11\/the-merry-wars-of-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Orthodixie\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-11-22T06:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.rpgnow.com\/products\/product_3597.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. 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