Starting the Christmas wars early

It's sad that Christians, who according to scripture, should be the least materialistic in observing days with religious meaning, have to battle the retailers who can't survive without the Christmas season over use of the word "Christmas" or the Mass of Christ. Of course, it isn't just retailers. One of my favorite stories on this muddle of respecting all religions except Christianity goes back to the 1980s when I got a glossy Christmas card produced by the Medical Library Association with greetings in about 10 languages, but nothing in English that said "Merry Christmas," even though it was in other languages. Then there was last years' "new books for the holidays" list from our Public Library published in a local magazine which managed to leave out all new titles that had anything to do with religion.



To solve this problem of offense to none while ignoring most, The Smithsonian sent out two catalogs, one "holiday" and the other "Christmas." I think holiday came first--and does have one or two Halloween items in it, but in the Christmas section of the holiday issue, the word Christmas is never used. Then in the Christmas catalog, the word Christmas does appear, although there is very little with any religious significance--12 days of Christmas nutcracker, Christmas flora throw, Victorian Christmas figurine. As an aside, there's a yummy Fontanini nativity celebrating the 100th year of the figurines made in Italy--8 pieces, $195, and you can get the 3 Kings for $175 and 3 palm trees for $50. For cat lovers, I think Smithsonian has just about the cutest stuff out there.

Update: Before tossing out the 20 page brochure from the Upper Arlington Parks and Recreation program for fall 2007, I checked: there is a photo of a Christmas tree, and it says, "Celebrate the Season in UA! UA Winter Festival/Tree lighting ceremony." There will be visits with Santa, holiday lights, and a brunch with Santa at a local restaurant. No Christmas in our town. Just a season.