Lovettsville Holiday Tree, 2019

Happy Holidays is the apt agreement when you don’t know how another celebrates the spirit of the season. If you know, then Merry Christmas may be just fine. This past Friday, it was obviously all about Christmas.

On the other hand, you may know a friend, and the greeting for him is Happy Chanukah, not Merry Christmas.

For me, it’s a meditation on how we should all get along.

It must be obvious that any seasonal greeting that rests upon a faulty recollection or calculated guess as to who believes what runs the risk of being a quite inapt faux pas as we rush toward the winter solstice.

Some insist fervently on saying “Merry Christmas” without apology or seeming kindness to everyone, to Jews, Buddhists, agnostics and atheists.

Not to be too harsh, but that unconscious practice strikes me as not-very-Christian — as it’s not very loving of one’s neighbor. Continue reading →