Photo by Timo_Beil/flickr.com
“Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.” — Former President Calvin Coolidge
It would appear Congress needs to vote on the federal Christmas holiday. Our country is experiencing ambiguity as to what the 1870 Congress meant when it voted Christmas a federal holiday. Likewise, New Mexico has an official Christmas holiday that is being changed.
Our country needs to resolve this issue: Is it the Christmas holiday or winter holiday?” Can federal and state employees say, “Merry Christmas” and put up Christmas trees on public property? As important: Can federal and state employees decide not to say “Merry Christmas” or put up Christmas trees? What are the effects of the federal and state Christmas holiday designation?
Michael Swickard
The ambiguity can be settled by a roll-call vote by our representatives on whether to remove the Christmas holiday and ensure that our country is no longer a Christian nation.
Let us see them vote. Hint, those voting against Christmas and our Christian nation may suffer during the next election.
Political correctness
The politically correct (PC) crowd has browbeaten and threatened lawsuits on public servants in many government entities, including public education. In most public schools, Christmas became winter holiday without a vote in Congress or Santa Fe.
This spilled over into the business community a couple of years ago. Citizens quelled it when they announced that if there was no Christmas greeting, they wouldn’t shop there. The stores quickly caught on. They can also say happy holidays, happy Hanukkah or anything else, but they cannot omit Christmas greetings and still get our business.
The bottom line is that when laws are passed in Washington and Santa Fe declaring this the Christmas holiday, that is the name. When laws are, in effect, repealed by special-interest groups without elected representatives voting, our representative form of government ends.
I do not blame public schools for casting off Christmas songs, plays and pageants when our representatives and senators do not stand up for our form of government. They let unelected, PC people force the dropping of Christmas. This is everywhere, including our Christmas songs.
Those political operatives ask: what did Bob Wills, the famous country swing musician mean when he wrote the line in the 1944 song called The Christmas Song — “Folks dressed up like Eskimos?” Did he really mean Eskimos, or should we be singing Esquimauz? Which sounds politically better: Folks dressed up like Yupik, Inuit or Aleuts?”
Where does the debate end?
Back to public schools: I do not have any trouble with a separation of the story of the Baby Jesus and students. I leave that to the parents and churches. However, in the effort to not use the word Christmas, traditional songs cannot be sung. Also, Santa Claus is considered politically incorrect, so students are not permitted a classroom Santaesque “naughty or nice” song. Teachers are instructed in many school districts to have nothing to do with anything Christmas-centric.
A walk through your neighborhood school and into the classrooms will confirm that there is no dialog about the Christmas holiday, including the who, what, when, where and why that is included in all other federal and state holidays. So, who decided that the Christmas holiday was not to be mentioned? Should our elected officials have a say? Is a knowledge of all federal and state holidays an integral part of the school curriculum, or can students graduate without learning about specific holidays?
Beyond parents not wanting a mention of Christmas, what if parents do not want their children learning about San Francisco? Or the religiously charged number 666? New Mexico changed Highway 666 to 491 because of complaints. Parents might not want prime numbers discussed, since the sum of the squares of the first seven prime numbers is 666, a number they do not want their children to see. How do we remove that number from math class? We know where people want to start, but where do they end the debate?
Again, I am not talking about the Christmas holiday being a dialog about Christian doctrine in schools. Rather, as much as we talk turkey at Thanksgiving, can we have Christmas songs and traditions without losing whatever little sense we ever had? Can we mention of icons like Frosty the Snowman, Santa, Rudolph, Christmas trees, and all of the other connections to the Christmas season?
Let us have a vote
So let us have a vote on this issue in Congress and the New Mexico Legislature. Let us find out what Gov. Bill Richardson thinks about Christmas or winter holiday. Those who want to change to “Winter Holiday” can have their thoughts considered by our leaders and the people electing the leaders. Then a vote can be taken, since we have a representative form of a Republic. As a nation of laws, we are obligated as a nation to follow the results of the vote. No more “getting around” the vote — we follow the vote. Is that fair enough?
For me it will always be the Christmas holiday. Some of my most treasured memories are of Christmas with my family. Friends have come and gone, loved ones are around me while others have passed. They still figure brightly in my memory.
I agree with Erma Bombeck: “There is nothing sadder in this world than to awake Christmas morning and not be a child.”
Or at least be able to celebrate Christmas with a child.
Swickard is a weekly columnist for this site. You can reach him at michael@swickard.com.
Swickard bio │ Archives │ Feed