Let Christmas be Christmas

Has political correctness gone too far?

Here s a story from Seattle, Washington where political correctness has been taken to the extreme.

Christmas trees being returned to U.S. airport after rabbi says he won't sue

Pat Davis, president of the Port of Seattle commission, which directs airport operations, said late Monday that maintenance staff would restore the 14 plastic holiday trees, festooned with red ribbons and bows, that were removed over the weekend because of a rabbi's complaint that holiday decor did not include a menorah.

Mark Flatley, of Ft. Lewis, Wash., sits near the largest Christmas tree at Sea-Tac Airport. (AP Photo/Jim Bryant)

Airport managers believed that if they allowed the addition of a 2.5-metre-tall menorah to the display, as Seattle Rabbi Elazar Bogomilsky had requested, they would also have to display symbols of other religions and cultures, which was not something airport workers had time for during the busiest travel season of the year, Airport Director Mark Reis said earlier Monday. Read the rest of the story here.

This is not the only incident were political correctness has gone too far at Christmas. A couple of weeks ago there was a letter to the editor in our local newspapper complaining that an article in the paper had refered to the strings of lights people displayed on their homes as Christmas lights. This person felt that the newspapper should refer to these lights as Holiday lights. The reason he stated was that the term Christmas should not be used because not everyone is a Christian. He felt that even those who are Christian should refer to the lights as Holiday lights!

Since that letter appeared in the papper, I have heard that many people of various religious backgrounds, Christian and non-Christian here in Canada (I am sure its similar in other Christian countries) do celebrate Christmas. They put up a tree, exchange gifts and attend Christmas parties. These non-Christians may not celebrate Christmas religiously as Christians do, but do join in the many Christmas celebrations during December with their friends both Christian and non-Christian.

It is time society took another look at political correctness concerning Christmas. What is wrong with calling Christmas Christmas? It would be just as wrong to tell the people of Jewish belief that Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) should now be called a Holiday Festival.

Here is an interesting multimedia site about the ways Chritmas has changed over the years in Canada. I suspect some of the ways Christmas has changed would be similar for the U.S. and other Western countries. A fun site. This site is found on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's archieve website. Click on the link below to visit the CBC archieves. I particulary enjoyed the excerpt from The CBC Chrstmas day broadcast of 1936, click on the link found in the timeline at the top of the page.

The Changing Face of Christmas