No Fun Allowed!

Because I was tardy, here's a special Christmas Sale: Two for One today!

As I’ve written these blogs, the root of my irritation has begun to gel in my mind. While the “Merry Christmas” stuff bugs me, it’s more the symptom than the illness. Maybe I have a better handle on that now.

The problem is Christmas Spirit has been quashed. See if any of you remember this:

I recall the Christmas play at school. All the kids dress very nicely, all the parents sat on cold metal seats in the acoustically-perfect grade school gym, and both parents and children were bouncing with anticipation and smiles. The kids sang Christmas songs, which they all knew by heart, and the parents smiled and cheered despite most of the children singing off key and mispronouncing a word here and there. Afterwards, there were always Christmas cookies (nobody made “holiday cookies”), fudge, and other treats.

When you went to the stores and the malls, there were Christmas decorations everywhere…and music. In the stores, they were all cheery; employees wore Santa hats and smiled. When you checked out, each clerk smiled broadly and said “Merry Christmas!”

And, they didn’t say it mechanically, in a Ben Stein voice. They didn’t have to: they had the Christmas Spirit and it just came out of their mouths as easily as “Hello!”

Kids actually were organized in school and walked neighborhoods caroling. It was great to get a cup of hot apple cider or a cookie after singing. At every house at which the carolers sang, the occupants came outside regardless of the weather and smiled and laughed.

Now before all you young ‘uns say “OK Mark, you’re talking about the ‘olden days’ again you old fart!”, I’m not! I’m describing what my children did, 15 years ago! This is not ancient history.

The bottom line I’m getting to is this: The politically-correct crowd has done more than just purge “Merry Christmas” from our vernacular. They have purged the FUN from Christmas.

The Christmas Spirit was FUN and JOY. Now it’s just DOLLARS and CENTS.