Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas
Yo, what's up guys, It's Kai, coming at you again with another media blog. This week I was reading an article about the New Hallmark Channel Hanukkah movies, when I came across a term I hadn't seen in nearly a year. "The War on Christmas." The article was written by a Jewish woman and she was talking about a tree that was put up in her town being called a holiday tree. She, and many of her Jewish counterparts, did not actually like this new name. Are you surprised? Im not.
Recently I also saw a CGP Grey video showing that the people native to the continental United States preferred being called American Indian, or just Indian, over Native American. The reason that they don't like Native American? Over-inclusivity. It is the same situation here. The Jewish population felt that the renaming of the Christmas Tree to Holiday Tree was pandering to them, and they don't want to be pandered to. When I spoke with some Jewish people in downtown on Saturday, they said that this special treatment put the "benevolent Christians" above the Jews. This kind of sounds like the White Savior Industrial Complex, with those with power so graciously giving concessions to those without it. Many of them Also said that when people said "Happy Holidays," they felt that it was the same kind of pandering.
When I went into an In-n-Out to get lunch, the high schooler taking my order said "Happy holidays, may I take your order." Its a pretty generic statement, and I would have responded by saying "Thank you, happy holidays, I'll take a number 1 animal style." But since I had had the interactions with the Jewish people in downtown earlier that day, I decided to try something different. "Thank you, merry Christmas, I'll take the number 1 animal style." Did you catch the difference, because the girl taking my order certainly did. I could feel that I had created some tension simply by saying "Merry Christmas" rather than the "more accepting" Happy Holidays.
Overall, I think we should say "Merry Christmas." Even if we feel that we are helping the marginalized Jewish population, those whom we are "helping" find it patronizing. If the whole point of using Happy Holidays instead was to be more sensitive, and we are actually coming off as insensitive, then we should go back to simply saying Merry Christmas. That's all for this one, be sure to check out my other media blogs. As always, catch y'all next time!
War on Christmas/Hanukkah movie review: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/opinion/hallmark-movies-christmas-hanukkah.html
CGP Grey video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh88fVP2FWQ
Recently I also saw a CGP Grey video showing that the people native to the continental United States preferred being called American Indian, or just Indian, over Native American. The reason that they don't like Native American? Over-inclusivity. It is the same situation here. The Jewish population felt that the renaming of the Christmas Tree to Holiday Tree was pandering to them, and they don't want to be pandered to. When I spoke with some Jewish people in downtown on Saturday, they said that this special treatment put the "benevolent Christians" above the Jews. This kind of sounds like the White Savior Industrial Complex, with those with power so graciously giving concessions to those without it. Many of them Also said that when people said "Happy Holidays," they felt that it was the same kind of pandering.
When I went into an In-n-Out to get lunch, the high schooler taking my order said "Happy holidays, may I take your order." Its a pretty generic statement, and I would have responded by saying "Thank you, happy holidays, I'll take a number 1 animal style." But since I had had the interactions with the Jewish people in downtown earlier that day, I decided to try something different. "Thank you, merry Christmas, I'll take the number 1 animal style." Did you catch the difference, because the girl taking my order certainly did. I could feel that I had created some tension simply by saying "Merry Christmas" rather than the "more accepting" Happy Holidays.
Overall, I think we should say "Merry Christmas." Even if we feel that we are helping the marginalized Jewish population, those whom we are "helping" find it patronizing. If the whole point of using Happy Holidays instead was to be more sensitive, and we are actually coming off as insensitive, then we should go back to simply saying Merry Christmas. That's all for this one, be sure to check out my other media blogs. As always, catch y'all next time!
War on Christmas/Hanukkah movie review: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/opinion/hallmark-movies-christmas-hanukkah.html
CGP Grey video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh88fVP2FWQ
Wowzers!
ReplyDeleteAs a Jewish boy myself, I can appreciate your analysis of the situation. Though, I do believe this marginalizing vs pandering debate won't receive such an easy conclusion in all households. I think this 'War on Christmas' being brought up now is interesting because the "did you assume my gender" joke/problem passed less than a year ago! (our generation is so wonderfully creative!)
Either way, I think in America, 'the cultural melting pot,' we'll face many more struggles similar to this one....
maybe go check out my last blog post?
As a Jewish boy myself, I can appreciate your analysis of the situation. Though, I do believe this marginalizing vs pandering debate won't receive such an easy conclusion in all households. I think this 'War on Christmas' being brought up now is interesting because the "did you assume my gender" joke/problem passed less than a year ago! (our generation is so wonderfully creative!)
ReplyDeleteEither way, I think in America, 'the cultural melting pot,' we'll face many more struggles similar to this one....
maybe go check out my last blog post?
Facts. No jewish kid wants a group of catholic six year olds to sing the dreidel song to them because of inclusivity. We be fine with jingle bells!
ReplyDeleteYou talked to me about this in Spanish class earlier today but I get what you're saying a lot more now that I've read your post. I'm not Jewish at all but I found your ideas to be insightful. My take on it is that naming a tree the "holiday tree" is just trying too hard to be inclusive. My reasoning for this is that everyone knows that decorating a tree with ornaments is a Christmas tradition. Naming it a "holiday tree" is not effective since we are all surrounded by Christmas already in media regardless of our religious practices.
ReplyDelete