I'm trading "Merry CHRISTmas" for "Happy Holidays", and you should too.

So, I was walking around our local Fred Meyers and much to my surprise, found myself in an aisle of twinkly lights, green garlands and fat little snowmen. You would think I would have been instantly filled with the “Christmas Spirit” and gone all buck wild buying every cute fake snow covered decoration in sight. Seeing how I myself was born on Christmas, and I have a genetic disposition to freak out over anything Christmas related. (If you never got the chance to meet my mother, let me help you understand that last sentence. For starters we had a sign above our door all year round that said “Every Day is Christmas Eve”. And every Thanksgiving we decorated more than we cooked. We wrapped every single picture in our house with jolly St. Nick and Christmas planning started around August.) Anyways, so given those statistics you would think I would be prancing around ringing jingle bells and throwing fake snowflakes at you when I saw Christmas in October.

I’ll admit, there was a little bit of jingle belling and fake snow throwing, but mostly I just was filled with dread.

I dread the “Keep Christ in Christmas” posts that are bound to fill my news feed.

I dread the bumper stickers, picket signs, and sweaters telling me that Jesus is the reason for the season.

I dread the war Christians will wage on those they believe are waging a war on Christmas.

I know I probably sound like quite the Scrooge right now but, hear me out.

Friends, let me reassure you that Jesus is not a wimp. He’s not sitting up in heaven with a blankey and a tissue because more people are saying “Happy Holidays” than “Merry Christmas”. He doesn't need to be defended. He needs to be preached. I have a hard time believing that Jesus is at all concerned with which particular phrase we choose to greet others with. I bet he’s a bit more concerned with the way His Name is being tossed around so flippantly, and albeit a tad hatefully.

I totally understand the deep seeded desire to make Jesus known. I’m not knocking your intention, I’m simply knocking your means. See, we can so easily distract ourselves with “Keeping Christ in Christmas” and making sure others know “He’s the reason for the season” and barking a punitive “Merry Christmas” to every “Happy Holiday” say-er that just happens to cross our path,  that we completely miss Jesus.

I think some of you have genuinely forgotten that there is more than one holiday in the month of December. There’s Hanukah, Kwanza, Festivus, Ashura, Yom Kippur and I’m sure a few others that I’m missing. But the point is that December is not solely designated as "Christmas Month", it’s a host to many different holidays, celebrated by many different people, in many different ways.

Also, I think we forget that Jesus wasn’t actually born on December 25th.  And if you go back and look at it our Christmas holiday origin is not a very Christian one. The trees, the lights, the stocking, the whole shebang; all has very pagan beginnings. But somewhere down the road we decided we would take it and make it our own, designating it as the day to celebrate the birth of our Savior. And to do so we would spend a destructive amount of money on superficial things, hang little lights on our roof and devour as many candy canes and cinnamon flavored beverages as possible. Because after all, Jesus is the reason for the season and nothing says Jesus quite like a candy cane.

I guess I can't speak for everyone, but personally I don’t love Jesus anymore this month than I do any other month. I don’t want to share him any more on the 24 days leading up to Christmas than I do the rest of the year. Because, honestly Jesus is the reason for all seasons. Not just the jingle bell and candy cane one.

Let me ask you a question. When the poor girl at Target who rings you up offers you a “Happy Holidays!” because that’s what her boss requires her to say, and you squak a gruff “It’s Merry CHRISTmas”. Are you trying to reach her heart for Jesus or are you trying to make a point? Because seriously? She knows now that you're a Christian, but what kind of Jesus are you really showing her? A loving one? A gentle one? A gracious one? I'm afraid if you didn't answer yes to any of those, then you're unfortunately not showing her the Jesus of the Bible.

So I'm going to say Happy Holidays to those that say it to me. Because I don’t want to make a point. I want to reach people for Jesus. I want to show them His love through patience, gentleness, kindness, forbearance and self control. I don’t want to be a defender of Christmas, I want to be an ambassador for Christ. I don’t want to be Jesus’ body guard, I just want to be his hands and feet.


So with that, Happy (early) Holidays my friends.