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Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays

By Julianne Nelson

Everybody knows it takes a long time to rebuild bridges.

When the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis went down in August 2007, planning for a new bridge began within a few days of the collapse. But it took over a year of painstaking work to rebuild it.

Often, when something gets broken, it takes a lot of time and a fair amount of work to fix it.

Many Christians in the United States believe that Christmas has gotten fairly broken. That is, people's perception of Christmas is broke. It has become so much about retailers making money that the deep, real meaning of Christmas has gotten badly strained, and is near collapse.

Of course, we Christians are right up there at the front of the lines for the 50 percent off, day-after-Thanksgiving, open at 4 a.m. sales, thank you very much. But when we get up to the register and slide our debit card through, we certainly want to be greeted with "Merry Christmas," not "Happy Holidays." That's the least the clerks and the store CEOs could do to salvage Christmas.

We know what Christmas is about. It's about things being so strained, so broken, that God would want to put on skin and come down here and do something about it. Which He did. And we would just feel better if those retailers showed that they knew it, too. Knew it enough to want to say it, as in "Merry Christmas."

Of course, some of the shoppers behind us in the line don't know or believe in the deep, real Christmas. And we know that the retailers want to make sure those people stay
in line and slide their debits cards through the little machine, too.

So we think, Well, we'll show you. If you won't tell our short-version Christmas story ("Merry CHRISTmas"), we will just huff and puff and blow down your big stores. We will take our debit cards and stand in a different line at a different store where they know enough not to say "Happy Holidays."

But while we run to the other store, we may forget all about the deep, real Christmas story. About things being broken that need to be fixed.

We may forget that lots of other people — some of whom don't know or believe our Christmas story — are still standing in line at the first store. And while we are worrying about them not hearing "Merry Christmas" from the clerk, we may be missing chances to
show them Merry Christmas by holding some of their bags or their screaming children. Or asking them how they're feeling because it's obvious they are pretty stressed. Or paying for one of the gifts they are holding. Or telling them we will be holding them and their families in prayer.

While we're worrying about the retailers not saying "Merry Christmas," we may be blowing up bridges on which to meet people and show them Merry Christmas. And that is probably not a good thing.

Because we all know it takes a long time to rebuild bridges.

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