Christmas offensive?

Question

Why does it offend people when someone says Christmas? That is how the whole holiday started.. with Christ.

Answer 1

Merry Christmas!!!

I'm certainly not offended!

I find it ironic that it's not politically correct to mention Jesus, but I'm not offended if someone says Happy Hannukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever. I also find it curious that people who don't believe in Christ are still more than happy to celebrate with their tree & gifts or at the very least take the day off from work.

Meanwhile I have to work Christmas day dayshift! (Which sucks but it's the nature of the job. There are no holidays here. I work New Year's Eve nightshift too. Whoopee.)

Oh well. People are funny. Go figure. I remember one Good Friday my sister's hubby at the time was complaining because she was wasting the day off by going to church. Hellooooooo! Why do you think you have the day off dumbaS$?! Jesus was nailed to a cross that's why you're not going to work, though you don't even believe!

Whatever.

December 25th is Christ's birthday, or at least the day that was elected by the Roman Catholic Church to celebrate his birth. It's not about Santa & reindeer & trees & pretty ornaments & commercialism & gifts. While these things may be fun or nice they detract from the real meaning of Christmas. A baby born in a manger in Bethlehem. Jesus coming into the world to save us...

Answer 2

I doubt there's anyone who is offended by the word "Christmas". I seriously doubt it. This looks like political propaganda garbage.

I imagine some people are offended when someone wishes them Merry Christmas, because they're Jewish or Muslim or Hindu and the other person ought to know this by now. This might happen at work or something. But this is just sort of a social faux pas, like when you assume that a lawyer is male or that a nurse is female. It's a matter of minor social norms and nothing more.

Here is where you have department stores, who want to keep customers coming back, saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". This is just so they can get more people buying stuff at their store.

People will certainly object when the government's involvement with Christmas starts looking suspicious. Sometimes there are these conservative Christians who are convinced that the US is essentially Christian, and they try to make Christianity the officially recognized dominant and superior religion. This isn't just hysteria: look at Roy Moore in Alabama. Often Christmas-related stuff is only an issue because of this Christianity-is-#1 segment of the population.

And then you get people overreacting in response to that and the whole thing becomes polarized, with some non-Christians making a big deal out of Christmas stuff on public land. You also get clueless administrators and principals who are trying to handle the delicate issue and stay within the law, but are too boneheaded to know what is and is not legally OK. So they tell kids not to sing Christmas songs at talent shows, and stuff like that.

Then you get right-wing media circulating horror stories about the "War on Christmas", 90% of which are completely made up. These stories then get forwarded around by morons, often as attachments to emails.

The whole thing is completely stupid. All the ceremonial side of government seems idiotic to me anyway, so I'd just as soon get rid of national holidays and decorated city halls and the like, and just make all this nonsense go away.

Answer 3

Some people get offended because they aren't Christians. Non-Christians don't always want to be forced to celebrate a religious holiday that doesn't fit their beliefs or their religion. Also, elaborate winter celebrations and festivities during this time of the season were being done long before Jesus Christ was ever born. Some resent that the Christians came along and usurped the rowdy secular celebrations for religious purposes, just a way to gain control over the masses. Christians chose this time of year to celebrate the birth of Jesus specifically to change the wild secular celebrations into religious ones. Historians usually agree that careful investigation reveal that Jesus's birthday wasn't in the winter at all, but I forget when it was.

Answer 4

Not offended, It has been Christmas for centuries and brings to my mind, many happy memories of a time past. Christmas is from the Old English words Cristes moesse "the mass of festival of Christ". The first celebration took place in Rome around the middle of the fourth century. The exact date of the Nativity or birth of Yeshua of Nazareth is not known, but even in pre-Christian times the period from December 25th to January 6th (the Twelve Days of Christmas) were considered a special time of year in which to celebrate our Lord's birth. Xmas is without Christ and does not offend as more celebrate the giving of gifts and decorations than celebrate Christ in their lives. I choose to say "Merry Christmas" because it reflects my belief and concept of what Christmas should be.....that is my choice.

Answer 5

Actually, xmas did not start with Christ, it started out as a pagan holiday which was then co-opted by early xtians as a way to make pagan conversion to xtianity easier. No one actually knows when Jesus was born, though an educated guess based on astronomical data places it around August or September. And if you research the roots of all the other xtian holidays, you'll find that the dates for the great majority of them were also originally taken from pagan or other religions' holidays or festivals.

Now as to your question about why "some people" get offended when someone says xmas. Well, as it so happens, about 1 in 6 Americans--50 million of us--are NOT xtians. That means we're Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu, atheist, agnostic, wiccan, or something else. Xmas, as you and many other xtians believe, is (or at least is supposed to be) all about Christ. That means it's a xtian holiday. For the 50 million of us who aren't xtians, xmas has about as much relevance to us as Ramadan or Yom Kippur does to you, or if we do celebrate it, we do so in a purely secular manner without the religious baggage. (Actually I see many xtians who also celebrate it in a purely secular manner, but that's another topic....)

Now what I would like to know is, why do xtians get so offended when people of other faiths (or no faith) choose to make it known that xmas is not the only holiday in December, and that presuming another person to be xtian could be considered arrogant, obnoxious and insulting?

Answer 6

Wait...what "whole holiday?"

The only holiday called "Christmas" is Christmas.

Based on the peculiar wording of your question, though, I somehow get the feeling that you think Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, Diwali and all the other fall/winter holiday are based on the same event...the birth of Christ.

If this is the case, please get thyself to a search box and look up each of these holidays - and the corresponding religions - posthaste!

Answer 7

May be Christ which supposedly dwell in a lot of people not happy with hypocrisy in which his birthday celebrated?He did not ask to celebrate his birthday which comes with shopping hysteria and many more...where Christ is last to be mentioned....He ask to love your neighbor, he asked not to judge, he asked to honor his Father , not Him....is any of it done within Christianity, which by the way he never invented., and never asked to create .?????... Being offended indicate very unhappiness...Do you think Christ would be happy being trapped within his "followers"?

Answer 8

I thought you were going to ask about a military offensive in Iraq or Iran or something, my bad...

Answer 9

Shut up.
It's December 3rd.
You'll have your day.

Answer 10

oh no, you said christmas. don't say christmas. shi* I said christmas.