Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! What to say? Which is appropriate? Does what we say depend on where we are or who we are with? The culture wars are everywhere. Christians want to honor Jesus birth as the reason for the season. Someone says “Happy Holidays” and we throw a “Merry Christmas” back at them like a spear to pierce their ignorance. Peace? Love? Joy to the world? Not hardly. 

Listen, it matters less than you think. Merry Christmas contains the idea that the day is about Jesus’ birth, and that it is a time for good cheer. Happy Holidays acknowledges that the season is “Holy”, and that it is a time for happiness. Both the secular and the Christian seasons have love and family as themes, both involve gifts and remembrances. While it’s true that the secular celebrations do not give notice to Jesus’ birth, the spirit of love and joy and giving is common to both ways of observing the season. That’s not really all bad.

This is a season to love lavishly, to experience a joy that transcends prettily wrapped presents, and to get wrapped up in mystical world where an unmerited Gift is bestowed by an unseen hand.

So when I say Merry Christmas, my wish for you is less about trees and tinsel and expensive gifts, but much more about the greatest gift; of a tiny babe who is the Savior, the Good News, the best news. That you should be happy during these holiest of days is a wish that Christ’s love would be poured out into your life.

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

Luke 2:10-14 ESV