Would “Seasonal Candle-holder” or “Minority Table” be a good and less-offensive replacement for “Menorah” and “Kinara”? Would they make the people who don’t celebrate either Chanukah or Kwanzaa feel better? Would we all have a holiday season filled with less ignorance and more harmonious understanding of each other’s cultural and religious identifications?
No. We’d just have two more awkward names for things that mean something to people.
A little late on the bandwagon, Mark? Yes, but blame Farmville.
Macy’s started it, and everyone whose ears I had access to at the age of 14 when this report/controversy/thing came out got to hear my two cents. Now Farmville’s bringing it back with a pretty little lighted shrub they dub the “holiday tree”. Which isn’t a big deal, and everyone who bought one probably said “Christmas tree” in their head. No big.
Now there are two ways of looking at this, and I like my mugs half-filled [with egg nog]: 1 – ”Holiday” has taken on the meanings of Christmas, and now they’re interchangeable. 2 (the sad one) – People are forgetting about Christmas and seasonal ambiguity is creating a “Enjoy your December 25th!” attitude.
The latter’s way to extreme for me. I like the former. Merry Christmas!
