Recently, an atheist group put up a billboard depicting the birth of Christ. Here is what it said:
“You KNOW it’s a Myth. This season, celebrate REASON!”
And although these particular atheists used the grammar yell, ALL CAPS, I’ve personally had a good experience with atheists I’ve met through Stuff Christians Like. I feel like Hemant Mehta, the Friendly atheist, has been a good friend over the last year and he is constantly sending folks here to read posts he is curious about. Michael, our resident atheist, has started a lot of good conversations in the comments of SCL and he honestly shares what he believes but asks great questions too.
I don’t have an issue with solid dialog between Christians and atheists, but there is something funny in that billboard. It’s the phrase, “celebrate REASON!” That’s a weird combination of words. I think even my atheist friends would admit that a “reason party,” doesn’t sound very fun. No one in the history of parties has ever said, “Ain’t no party like a reason party, cause a reason party don’t stop.” No one has ever yelled, “The reason, the reason, the reason’s on fire, we don’t need no water …” (I had to stop right there. I’d get some unpleasant emails otherwise.)
But I understand putting that phrase on an atheist billboard. Reason is what they are all about that. That makes sense, but the truly weird morphing of Christmas is happening somewhere else. Somewhere a little unexpected. I’m talking about Office Christmas Parties.
A friend of mine pointed out the evolution a company I used to work for was going through. They were de-deifying the holiday. How? Well, a few years ago they had a “Christmas party.” The year after that, they had a “Holiday party.” This year? He told me they are holding, an “End of year party.”
I really don’t know where you go from there. That’s pretty devoid of anything remotely religious. It reminds me of the time my sister’s elementary school made her change the lyrics to Winter Wonderland. In the verse about getting married by “Parson Brown,” they had to instead say they were getting married by a “Happy Clown.” That’s not confusing at all, happy clowns go around performing marriages all the time. That makes perfect sense.
I like saying Merry Christmas. That is the phrase I prefer. I’m not going to be antagonistic if someone says “Happy Holiday” though. Correcting someone’s holiday phrase is a fairly ironic way to show your Christmas spirit.
How about you? What is your company calling the party this year?
Do you say Merry Christmas or Happy Holiday, or the safe alternative, “I think it might snow today?”
