It's not tattooed on the back of my neck!

It appears there is a war on Christmas and it is fought on many fronts and has new tactics each year. Someone told me the war on Christmas began when some retail chains decided to their policy of no solicitation and wouldn't let charities do their annual fund drive outside their stores. Others report that the war on Christmas happened when some companies decided to have holiday sales rather than Christmas sales in December. And I've even heard the war on Christmas is because some merchants won't wish their customers a "Merry Christmas" during the month of December. This last battle is being fought down in Texas by a large church that is placing offensive merchants on a 'naughty' list while placing stores who say "Merry Christmas" to their customers on the 'nice' list. I think I know many Christians who cringe at this response and just want to say, "Jesus needs better PR!".

I guess I am just oblivious - or I was taken as an early prisoner when I was a kid. I grew up in Central suburban New Jersey. Since childhood, I've had Yom Kippar and Rosh Hashanah off from public school along with Easter and Christmas. In grade school, we traced oak-tag patterns to cut Christmas stockings and Chanukah dreidels out of construction paper to decorate the classroom. Santa Claus came to our school and handed out candy canes to EVERYONE, even the Jewish kids! (It was our Jehovah's Witness classmates that were sent on 'errands' out of the classroom and down the hall shortly before Santa made his appearance so they wouldn't violate their church doctrine about celebrations).
In the neighboring town of Dunellen, huge wooden figures and the words "Season's Greetings" were spelled out on the town's green. In the early days of December, it was with torturous anticipation that Jim and I would beg Mom or Dad to make a detour to see if the festive elves, candy canes and Santa's sleigh was on display yet. (And until I was an Auntie, I never realized how much the driver was looking forward to seeing how much of the town was decorated).

Well, I made a major detour today to see what was on Dunellen's town square. I was disappointed to find out that the giant red wooden signs that spelled out "Season's Greetings" I remember from childhood are no longer a part of the decor....BUT I was thrilled to see that all of the parking meters in town are covered with little plastic baggies to let shoppers park for free as they shop downtown. And it wasn't because I had some shopping to do. It's because I have absolutely no problem when a merchant says to me "Have a nice holiday" as I leave their store. How is the merchant supposed to know I am a Christian and am doing my Christmas shopping? Despite what a classic Monty Python's sketch infers, my religious affiliation is not tattooed on the back of my neck. Since my brief interaction with a salesclerk is not likely to illicit a protracted conversation about what holiday I'm celebrating this month, I am not faulting the cashier or the company they work for because I am offered a generic holiday greeting that has been used since greeting cards came into style.

Don't get me wrong, I do like being wished a "Merry Christmas". And when that greeting comes from a person working in a church's gift shop or is offered by the clerk in a Christian bookstore I try to return it with as much warmth and meaning as I did when I exchanged greetings with the cashier in the secular store - because I hope we all enjoy a wonderful time celebrating time with family and friends. But when I am wished a "Merry Christmas" by the clerks who I purchase from all year long, persons with whom my purchase is more than just a random momentary encounter, "Merry Christmas" takes on a special quality, because hopefully what they know is that I am a Christian - and not because they know it is tattooed on the back of my neck - but by the person and witness to Christ I've been all year long. After all, doesn't that little song say "And they will know we are Christians by our love"?