Pupils with teacher in Santa hats giving thumbs up By JackF/stock.adobe.com
On Friday, First Lady Jill Biden hosted the annual White House Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots campaign. She greeted everyone with “Happy Holidays,” to which multiple children shouted back emphatically, “Happy Christmas!”
Mrs. Biden then replied, “Happy Christmas. Yes!” and concluded her remarks with, “Merry Christmas and happy holidays.”
Why do we wish people a “Happy Birthday”?
My purpose is not to offer yet another commentary calling on our secularized culture to stop wishing each other “Happy Holidays” in a season that has been traditionally focused on Christ and Christmas. Even though such a call would be historically appropriate, I think there is an even deeper issue at work here.
Let’s start with a question: Why do we wish outcomes for people that neither they nor we can actually bring to pass?
We wish them a “Happy Birthday,” but the happiness of their birthday is less in their control than those who will (or will not) remember and celebrate their birth. Wishing them “Happy Holidays” is similarly unlikely to make them happier in any significant way.
In part, we do so simply to convey good wishes. To the degree that we think our words are actually changing reality, we feel empowered by speaking them.
Of course, being wished a “Happy Birthday” does make us feel recognized and appreciated, which can add to the happiness of the day. However, the effect is less so for other holidays.
Standing for our faith
I think something else is at work in this cultural phenomenon, a factor with significance far beyond the Christmas season.
On one hand, many who wish others “Happy Holidays” are being tolerant of all religions and worldviews in a way our postmodern culture requires and appreciates. The other person may be a nonbeliever, a Jew or Muslim, or someone who simply doesn’t want to participate in observing Christmas. Perhaps they lost a loved one during the season and experience Christmas as a time of grief rather than joy.
Not to “impose” Christmas on them is therefore experienced as a sign of understanding and tolerance appreciated by our post-Christian culture.
On the other hand, many who wish others “Merry Christmas” are standing up for their Christian beliefs in a way our faith requires and appreciates. We are taught by word and example to make public our commitment to Christ whenever and however possible (cf. 1 Peter 3:15–16; Matthew 28:19). Calling out “Merry Christmas” feels like the least we can do to stand for Christ and against the relativism at war with our worldview and its commitments.
Cultural warriors or cultural missionaries?
In my view, both positions are right—and wrong.
“Happy Holidays” relativists are right in that more people than ever have no religious commitment and do not see Christmas as anything other than a secular holiday. “Merry Christmas” advocates are right in that standing publicly for Christ is even more urgent in a post-Christian culture that desperately needs to hear and respond to the gospel.
However, “Happy Holidays” relativists are wrong in secularizing what has been the Christian tradition of Christmas for many centuries. If they did the same with Hanukkah or Ramadan, Jews and Muslims would be justified in protesting. And “Merry Christmas” advocates are wrong if we respond to secularists in an antagonistic spirit that is more likely to alienate them than attract them to Jesus.
As I often say, we are not cultural warriors for whom the other side is evil but cultural missionaries for whom the other side is someone for whom Jesus died.
“The duty of every Christian”
The best approach, I think, is to wish others “Merry Christmas” with the humble grace that makes public our faith but without an antagonistic spirit that seeks to impose it on others. It is then a statement affirming our commitment to Christ that seeks to mirror his compassion.
The best way to make our wish a reality is to pray for the person with whom we are speaking and then seek an opportunity to share the Christ of Christmas. After all, our words will quickly be forgotten, but the spirit in which we share them, if led by the Spirit, can plant seeds of truth that change souls for eternity.
The greeting we use makes my point.
- “Merry” is derived from the Proto-Germanic murgijaz, meaning “short-lasting.” The current sense comes from the notion of “something so pleasant that it makes the time fly.”
- “Christmas” shortens the medieval phrase “Christ’s mass,” referring to worship services held to celebrate Jesus’ birth.
Taken together, we are pointing to the brief annual remembrance of Jesus’ birthday, hoping the person we greet will then meet the One whose birth we celebrate, experience the “new birth” for themselves (John 3:3), and be changed for all eternity (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Martin Luther stated,
“It is the duty of every Christian to be Christ to his neighbor.”
Will you do your “duty” today?
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