"The Holiday Season"

Well, we've had Thanksgiving



and now we're speeding toward Christmas so it is officially "The Holiday Season."

I'm starting a campaign to differentiate between "The Holiday Season" and Christmas. You see, at some point a religious holiday (Christmas) became a secular holiday. People call this secular holiday "Christmas" but I really wish they wouldn't. I'm lobbying to call it "The Holiday Season" and leave it at that.

"The Holiday Season" is about obligation. Participants are obliged to feel festive when they, in actuality, are stressed. They must decorate their house when it is just too cold to be standing on a ladder, clipping lights to the eaves. "The Holiday Season" celebrants must buy many, many presents to give to each other. They must bake, even if they are not people who like to bake. Or are good at baking. During "The Holiday Season", they must send out festive holiday cards to family, friends, and acquaintances. All of this could really be summed up as follows: "The Holiday Season" is about doing our bit for the economy. Toy stores, supermarkets, and the post office benefit greatly during "The Holiday Season."

And I am not begrudging the retailers this surge in profits! I like "The Holiday Season"! I bake treats and wrap gifts and trim a tree and send cards



and join in all the jolly holiday fun going on around me. I like it!

But I wish we wouldn't call it Christmas. I wish we could reserve "Christmas" for that one day in the year, arbitrarily assigned to December 25, when Christians remember the advent of the Christ child: He who came into the world to seek and to save the lost.

Yes, I am (mostly) enjoying "The Holiday Season". But my heart is longing for Christmas.