'A Festivus for the Rest of Us'

I've heard a lot over the past few days that we should be offended if anyone tells us 'Happy Holidays'. I heard James Dobson explaining how he corrects people when they tell him, 'Happy Holidays' by telling them, 'You can do even better. How about Merry Christmas'?

I know the intentions are good. All believers want Christ as the center of Christmas and the phrase, 'Merry Christmas' is an easy place to start because 96% of all Americans celebrate Christmas and are not offended by the phrase in any way. But, what do we really communicate by saying, 'Merry Christmas'? For most, Christmas is food, presents and a little time away from the office. If we really want to keep Christ as the center of Christmas maybe we should look into something radical like Festivus.

The whole idea of Festivus is to fight against the real enemy of the true meaning of Christmas, commercialism. One of Dobson's main bone's of contention with, 'Happy Holidays' is that stores like Macy's make millions of dollars on Christmas and than refuese to say the word, Christmas. Why not reverse that? Macy's could say to us that one of their problems with Christianity is that we say Christ should be at the center of Christmas and than spend more money in two weeks buying presents for people who have everything they need than we spend helping the poor all year long. What does that communicate about how central Jesus is, not just to our holiday, but to our lives?

If we are going to hold non-believing store employees to a high standard of keeping Christ in the center of our holiday let's also look at our own lives and hold ourselves to a high standard of keeping Christ in the center of our lives all year long.

For a look at the Festivus craze sweeping the nation click on the picture above.