<p><a href="http://www.everydaytreats.com/photos/uncategorized/charlie_brown_tree.jpg"><img alt="Charlie_brown_tree" border="0" class="image-full" src="http://www.everydaytreats.com/photos/uncategorized/charlie_brown_tree.jpg" title="Charlie_brown_tree" /></a></p>

<p>A few weeks ago we took The Boy to have his picture taken for his Christmas cards.  When it was time to choose the design the salesgirl/photographer asked what kind of border I would like.  </p>

<p>&quot;A Christmas one, please.&quot;</p>

<p>She then flipped through a few blue and white Chanukah cards and some brown and gold Kwaanza cards until she got to what she was looking for.</p>

<p>&quot;Here they are!&quot;  She then showed me many, many cards with the words &quot;Season&#39;s Greetings&quot;, &quot;Happy Holidays&quot;, &quot;Holiday Greetings&quot; and multiple variations thereof.</p>

<p>&quot;Um, thanks but this is not what I&#39;m looking for.  I need some Christmas cards.&quot;</p>

<p>She looked confused.  &quot;But these <i>are</i> the Christmas cards.&quot;</p>

<p>&quot;No, these are generic &#39;Holiday&#39; cards.  I&#39;m sending out Christmas cards.  Therefore, I need cards that say &#39;Merry Christmas&#39;.  I&#39;m sure you understand.&quot;</p>

<p>She looked at me like if I had suddenly turned into Pat Robertson.  Yes, she thought I was crazy.  I&#39;m scared of <a href="http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7027/quotes.html" title="Pat">Pat</a> <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9995578/" title="Robertson">Robertson</a> too, but all I wanted was a Christmas card.  That is not so strange, methinks, at this time of year.</p>

<p>Finally she found two cards that met my criteria.  One said &quot;Feliz Navidad&quot; which would be fine since I speak Spanish, but since not everyone we know does I wanted a card in English.  I&#39;m crazy like that.  There was ONE card that said &quot;Merry Christmas&quot;.  I counted at least 3 different versions of Kwaanza cards and I don&#39;t know how many that clearly said &quot;Happy Channukah&quot; but finding a true blue Christmas card is near impossible.  And that is sad.    </p>

<p>People, I understand why sometimes one has to use the phrases &quot;Season&#39;s Greetings&quot; or &quot;Happy Holidays&quot;, I really do.  Sometimes you want to wish everybody to be happy during the holidays (all of them).  That&#39;s why I don&#39;t care if Target wishes me a Happy Holiday or not.  The problem I have with people using those phrases interchangeably with Christmas alone is that they are intentionally vague and empty.  And I think one of the reasons people get so depressed around this time is that they are going through a lot of effort for something that has no meaning.  &quot;Winter greetings?&quot;  Who gives a shit!  What most of us are celebrating is not <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;lr=&amp;safe=off&amp;oi=defmore&amp;defl=en&amp;q=define:holiday" title="time off from work">time off from work</a>, it&#39;s Christmas!  You can say it!  It doesn&#39;t make you a fundamentalist; if <a href="http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/happychr.htm" title="John Lennon">John Lennon</a> can say it, so can you.  </p>

<p>All I&#39;m saying is that if you are buying presents, putting up a tree, stringing lights, listening to carols and sending out cards - I&#39;ve got news for you, the &#39;Holiday&#39; you are celebrating has a name.  It&#39;s Christmas.</p>

<p>FYI - I&#39;m a liberal.  I live in Boston, read the New York Times and I think Bill O&#39;Reilly is a pompous fake.  But I still wish more people had the courage to call holidays by their proper names.  </p>

<p>Tag: <a href="http://technorati.com/tag/Christmas" rel="tag">Christmas</a></p>
