Happy Holidays from the Advocate

“Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.”

― Erma Bombeck

Holidays can be a long, drawn-out drag of two cold months spent dodging phone calls from extended relatives and tense Black Friday shopping, or it can be a truly enjoyable chain of events. If we all had an honest choice, we’re pretty sure everyone would opt for the latter. Despite all the commercialism inherent in any national event these days, there are reasons we have these days; even if we don’t celebrate specific days, any holiday stems from a testament to the human spirit. So please take what we’re about to say in the sincerest, least politically-affiliated version of the term: Happy Holidays.

Whatever your belief system is, it couldn’t hurt to restore a little faith in humanity this time of year, and while it’s optimistic to think of every day as a gift, isn’t that what we have holidays for?

Sure, the immediate celebration might boil down to something immediate, commercial and physical, like a turkey being stuffed into your face at half-time, but the initial reason we have these days is to celebrate all the days in between, or at least to remind us why we put up with some of the not-so-fun days.

And let’s be honest, no one likes January – plenty of people start it off nursing a hangover from New Year’s Eve, and end the month disappointed they’ve already quit their New Year’s resolution.

Also, daylight is a pretty cool thing, and there doesn’t seem to be too much of that lately.

Why not go out with a bang? What is a day, if nothing but a way to distinguish itself from other days? Now seems like as good a time as any.

So, whatever it is you’re celebrating this year, why not just take “Happy Holidays” at face value? Not accepting someone’s wish for a Happy Holidays  just because they don’t name your specific holiday is like turning down free money because someone didn’t sign your name on the bill.

Not that you shouldn’t have your own holidays for your beliefs; it’s just that there should be a blanket term to express a connection with humanity.

Even within your own belief system – if it is truly your own – there’s going to be some level of individuality. Just because someone is a Southern Baptist doesn’t necessarily mean they agree on every aspect of their religion with all other Southern Baptists, the same way not every Zen Buddhist interprets every aspect of Buddhism the same. No one’s beliefs are the same, because no one’s reality is the same.

Whatever gets under your skin about the holidays, and there are plenty of reasons to feel that way, one thing we do all have in common is that we’re human, and we say that’s cause enough for us to wish you a “Happy Holidays.”