Bah humbug!
Merry Christmas to our friends, colleagues, clients, suppliers and contributors. Thanks for all the help, support and confidence during 2014 – here’s hoping next year is even better.
Of course, a Spoon Media blog post wouldn’t be traditional without a bit of a work-related banter, and what better time to be traditional than good old Christmas?
Yes, that’s Christmas. Not Xmas. Not the holiday season. Not the mid-winter religious festival…
Happy holidays!
No. Just no. We’re in the UK, a nation built on its history and entwined with tradition. We may or may not practise religion, but if we celebrate a Christian festival we can at least give allegiance to our ancestors and admit our ancient customs allow today’s tendencies to eat, drink, be merry and cripple ourselves with credit card debt.
Yet we’re infected by a creeping, misguided political correctness that’s trying to prise us from our conventions and banish innocent words from our vocabularies.
Apologetic English middle classes are afraid to use the C-word in case it offends worshippers of non-Christian religions; at best that stinks of naivety and ignorance; at worst a simmering sense of racism against those whose opinions they’re condescendingly attempting to interpret.
Local authorities are particular culprits. As The Telegraph recently highlighted, many British councils send out dismal excuses for Christmas cards, afraid to mention anything remotely religious.
Season’s greetings are one thing. Happy holidays is just a pathetic expression. Okay, so it’s fair enough in America where senders are referring to the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. But if you’re wishing happy holidays to someone in Britain, ask yourself if you’re really talking about Christmas, or are you in fact hoping they have a great time getting hammered in Fuerteventura?
Abandoning the word Christmas in fear of alienating a few is a sure way to lose the support of many loyal customers. As branding specialist Paul Jankowski points out, it’s not about pushing religion, it’s about understanding the value it plays in consumers’ lives.
It’s not unusual for the public to steer clear of firms that reject their values, but no one’s going to dismiss your company for being a God-bothering corporation if you simply say, “Happy Christmas.”
Is Xmas ex-Christmas?
We know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking we’re about to mock the word Xmas because it’s a modern, politically-correct excuse for ejecting religious connotations from a Christian festival.
Well we’re not. Because it’s not.
The word Xmas has been kicking around the English language longer than the BBC’s been bothering us with Christmas reruns of Morecambe and Wise. Indeed, its use dates back to the 1500s, when the symbol X was used to signify Christ.
So while it appears to be a recent abbreviation that’s taking the Christ out of Christmas, the reverse is actually true.
Yes, it fits neatly on greetings cards and shop window displays. And yes it looks like lazy text-speak. But that’s not why we object to Xmas.
We object because it looks rubbish and it sounds rubbish. And we don’t do rubbish.
Fairy muff
Is it an angel or a fairy? Is it a shiny star? Is it a bird or is it a plane? Does it really matter what’s atop your tree, as long as it’s festive and sparkly?
You could argue in favour of a star because it’s a religious symbol for a Christian festival – the Star of Bethlehem.
Likewise, you could assert that the winged woman hovering over your Christmas tree isn’t in fact a fairy, but is actually an angel – used to represent the angel Gabriel who announced Jesus’s birth to a bunch of shepherds 2014 years ago.
Then again, you could also argue that it’s neither angelic nor ladylike to perch in public with a fir up your skirt and its tip tickling your backside.
Just saying, like…
Hark the Harold angel
Jingling bells, toothless Irishmen and a kids’ chorus adding backing vocals to John Lennon – all Christmas sounds to treasure.
But we’re a wordy bunch at Spoon Media, and we love listening to the lyrics in every song. Even better when people get them wrong…
Check out this list of misheard Christmas lyrics.
Posted by Dan.