Categories
folly ideological culture

Trick-​or-​Merry Christmas?

So I’m sitting in Starbucks for a few hours, waiting for my youngest to emerge from a concert. I like Starbucks. Good coffee — at least “good enough,” though pricey. Good wireless Internet — at least good enough … and for free.

But, ’tis the season — the “Christmas Season,” if a tad early. And “the war against Christmas” season, too.

The brouhaha about the new seasonal red Starbucks cups has “gone viral,” but I’m pretty sure there’s more haha than brew here. We so feed off of taking offense, and (by extension) ridiculing others who have taken, or given, offense, that the current cultural tempest in a chai tea cup is more meta than earnest.

In case you haven’t seen it, a putative Christian man, vertically misusing his smart phone camera, records how he got around Starbucks’s alleged “anti-​Christmas” policy, not by boycotting the coffee but by offering his name as “Merry Christmas,” thus forcing Starbucks employees to write the words on his red cup and say the allegedly prohibited greeting (one Starbucks website promises a future “Christmas blend”).

Funny? Sort of.

He misfired early, though.

Starbucks has never sported the words “Merry Christmas” on its seasonal cup, and this year’s design is minimal and elegant, red with the company’s green logo. Hardly worth a complaint, in my view, and I haven’t met anyone who thinks the cup is worth getting all riled up about.

As for “forcing” baristas to say the words, well, just how Christmas‑y is that? Plus, it’s not Christmas yet. It is not even Thanksgiving.

Happy mid-​November. This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.


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Categories
ideological culture too much government

The Christmas on War

There’s a war on Christmas, I’m told. But I say, “Let’s declare Christmas on war.”

After all, Christmas is about giving, while war is about breaking and taking. Christmas is about love, about celebrating life. War is about hatred and counting the dead.

Thankfully, nobody’s actually being killed in the many very un-​merry public Christmas controversies.

Just joy.

Who’s at fault for this clash of Christmas trees against Festivus poles made of beer cans and Nativity scenes versus symbols to Satan?

Whoever turned their Christmas over to government, that’s who.

Don’t governments have enough to do, and a difficult enough time doing it? Who had the bright idea of letting politicians run Christmas?

Let’s not vote on it.

We can and should stand on our own feet, celebrating Christmas on our own property, at our own churches, civic clubs, businesses, wherever, and at our own cost, carrying our best Christmas cheer into the public arena, but without asking for any public assistance or subsidy for our holiday.

They can’t declare war on Christmas if we keep the peace of Christmas by not giving even the merest piece of it to government.

What’s more, what a great gift should this attitude last past the season and be more widely applied. How many other controversies could be changed from wars — on drugs or poverty or what-​have-​you — to challenges increasingly addressed by peaceful private — and voluntary community — action.

This is Common Sense. Merry Christmas. I’m Paul Jacob.