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Christmas card debate misses point
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by Gobinder Gill |
Columns
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Last week I attended a company's monthly meeting. One of the agenda items was to discuss plans for Christmas celebrations. The big question was whether the company should do "anything special" at all. The questions of course refers (partly) to whether we would send Christmas cards out to clients and associates, a decision many organizations seem to have been grappling with in the last several years.
As for me, I am impartial on whether or not to send cards at Christmas time. Personally, I stopped doing it years ago. But before I had a chance to say anything, a colleague jumped to the conclusion on my behalf, reminding everyone that we should not risk offending someone by sending Christmas cards since many people are not Christians, and don't celebrate the holiday season as "we" do. Others at the meeting added that for the past several years, the company has been sending out greeting cards replacing "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays."
This kind of logic really eludes me. Instead of not celebrating Christmas altogether, why not make a point that we also celebrate, or are mindful of, other non-Christian festivities such as Hanukkah, which falls just days before Christmas. I am sure many readers will remember Richmond's "Christmas tree incident" a few years back, when newcomers were blamed for the political decision to discontinue having a Christmas tree displayed at City Hall. (I should admit that I never even noticed a Christmas tree at Richmond's city hall).
I have been puzzled about how and where we got the ideas that (a) newcomers or visible-minorities (who are seen as newcomers) are all non-Christians; (b) newcomers or visible-minorities do not celebrate Christmas; (c) newcomers are necessarily offended by what we do with our personal lives; and (d) those who carry out the rituals associated with Christmas are all Christians.
The most intriguing of all has to be how public and private organizations are now becoming so conscientious about not offending anyone, but only in Christmas time. All of a sudden we have become inclusive, thoughtful of "the others" in our midst. Instead of losing sleep over superficial things like Christmas cards, why don't we expend some of our resources towards improving our services so that everyone, Christians or not, will benefit.
Let's be realistic, will a newcomer to this country really be offended if you send them a Christmas card?
