Timeless Wisdom - Ultimate Issues: Say Merry Christmas
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Welcome to Timeless Wisdom with Dennis Prager.
Hear thousands of hours of Dennis's lectures, courses, and classic radio programs.
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Believe it or not, this is the Ultimate Issues Hour on the Dennis Prager Show.
The third hour every Tuesday is devoted to a great issue of life.
But give us the Christmas music.
It is, after all, the last ultimate issues hour prior to Christmas.
Yes, special time of year.
And I made the argument in the first hour that no, what is this?
The third hour already.
Wow.
It goes fast.
Wow, I thought it was the second, but of course it's the third.
I made the argument that you got to take these two weeks and relax.
It's very important.
And believe me, I know about the world tensions and the domestic tensions.
I read them.
I write them.
I talk about them.
I live them.
I care about them.
But you have to, at some point, there is a reason to have holidays and holy days.
You have to take time off because next year is going to be very intense the whole year.
The future of the United States will be decided in November of 2016.
Ultimate Issues Hour, the ultimate issue is really a big issue.
People don't know how big it is.
I don't even think that many people who do say Merry Christmas to people realize how big it is.
That's why I want you to please see my column this week.
It's going, I don't know about viral, but it's extremely widely reprinted on the internet, including Real Clear Politics, which takes what it considers the most important left and right articles each day.
So you can go to National Review, Town Hall, Real Clear Politics, DennisPrager.com.
And the title that I gave it is what title?
Because they gave a different title, National Review.
Let me see.
The title that I gave it is Saying Merry Christmas is very important.
That's exactly what it is.
It is very important.
This is a huge issue.
Huge.
That's what I want the people to understand.
So I'm going to tell you why.
Let me begin by reading this to you, what I wrote.
The nearly universal change from wishing fellow Americans Merry Christmas to wishing them happy holidays is a very significant development in American life.
Proponents of happy holidays argue that it's no big deal at all, and that proponents of Merry Christmas are making a mountain out of a molehill, especially when proponents say that the substitution of happy holidays is part of a, quote, war on Christianity.
But the happy holidays advocates want it both ways.
They dismiss opponents as hysterical, while at the same time relentlessly pushing to rid America of Merry Christmas.
So then, which is it?
Is the substitution of happy holidays for Merry Christmas important or not?
The answer is obvious.
It is very important.
That's why the anti-Merry Christmas crowd has worked so hard to make this greeting a thing of the past.
And they have been extraordinarily successful.
I have been wished happy holidays by every waiter and waitress in every restaurant I have dined, by every one of the young people who welcome me when I go to the gym, by every flight attendant and pilot on every one of my flights, and by every individual I have dealt with on the phone.
When I respond, thank you, Merry Christmas, I sometimes sense that I have actually created some tension.
While many of those to whom I wish Merry Christmas may actually be happy that someone felt free to utter the C word, all the sensitivity training that they've had to undergo creates cognitive dissonance.
Christmas has also been eliminated by many, probably the majority of our elementary schools, high schools, and universities.
Thus, for example, they no longer have a Christmas vacation, but a winter vacation.
The opponents of Merry Christmas and other uses of the word Christmas know exactly what they are doing.
They are disingenuous when they dismiss defenders of Merry Christmas as fabricating some war on Christianity.
Of course it's a war on Christianity, or more precisely, a war on the religious nature of America.
The left in America, like the left in Europe, wants to create a thoroughly secular society.
Unfortunately, most people do not realize that the left believes in secularism just as fervently as religious Christians believe in Christ.
That's why Merry Christmas so bothers the anti-religious left.
It is perhaps the single most blatant reminder of just how religious America is, and it must therefore be removed from public discourse.
Here's a safe prediction.
The ACLU and other secular activists on the left will eventually move to have Christmas removed as a national holiday.
The left doesn't announce that its agenda is to thoroughly secularize America.
Instead, activists offer the multiculturalist argument that saying Christmas, as in Merry Christmas or Christmas party or Christmas vacation, is not, quote, inclusive, unquote.
This inclusiveness argument plays on Americans' highly developed sense of decency.
Most Americans don't want to gratuitously offend other Americans, so the inclusiveness argument has been effective.
But the argument is preposterous.
Who exactly is being excluded when one wishes someone Merry Christmas?
Non-Christians?
I am a non-Christian.
I am a Jew.
Christmas is therefore no more a religious holy day for me than Ramadan.
But I am an American, and Christmas is a national holiday of my country.
It is therefore my holiday, though not my holy day, as much as it is for my fellow Americans who are Christian.
Irving Berlin, an American Jew, wrote White Christmas as a celebration of an American holiday, his holiday.
By not wishing me a Merry Christmas, you are not being inclusive.
You are deliberately excluding me from one of my nation's national holidays.
But even if Christmas weren't a national holiday, I would want companies to have Christmas parties, schools to continue to have Christmas vacations, and pilots to wish their passengers Merry Christmas.
Just because I don't personally celebrate Christmas, why would I want to drop the word Christmas from public discourse when Christmas is celebrated by 90% of my fellow Americans?
It borders on the misanthropic, not to mention mean-spirited, to want to deny nearly all of your fellow citizens the joy of having their Christmas parties called Christmas parties, or to have to force them to replace Merry Christmas with happy holidays.
A majority Christian country that treats non-Christians so well deserves better.
Narcissism, misanthropy, meanness, and ingratitude.
That's what the leftist campaign against Merry Christmas and Christmas parties boils down to.
So say Merry Christmas and Christmas party.
If you don't, you're not inclusive.
You're letting the real-life Grinches win.
There we go.
I want you to have that.
I'd like you to read it at your Christmas party, at your Christmas table, I should say, celebration.
No matter what your opinion, it would provoke a very interesting discussion.
While I'm not for debating politics, I think this is a good one.
It's time to fight back.
It's one of the stupidest things, and the whole thing's fraudulent, non-inclusive.
It's a fraud.
To my fellow Jews, I have a very simple question.
Should a Jew in Israel not say Happy New Year during the Rosh Hashanah season?
After all, the Hebrew is Shanatova, good year.
So should they not say that?
After all, almost a quarter of Israel isn't Jewish.
A fifth of Israel is not Jewish.
So should they stop saying Happy New Year when a fifth of Israelis don't celebrate it personally?
Betcha, it doesn't even occur to them.
This is an American leftist invention.
Not inclusive.
If you don't say Merry Christmas to me, then you are not being inclusive.
There's nothing more inclusive than trying to bring me into your celebration.
It's like I'm not going to celebrate your birthday because it's not my birthday.
Hey, you're not inclusive.
It's not my birthday.
It's only yours.
1-8 Prager776.
This is worthy of an Ultimate Issues Hour.
It is an ultimate issue.
Please get the article and send it along.
You're listening to the Dennis Prager Show.
We continue.
1-8 Prager 7-7-6 Bye everybody This is the Ultimate Issues Hour.
Third hour every week, Tuesday, is on some great issue.
And I consider the removal of the word Christmas from the American public vocabulary to be an ultimate issue.
Absolutely.
Please read my column today saying Merry Christmas is very important.
That's the title of the column.
And it's all over the, well, it's not all over.
It's in many places on the internet.
National Review, Town Hall, Real Clear Politics, and many other places.
It's a national holiday.
Anyway, I read you the entire piece.
I'm not going to review all of the points.
I'm going to take your calls, though.
The schools no longer have Christmas vacation.
It's winter vacation and so on.
By the way, even Happy New Year.
I don't know why they say Happy New Year.
Jehovah's Witnesses don't celebrate the new year, to the best of my knowledge.
They don't celebrate birthdays.
If inclusivity is your point, then you can't say anything about anything.
Why even say happy holiday?
Not everybody is observing any holiday.
Right?
Why say that?
Inclusive.
What a totalitarian notion.
It's meaningless.
Inclusive.
If you wish me a Merry Christmas and I happen not to be Christian, how am I being excluded exactly?
Could somebody tell me that?
How am I being excluded?
Aren't you including me in your celebration?
Isn't that the nicest thing you can do?
Like everything else on the left, it's preposterous.
It's preposterous.
Birmingham, Alabama, Jonathan.
Hello, Jonathan.
Hey, how are you doing?
All right.
Thank you.
Good.
You know, Christmas is really just a celebration of the winter solstice, which is a pagan holiday that is kind of spray painted over by Christianity.
And this is constantly, you know, Christmas is constantly throw.
Is there anybody who celebrates Christmas who is celebrating the winter solstice?
Say that all the time.
Is there anyone celebrating Christmas today who is celebrating the Christmas solstice?
Excuse me, the winter solstice?
Well, it doesn't make it any less true that that's what it's about.
No, but it makes it completely irrelevant.
It's true, but irrelevant.
Well, I mean, that's just.
Why is it relevant?
Why is it relevant?
Everybody who celebrates Christmas as a religious day is not celebrating the place of the earth vis-a-vis the sun.
They are celebrating the birth of their Savior.
So why is it important to note that thousands of years ago it was the time of the winter solstice?
I'm serious.
I'm not arguing with you.
I want to know why do you think it's an important point?
Well, I mean, it's recognizing what our ancestors went through to get us here.
At one time, it was a big celebration about the harvest or whatever it was about.
I'm not a historian, but it's about something.
Why did you call to tell me that it was originally the winter solstice?
I'm not...
I'm not challenging you.
I don't understand the point of the call.
I mean, because it was stolen.
It's stolen.
It's spray-painted over by Christians.
It's not Christmas.
What does it mean?
Okay, so are you aware of the fact that virtually every biblical holiday, and I'm talking as a Jew about the Hebrew Bible, ultimately had a corresponding pagan basis?
Did you know that the whole greatness of Judaism and Christianity is to pour new wine into old bottles?
Otherwise, people wouldn't know what they're doing.
In order to wean away, do you know, for example, the greatest, I'm sure you wouldn't know, and I don't expect you to, the greatest Jewish philosopher who ever lived is Maimonides, 11th century.
And his point, he, completely Orthodox Jew, obviously, and he said, the whole reason for the sacrificial system in the Bible was to wean away people from human sacrifice.
Whether you agree or not, the point is that the greatness of elevated religion is to take traditional frameworks and fill them with moral essences.
Concentrate, you're concentrating on the bottle, whereas the point is to concentrate on the contents of the bottle.
That's all that matters.
All right, that's very important because I see that I always read comments on my pieces because I like to see maybe I made a wrong point or maybe I could make the point stronger in the next column or on the next show.
And I get this winter solstice stuff as if it means anything.
Oh, so therefore what?
So therefore America should not have Christmas?
Christians should not celebrate Christmas.
So what?
It doesn't mean anything.
Okay, 1-8 Prager, but I'm glad you called Jonathan, and I thank you for the call.
And Chaska, Minnesota, and Karen.
Hello, Karen of Choska.
Hey, there, it's Chaska.
Yeah.
Oh, I see.
Oh, one minute.
I like getting that right.
Karen of Chaska.
Yeah, this actually has more to do with your last hour, but I was listening to it in the discussion about whether or not you should tell children that Santa Claus is not real at a young age or not.
And it just struck me that you're breaking your own principle, which is tell the truth first and then give your opinion.
Right.
So you should know that my policy for your kids is if your child asks you, is Santa real, then you have to tell them the truth.
However, there are lots of questions in life that they don't ask, but you still tell them the truth.
That's right.
But you see, so I'm curious, as I point out when I do this subject each year on Santa Claus, if you read to your child Pinocchio, do you tell your child, please know Pinocchio is not real?
It's a made-up figure by the author?
Yes.
Okay, you're real.
Like I do Cinderella.
And you tell your kids there really was never a Cinderella?
I'm not aware that there ever was.
So they would be stories.
No, no, no, no, right.
Okay, so this is a story.
Santa Claus is a story.
So I would tell them the same.
It's a story.
It's not real.
No, I'm saying, before you read your kids Cinderella, you say this is not real?
I don't know if before I opened the book I would do that, but they would know at a young age that it was a story.
No, they don't know that.
That's not true.
I'll bet you they believe Cinderella lived.
But I would tell them when they were old enough to understand the difference between the truth and a story.
A story.
All right, so you would, according to you, you lie to them until they're older.
That's your own accusation against me.
No, Dennis, because there are lots of things that you do in life.
You do to teach them things.
That's exactly right.
And that's exactly why I don't think there's any reason to tell your kid about Santa until they ask.
Okay, well, sorry, I already did.
By the way, I was raised in a family where I knew that Santa Claus was not real, but we still had Christmas gifts under the tree.
No, no, I believe that.
I believe that.
I believe that, and I'm glad you did.
I don't know anybody who's been harmed by having been raised without being told Santa Claus is a myth.
Okay?
I don't think it's a battle worth making.
It's not my biggest passion in life.
The Merry Christmas issue is a big passion.
Back in a moment, you are listening to the Ultimate Issues Hour on the Dennis Prager Show.
Hi, everybody.
I'm Dennis Prager.
This is the Ultimate Issues Hour.
The third hour every Tuesday is on an ultimate issue.
This week, it is my column.
I actually read my column.
I don't do that.
I mean, maybe three times a year I do that.
Maybe.
That's how significant I consider this column.
And it's up at my website, National Review, Real Clear Politics, Town Hall, and many others.
You might want to print it out and read it at your Christmas dinner.
It's an important, I think it's an important piece on why it is totally inclusive to say Merry Christmas and completely narcissistic to make the substitutions for it.
Happy holiday.
Incidentally, our guest here also hears happy holiday in the singular.
Not just happy holidays.
Christy in Inglewood, California, Dennis Prager.
Hi.
The shortest calling.
Okay, Christy is currently one of the volunteers on the Martian space cruise and is calling from many miles away.
Christy, I can't hear a word.
Can you hear me?
Ah, now I can.
Great.
Okay, hi.
Thank you for taking my call.
I have to tell you that you are such a blessing to me and my mom, who's almost 93.
We listen to you every morning.
I take care of her at home, and it's part of our morning routine.
And I was walking through the dining room, and I was hearing you explain to that last caller some thoughts you had about the winter solstice and Christmas.
And I have to tell you, I've never heard anyone explain the elevation of paganism.
That's right.
Yep, that's right.
The way that you did, it was truly a special moment for me.
And I hope it was for a lot of other people.
You are just so brilliant at explaining things.
Well, that's very kind of you.
You know, just recently, it was very interesting.
Recently, a very prominent Christian looked at me and he said, do you know how many people you have brought back to Christianity?
And I said, yes.
And the fact is, I brought a lot of Jews back to Judaism.
And because there are great arguments to be made.
I mean, not arguments.
There are great truths to be told.
And the truth is that unfortunately, well-intentioned clergy just haven't had these answers.
This thing, oh, it's really the winter solstice is an irrelevant point.
And it's not true.
The greatness of religion is to take the pagan and elevate it, just as Christy was so happy to hear.
That's its greatness.
If people are celebrating a certain date and you can change that date from celebrating Zeus into celebrating one God and celebrating love your neighbor as yourself and all the other greatnesses of the Testaments, then that's great, isn't it?
Isn't that the best thing you could do?
I mean, just to give you an example, let us say, it's not a perfect example.
Very few times is an analogy perfect.
Let us say somebody took the swastika and made it into a symbol of love, an active symbol of love.
They have taken it away.
They have filled it with something beautiful.
Okay, let's go to, let's see, let's see, let's see, let's see.
Okay, I'm sorry.
Rob in Garden City, New York, we're not going to talk about Donald Trump this hour.
I'm only laughing because it's so easy to get politics into anything.
But no, no, we're just talking about this subject.
So, yeah, call a call tomorrow.
That is exactly right.
Okay, so we've opened up a line, folks.
And I may open up a couple of others.
Oh, yeah.
David in Fort Worth notes, those who say Santa isn't real are misinformed.
He was a real person.
Okay, but obviously the way we refer to Santa Claus today, coming down the chimney and bringing you gifts and getting letters in the North Pole, that's the one we're referring to.
I see no harm done.
You know what I'm a big believer in, folks?
Really, really big believer in?
Common sense.
Back in a moment.
You're listening to The Dennis Prager Show, The Ultimate Issues Hour.
I love black girls.
What miracles?
Hello, my friends.
I'm Dennis Prager, and this is the Ultimate Issues Hour, the third hour every Tuesday on some great issue.
I read to you my column today.
Tuesday is my column day, Nationally Syndicated Column.
And it is about why saying Merry Christmas is so important.
I do consider it an ultimate issue.
People like to trivialize it.
At the same time that they trivialize it, they are making war against it.
No, no, no.
Schools don't have Christmas vacations.
They have winter vacations.
We don't say Merry Christmas.
We say happy holiday.
And we don't have a Christmas party at work.
We have a holiday party.
Holiday party.
What does that mean?
Tell me, isn't there something more meaningful to the word Christmas party than holiday party?
I mean, right?
You know what's happened?
See, leftism is ultimately a form of narcissism.
I don't celebrate it, so why the hell should you?
I'm not religious, so let me tear down the religiosity of America.
That's what it really is.
That's what it is in its essence.
And I want to fight back.
That's it.
I want to fight back.
All right.
Let's see what else we have here.
And let's go to Colorado Springs, Pat.
Hello, Pat, Dennis Prager.
Dennis, I would love to talk to you one-on-one for about four hours.
I learned so much from you.
Would you bring a very good cigar?
Absolutely.
Okay, all right.
Well, it makes it certainly makes it more tempting.
Yes.
The attack against Merry Christmas, I think, is just another indicator of what's going on in the bigger picture.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood.
We wrestle against principalities and powers of darkness.
I think we're in a spiritual battle in America.
We are.
Ultimately, there's no doubt in my mind.
It ultimately comes down to the God issue.
There is no doubt in my mind that that is what it's about.
Leftism in the final now, since Marx has been ultimately about that.
Marx hated religion.
It's the opiate of the people.
God is man, man is God.
What is it?
Man is God.
That was, I believe, Marx.
God is man.
That was Engels.
Ever since the beginning, it has been, they have understood either the left wins or religion wins.
And that is why Europe has essentially no religion.
And what is the result?
People don't get married.
People don't have children.
People don't have ultimate meaning.
The place is soulless.
I love visiting Europe.
I love it.
By the end of the next cruise, I will have been, Europe has an incredible number of countries.
I will have been to every European country except Maybe Slovakia, because I was in Czechoslovakia, but that was before it divided into Czech Republic and Slovakia.
And we're going to Slovenia, correct, on this cruise?
So Slovenia on Albania and Montenegro.
So what's left?
I've been to Croatia.
I've been to Serbia.
So what's left in Yugoslavia, the former Yugoslavia.
I think I will have been to every, and I studied in Europe for a year.
I've been back a dozen times at least.
But it's soulless, folks.
It is soulless.
And that's what the left creates.
It's a soulless place.
Everything is about the material.
How much do you make?
How much time do you have off?
What is your retirement age?
That's it.
It's all material.
Because obviously, if there's no God, everything is just material.
So the caller is right.
Pat, you're right.
It is ultimately.
I've always believed that it is ultimately about the God issue.
You know how we know that at Prague University?
It's interesting.
You know what's got the most hate of our videos?
The ones that advocate God's existence.
Not the ones that advocate small government, not the ones that advocate lower taxes.
I mean, we have a lot of controversial, not even the ones that from the founder, co-founder of Greenpeace, who spoke about the lack of threat in global warming.
Even those didn't get as much hate as the completely rational videos on behalf of God's existence.
That's really what, that's really, in the final analysis, the most angering aspect.
Okadoki, let's go to more of your calls.
And again, thank you, Pat.
We'll free up a line there.
Dearborn, Michigan, Karen.
Hello, Karen, Dennis Prager.
Hi, Dennis.
Merry Christmas.
Thank you.
I wish I would have had your column read before I went into an appointment, but I just left about an hour ago.
I am a Christian.
I do have a Muslim person that I know through work that I needed to visit his house.
And he and I have had time.
He's a very mature gentleman, has been in this country over 40 years and is Muslim.
We've had discussions in the past, very pleasant discussions about our respective religions.
But today I visited him in his house, and he had a Christmas tree front and center in his living room window.
And I thought, he is American.
And I think that really hones into what your whole column was about, that despite our differences, he embraces America.
Well, I think it does exemplify that he does.
Exactly.
That's not to say that every non-Christian who doesn't have a Christmas tree doesn't embrace America, but I understand your point, and I agree with you.
Of course.
I mean, he wasn't converting to Christianity.
He was celebrating an American holiday.
And it is a national holiday, folks.
Easter is not a national holiday.
But Christmas is a national holiday.
And I honor my fellow citizen.
I'm not just Dennis.
Here's a great thought for people on the left.
You're not only you or a member of your ethnic group or racial group, you're also an American.
I know, that's a chakaroo, but it's worth thinking about.
back in a moment.
I get so involved and wrapped up in these Christmas songs that I don't start talking on time.
Now, who is that?
I know that's Frank.
Yeah, of course, of course, exactly.
What an era.
Now, these were the crooners, right?
It was the crooner era.
It's like Dean Martin was a crooner, too, right?
It's just, I know it's just a term, but they used it.
Well, we're not in the crooner era now, so that's why I use the word era.
Maybe it was an era to use era.
Hello, everybody.
I'm Dennis Prager.
This is the Dennis Prager Show, and this is the Ultimate Issues Hour.
Please get my column today.
It comes out on Tuesdays on why saying Merry Christmas is so important.
It is a huge issue in the United States.
Huge.
Okay, Stephanie in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Hello, Stephanie of Scottsdale.
Hello.
Ooh, that was beautiful.
Hello.
Thank you.
I have a question.
My question is: as a Jew, how do we teach our children how to honor Christmas and say Merry Christmas without confusing them about the fact that we're Jews and we practice Judaism, not Christianity?
Now, it's very interesting.
We're not Americans, so we want to honor the homage.
Well, you just did it perfectly.
Frankly, if you just said that, this is one of the great calls of my history.
You answered the question.
I don't have to say a word.
I can only add an anecdote for you.
I grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home where we wore a yamulka all the time in the house, okay?
And every Christmas Eve, except if it was Friday night because we didn't watch television on Friday night, every Christmas Eve, my whole family would gather around the television set and watch the Mass from the Vatican.
And I remember when I was five or six thinking, look, he wears a yamulka too, looking at the Pope.
There was never a confusion.
I was raised in a home to love my fellow American, to love America, and to honor the holiday called Christmas because that's a national holiday of the nation that has treated Jews better than any in history.
Is that a good enough reason to say Merry Christmas?
I'm Dennis Prager.
Hey, girl.
Yes, you.
You are seen.
You are loved.
And you were made for more.
Created especially for teen girls, chart-topping Christian artist Ann Wilson invites you to her 40-day devotional, Hey Girl, through honest stories, scripture, and journal franchise, and talks about real struggles, comparison, insecurity, doubt, and faith, reminding you that God is always near and fighting for you.