I went walking on Christmas Day and crossed paths with others doing the same. Unprompted, most wished me a “Merry Christmas.” Some simply said “hi” or gave me a nod. Only a few said nothing at all.

None wished me “Happy Holidays.” And there were no Kwanzaa carols in the air.

Yes indeed, “Merry Christmas” survived the invention of both “Happy Holidays” (a misguided attempt to avoid offending Jews by greeting them with a wish for merriment when they were not merrily profiting from the writing of most of our modern Christmas carols) and Kwanzaa, a late-20^th century invention that was something like DEI for religious holidays to pander to people who think Christ is a dead white European who preached that camels could pass through the eye of a needle easier than poor Black people could get to heaven.  

Christmas also survived the climate-change lobby. It survived the Gaia worshippers.

It survived the nihilistic, faithless Millennials (and has been embraced by their successors, the faith-seeking Gen Z), it survived the Godless Democrats, it survived the proselytizing atheists.

It survived 9/11, it survived October 7.

It survived the faith-mockers, it survived “Pope” Francis, it survived the Episcopalians, it survived yard signs of the self-devout self-proclaiming their virtue.

And not only did Christmas survive us, we survived it.

We survived electronic Christmas cards. We survived ghosts of fruitcakes from Christmases past (they never go bad, you know, or at least they never go worse). We survived aluminum Christmas trees, we survived plastic Christmas trees, and we survived dead Christmas trees.

We survived LED candles, we survived the mall.

We survived the still-unfilled promise of joy to the world and we survived Joy to the World. We survived a noisy night and we survived Silent Night. We survived Come All Ye Faithful and we survived Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

We survived We Three Kings even amid the chants of “no kings!”

We survived the cancelation of Baby it’s Cold Outside.

Speaking of which, your correspondent became a grandfather a couple of weeks ago, which is not to be confused with a grand father or even a mediocre father.

I came through it all fine, and I’m mostly happy and healthy, thank you for asking.

But it’s not all just about me, there are also other people involved. They’re happy and healthy as well.

I have a feeling that the silent nights in their home will be few and far between in the upcoming few months, but I’m starting to understand joy to the world. You see, it happens one little world at a time.

Now, if I can just get through New Years Eve unscathed . . .  Isn’t that when they do the mistletoe thing?