It’s that time of year again. You know, the time of year when everybody feels that they have a right to tell everybody else how to celebrate the “holiday season.”

American Catholics are bad enough with discussions flying about Santa, St. Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Krist Kindle, Three Kings or Generous Parental Units as the bearers of gifts. I wonder if Catholics in a more homogeneous culture have the same angst about how to celebrate Christmas. Are Filipino Catholics belligerantly petty about when to put up decorations and how many presents a child should receive, or is this inane behavior exclusive to places like the United States with its mish-mash of diverse backgrounds?

Then we have Christians in general who whine about stores that don’t wish their patrons a Merry Christmas. I wrote about this last year. Patriotic Americans don’t get uppity if the grocery store clerk doesn’t wish them a Happy Flag Day on June 14th. I don’t hear Jews lobbying for merchants to conclude transactions with “Have a good Yom Kippur – hope your atoning goes well!” Perhaps in much of America there are places where most people are celebrating Christmas, and it seems natural to offer that standard greeting. But for the last decade I’ve lived on the East Coast, and it really isn’t clear who is celebrating what. Although I would never be offended if someone wished me a Joyous Ramadan (I would laugh!), I would also never consciously wish a Muslim a Merry Christmas. And since we Christians are constantly lamenting the over-commercialization of Christmas, it seems rather hypocritical to then demand that the retail world wish you a merry time celebrating that Holy Day for which you don’t want them marketing their products!

But mostly, it’s that time of year when everybody wants to get in on the holiday excitement. Christians whimper about how everybody should behave during the month of December, but their complaints are drowned out by the non-Christians with their list of demands.

A Rabbi in the state of Washington got upset about “Christmas” trees being on display at the airport, and he threatened legal action if the airport did not also display a menorah. You know, in July in the forest, these trees are usually called fir trees. Nobody is offended by their existance. But bring them indoors during the winter months and suddenly they become “Christmas” trees. There is nothing exclusively Christian about evergreen trees. Yes, there is symbolism in the perpetual greenery representing eternity and fidelity. But these symbols are completely lost on people from parts of the world where the fir tree doesn’t grow. Bringing them indoors during the winter months and decorating them has pagan origins and was adopted by Christians – primarily in Germany. The Portuguese should be offended that their cultural traditions aren’t being recognized.

The airport got ticked off at this game of chicken and refused to play: they removed all the decorations, saying they “didn’t have time to play cultural anthropologists.” The Rabbi “was appalled by the decision. ‘Everyone should have their spirit of the holiday. For many people the trees are the spirit of the holidays, and adding a menorah adds light to the season.'” So, it’s ok to celebrate Christmas, as long as we do it his way.

According to the Rabbi’s lawyer, “There is a concern here that the Jewish community will be portrayed as the Grinch.”

Um, yeah.

But it’s ok. There’s quite a bit of that going around.