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Try to remember that kind of December when you shopped for gifts in a store, not on a computer. Try to remember when you wrapped those gifts after you got home and dashed back to the mall for something you forgot.

Try to remember that kind of December when your house was full of visitors and their houses were, too. The glittery Christmas party invitations on the hall table shone like stars in a winter sky. Church services featured the old familiar Christmas carols. Children dressed up to walk down the aisle as Nike-wearing shepherds or gauzy-winged angels or cardboard-crowned kings, bumping into each other and waving wildly to their parents in the pews.

Try to remember the cool of the eggnog sliding down your throat and the heat of the fireplace warming your back. Its not so hard. It was only last year, before the coronavirus shut down the usual way we celebrate the holidays. Try to remember the kind of December when nobody politicized the way people celebrate the holiday.

But there are some people politicians and news anchors and a few tv preachers who declare that Christmas is being stolen, as though you could harness a spirit, a tradition, a belief and celebration that goes back thousands of years and haul it out the door like so much used up wrapping paper and ribbon.

They started whining about the war on Christmas five years ago when someone attacked Starbucks for serving hot coffee in plain red cups instead of Christmas-themed ones. My grandson and I went there for an after school treat while this skirmish was going on. While he sipped his hot chocolate and I drank my latte, I looked around for signs of war, but I didnt see any. There were college students loading up on caffeine so they could ace their upcoming mid-term exams.

There were hospital workers just off their shift or maybe just starting. Their uniforms were crisp and clean. Nobody in the coffee line groused to the barista about the color of the cups bright red or yelled that they wanted a cup with angels or stars or Christmas trees on it. They just drank their coffee.

This years War on Christmas complaint comes at a time when families want to be together, but cant. When flying is probably a bad idea, even though airlines are trying to keep the virus from infecting passengers. Nobodys stealing the Christmas spirit by suggesting that families visit grandmother next year, whether she lives across the country or across the street.

Grandmother will still love you if you stand on her back porch, a smile behind your mask, and give her an elbow bump instead of a full-body hug. Family ties arent broken just because we cant be together physically. Theyre stronger than that.

The other complaint in the Christmas culture wars is the one about saying Merry Christmas when youre out and about if youre still going out and about. Go ahead and say it if thats what you want to do. If a store clerk answers back, Happy holidays, you can chose to be offended or not. Its up to you.

Christmas comes at the same time each year, just like Hanukkah and New Years Eve and the 4th of July. You cant stop it by declaring theres a war. The real wars being fought in hospital wards and emergency rooms, and the soldiers are the medical workers trying to save lives. By all accounts, theyre battle-fatigued by now. Maybe we should all buy them a cup of coffee at the drive thru and thank them for their service.

Read the original here:
The war on COVID doesnt mean theres a war on Christmas - al.com