Juno News - Is it offensive to say “Merry Christmas？”

00:00:00.000 well this year certainly has been quite the action-packed and busy year there's been a lot

00:00:10.920 going on and obviously everything has been overshadowed by covid but one of the things

00:00:15.000 that sort of slipped under the radar this year which you didn't see too many news articles about

00:00:19.020 and which i want to talk about today is the so-called war on christmas or just issues

00:00:23.120 surrounding saying merry christmas or the general discussion of should you say happy holidays

00:00:27.600 season greetings all that kind of stuff now a lot of you who probably watch my videos may not have

00:00:32.960 noticed that i actually wear a kippah yarmulke and that's because i'm an orthodox jew so i think i

00:00:39.320 have a very unique perspective on this entire thing precisely because i do not celebrate christmas

00:00:43.720 now i just wanted to start off by saying right off the bat that i do not get offended if someone

00:00:48.840 wishes me a merry christmas now if i'm in a you know jewish neighborhood and people who i would

00:00:54.140 think know what uh you know jewish accoutrement jewish kind of outfit maybe uh would mean and

00:00:59.820 they wish me a merry christmas i might kind of wonder if they you know they did did or did not

00:01:03.420 know if i was jewish but aside from that i take it in stride they mean it in a very positive way

00:01:09.660 they're not trying to offend me in any particular sense they simply want to share a nice greeting

00:01:14.640 maybe they're very excited to celebrate christmas it's a special time of year and so i don't get

00:01:18.700 offended when someone wishes me merry christmas even though i don't celebrate it'd be the same as me

00:01:22.820 getting offended if someone said you know hey sam happy birthday and it happened to not be my

00:01:26.480 birthday that day so just to start off i do not get offended i don't really see a reason to get

00:01:31.780 offended and there's a lot of issues and things to unpack but you know if someone is meaning it in a

00:01:36.380 really nice way and it's a nice time of year i don't see why there's a reason to get offended other

00:01:40.340 issues that we can debate aside but what actually does offend me to be honest is this entire thing

00:01:46.040 where people have decided that because you can't say merry christmas they're going to say happy

00:01:50.220 holidays the only problem is that they're not just saying happy holidays they're doing it

00:01:54.180 accompanied by every single thing that has to do with christmas so that's evergreen trees decorated

00:01:59.700 nicely that's going to be santa claus that's going to be you know snowman and candy canes and mistletoe

00:02:04.760 and all the very stereotypical thing you would expect to see when you're talking about christmas

00:02:08.560 decorations or christmas art and i looked at a couple of companies and i'm not trying to pick on

00:02:13.040 anyone in particular but i pulled up starbucks for example and on their website it says you know

00:02:17.440 holiday your way but the cups are all green and have very traditional or stereotypical christmas

00:02:22.820 type decorations right that's you know that that's not a hanukkah decoration that's not any other

00:02:27.300 type of decoration it's a very clear christmas decoration and yet they're choosing to say

00:02:31.100 happy holidays you know you go over to tim hortons they have the same kind of stuff a lot of very

00:02:36.980 stereotypical christmas decorationy art but no mention of christmas they actually don't have too much

00:02:43.100 mention of uh holidays generally aside from you know the giving season a gift giving season but

00:02:48.620 uh they don't you know if you go over to rogers they have an ornament right on one of their things

00:02:53.640 that that ornament is going to belong on a christmas tree now it's talking about boxing day

00:02:57.120 which is not christmas but again it's still christmas type imagery so that's not you know i wouldn't say

00:03:02.640 that's reflective of where i stand uh you know the bay going over to the bay they have a holiday gift

00:03:07.320 section right it's called the holiday gift section but if you click on it there's people standing in front

00:03:11.660 of christmas trees almost everything is a very very stereotypical christmas display now again i i have

00:03:18.440 no problem with christmas i think christmas is a beautiful holiday i think people who celebrate

00:03:21.940 christmas tend to look forward to a beautiful time and what should be a great time with family as much

00:03:26.880 as this year it might be difficult or challenging but this is really i think the issue with trying to

00:03:32.880 say happy holidays because a hanukkah already passed so hanukkah's already done i'm already you know i've done

00:03:38.400 my holidays hanukkah is actually a very minor holiday for those of you who did not know it is

00:03:42.640 not a major holiday it's not like uh passover or rosh hashanah yom kippur those holidays those are major

00:03:48.140 holidays you know hanukkah is a very minor holiday it's actually not even listed in the bible so you

00:03:53.080 know the comparison there is just sort of foolhardy to begin with but trying to say that this tree is a

00:03:59.140 holiday tree now that's offensive it's not a holiday tree it's a christmas tree and there's nothing wrong

00:04:03.560 with it being a christmas tree and so i get offended when someone tries to tell me that all of the very

00:04:08.880 stereotypical christmas stuff is actually holiday stuff because it's not now the only one the only

00:04:13.520 story i want to do i want to give a shout out to was actually canadian tire and they say canada

00:04:17.900 christmas canada's christmas store they have a very big banner on their website and you know good for

00:04:21.940 them because they're selling a lot of things for christmas you know stocking stuffers or are for

00:04:25.980 christmas you're not going to give stocking stuffers if you are not of any type of you know in the

00:04:31.680 broadest sense christian background right it's just not you know it's not a thing that i do in my house

00:04:35.760 it's not a thing that i would have grown up with and so good on them for saying christmas there's

00:04:40.080 nothing offensive about saying christmas even if i don't celebrate christmas and they're a business

00:04:44.340 they're trying to reach out to people who are going to buy these gifts for christmas because that's what

00:04:48.240 they're celebrating so good on them merry christmas to all of you who are celebrating happy holidays to

00:04:53.560 anyone else who is not celebrating christmas who is celebrating their own thing you know happy

00:04:57.960 hanukkah for those of you who just celebrated hanukkah i know this video is going to be out

00:05:01.340 obviously well after hanukkah but merry christmas let's all enjoy the season let's spend time with

00:05:06.840 family as best we can during these very challenging times let's all enjoy the good things that we do

00:05:11.420 have in life thank you so so much for watching my videos and in general for following true north

00:05:16.560 and of all of our updates and great video content so thank you so so much and have yourselves a great

00:05:22.080 evening

Juno News - December 25, 2020

Is it offensive to say “Merry Christmas？”

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