Photo by Fagles - Wikimedia Commons

Christmas. It’s a time of caring and peace on Earth, a time for giving and joy. It’s also a time when we become the most insane. As you may have noticed, the Christmas season is being tweaked. Instead of seeing nativity scenes and crosses, you see generic snowmen and reindeer. Why?

Apparently, the public has found the original meaning of Christmas to be too offensive. Those who don’t celebrate Christmas have continuously complained that processing the meaning of this holiday is unacceptable

Now, I’m not trying to bash anybody who doesn’t participate in Christmas. It’s not just Christmas that’s being called offensive, but all the other religious holidays. The big wigs in suits think that we should all just sit back and stare at our tacky inflatable Santa’s and our light up deer. Yet even that’s starting to become too “rebellious”.

Take the current controversy at the East-Syracuse Minoa school district. At Woodland Elementary Schools, the yearly visit of jolly ol’ Saint Nick to the kids in lunch on the last day before break has been a time-tested tradition. But this year is a little different.

Instead, Santa’s going to visit after school, when most of the kids are gone. Thankfully, some parents with common sense are fighting back. A petition has been formed to bring the big guy back to school.

The school finds that Santa asking the kids what they want for Christmas is potentially offensive to those who don’t celebrate Christmas. Santa has been asking kids what they want for Christmas for centuries, and nobody had a problem with it then. Yet now, it’s a much different scenario.

I decided to go around and ask my fellow students if they felt that having Santa asking what they want for Christmas to be offensive.

“Children find out Santa isn’t real at different ages. And others celebrate Kwanzaa and Hanukkah, and those children won’t really understand the concept of Santa for other people’s religions. This could cause confusion or loss of faith in both religions. So I do believe the Santa figure could be offensive,” said junior Haley DePan.

“No. It’s not like you see the Santa at the mall giving away crosses saying, ‘Worship God’,” argued junior Seth Olson.

“I highly doubt that most people even think of a religion when they think of Santa. Santa is a figure to celebrate the holidays.”

Whether you find the holiday season to be chock filled with suggestive material, or you think we should keep the traditions going strong, we do have a freedom to say what we feel. Express how you feel about offensive situations, but not to extent of ruining the holidays for all.