A Practical Way to Say “Merry Christmas”

Last updated on: December 24, 2014 at 1:47 pm by David Mills

A Practical Way to Say “Merry Christmas” 2014-12-24T13:47:05-04:00 David Mills

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

“Merry Christmas, I mean if you celebrate it,” said a women to whom I’d given up my table at the coffee shop. I appreciated the mention of Christmas, even qualified, which I hardly hear any more. Nearly everyone says some version of “Happy Holidays,” if they say anything at all.

Though an advocate of saying “Merry Christmas,” I think we might make the feeling much more practical and expressed throughout the year. By being kinder to people who serve you, waiters in particular, for one thing. From this week’s column for Aleteia:

Customers can treat waiters and fast food clerks very badly, sometimes amazingly, jaw-droppingly, did-you-see-that badly. Some of it’s just inconsiderateness or selfishness, the failure or refusal to make the small effort to see how things from their point of view, but some of it’s a cowardly assault on the defenseless.

Our eldest son worked for a couple years in high school and then summers after at a sandwich shop in an affluent, boutique-y little town, and dealt with obnoxious people every day. They seemed to feel that the few dollars they paid for their sandwich also paid for the right to abuse the staff. If they ordered the wrong thing, for example, the workers were at fault for not reading their minds.

One summer a young woman working there became a particular target, perhaps because she was petite and polite, with people sometimes asking her how stupid she could be. Her co-workers at the cash register end of the line enjoyed telling them, “You know, she’s a classics major at Harvard. She sight-reads ancient Greek and Latin.” My son told me that the abusive customers were not always suitably abashed.

There follows seven practical ways to say “Merry Christmas” to your waiter, and not just at Christmas — ways to “do unto others” in this particular matter. Waiters represent all those over whom we as customers have some power, if only to make their work harder.

Do unto others

Previous Post

December 23, 2014

Miss Rand Celebrates Christmas

Next Post

December 25, 2014 Chesterton on Santa Claus

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion & life American Life Anglican Affairs Apologetics Art and artistry Beer Capitalism's downside Catholic converts Catholic issues Catholicism & public life Catholicism in general Christianity & culture Christianity & the Jews Conservatism Conservative problems Death Do unto others Dogs Ecumenical friendship Evangelicalism Evil in the world Family Friendship Heroes How we should live Islam It's a funny old world Jews Judaism Israel Judaism justice Liberalism Life issues Marriage Mary Mass Media Modern culture good & bad Modern life as it is lived Modern Religion Mormonism People Personal reflections Politicians Protestantism Race Rand & Randiansm Secularisms Sexualities Society justice equality freedom The papacy & the pope Uncategorized Worship Writing & Language

Select a Month January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which prophet confronted David about his sin with Bathsheba?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Nathan Gad Samuel Abiathar