What happened to Christmas?

Is it just me, or does it seem like people are scared to use the word "Christmas?" I am getting sick of hearing the world "holiday," because everywhere I go, there it is. All the TV commercials advertise holiday sales, holiday candy, holiday gifts, and holiday decorations. I see signs & billboards advertising the same things. I hear wishes for happy holidays on the radio, and on the food network, I see shows about holiday baking and holiday meals. I understand that these people are reaching masses of people who celebrate more than Christmas, but not all of them. If you're going to have wreaths and holly and Christmas trees and candy canes and Santa, you can say Christmas!!!!

So in the midst of my frustration about this, I heard a story on KSBJ (a local Christian radio station) that made me think of this in a new light. It was about the origin of the candy cane. A candymaker began with a pure white stick to symbolize the pure nature of Jesus, then made it into a shephard's hook. Then he added 3 small red strips to symbolize the holy trinity, then a big red stripe to symbolize Jesus shedding his blood for us. OK, so I have since found out that it's not entirely true, but I still look at candy canes in a different way, and amazingly, since I heard that, I have been hearing more about Christmas and not so much about "the holidays." I guess we retain what we choose to. :)

What does this have to do with the baby? Nothing, except that I would like to make sure that my son or daughter always remembers why we celebrate Christmas. Since tomorrow is the big ultrasound, our anticipation to find out the sex is building. It will be really special to find out on Christmas if it works out that way, but if the doctor/technician can't tell or if we accidentally find out, then that will be OK too. :)