And the war continues

I thought the fuss over the Starbucks cup was pretty stupid, but then I heard something that topped it. Simon Malls, a company that operates multiple shopping malls around the country, decided to change its design for its "photo with Santa area." Based on what I saw on the news on Monday morning, they decided to leave the 1930's "Christmas Story" type set behind and go with something more reminiscent of "Frozen" -- very clean, lots of white, rather minimalist, and a whole lot less tacky than the usual tribute to a bygone era. People freaked. Holy wah, you'd have thought they'd butchered Rudolf in front of kindergartners and were serving up reindeer tartare.

Once again, I'm thinking way too many people are taking "just how fracking stupid are you?" as a challenge. Freaking out over the lack of snowflakes on a coffee cup? When did a snowflake become a religious symbol? The last time I checked, all a snowflake signified was called Winter. Or has Winter become a 3-month religious observance in itself? And throwing hissy fits and threatening boycotts  over a change in set design? The Simon Malls corporation wasn't getting rid of Santa or saying Christmas was cancelled. All they were doing was changing their display. That's like getting pissed that Sears put silver Christmas trees in a store window instead of green ones. The stupid, it burns.

Once again it becomes clear that the greatest danger to Christmas are its supposed defenders. They're fighting a war that exists only in their heads, and they're driving more and more of us into dreading the holiday season. As I've said before, I used to actually like the holidays. I'm not religious, but I liked the carols, the colorful decorations, the seasonal foods, the gift giving. Not anymore. Now I dread it a little more every year as we get to wonder just what type of ridiculous crap the Xmas warriors will be offended by this time around. I have a tip for Starbucks for next year: don't bother to do a holiday cup at all. You're going to get bitched at if you do, so save some corporate money by skipping the season completely. You'll still get bitched at, but it won't have cost you anything. Ditto the malls -- drop Santa. If anyone bitches, just say "He's not in the Bible," and let it go. It's not exactly waging war on Xmas if you drop the pagan/secular/materialistic add-ons, is it?  No trees, no elves, no made-up fat guy threatening kids with lumps of coal. Sounds good to me.