Christians of a certain bent don't seem to get much comfort, let alone joy, from their faith. It's not enough for them to believe that unbelievers will be tortured for eternity, which is at least Christlike: they want them to be punished now. Not only far-right Christians feel this way, either: liberals also fantasize about violence befalling right-wing Christians. (I linked to several examples from that thread in this post, but I find that some of them have vanished since then, gone to Internet Heaven I guess.)
The image above comes from a thread I saw on Facebook yesterday. A popular response to those who criticized it was If you don't believe in Christmas, then why don't you work on Christmas instead of taking the day off? I've heard that one before, and as I said then, I wouldn't mind working on Christmas in the least. My job, in university food service, required me to work on numerous holidays. The university closed down for semester break, which included Christmas and New Year's Day, so working or not wasn't an option.
.... Except, I realized, for campus police, maintenance, and other functions that don't observe holidays. This extends beyond special cases like universities. The gas station / convenience store across the street from my apartment is open today, for example. Workers for airlines and other travel industries are at work today, as they are every other day of the year, making it possible for those who aren't working to enjoy their time off in travel. Radio, TV, and other media are still functional. (Do Christian radio and TV take Christmas off? Why not? I believe they even operate on Sundays.) Police, firefighters, and the like are at least on call. Society slows down for Christmas, but it never stops altogether, and most of the people who keep it working are surely Christians. So the Christmas warriors' snarky question is based on the false assumption that believing in Christmas gives everyone a day off, and we infidels are hitchhiking on the benefits Christians legitimately enjoy.
The term "essential worker" comes to mind, and from what I remember, there must be considerable overlap between those people who throw tantrums over "Happy Holidays" and those who misunderstood what "essential workers" were during the height of the COVID pandemic. They expected others to risk serious illness in order to serve them, and to do so quickly and efficiently. Nor should they have to wear masks in crowded stores -- that was communism. I especially recall a local woman who threw a tantrum on Facebook because her curbside pickup at Walmart was delayed a few minutes due to staff shortages. She demanded to know why people didn't want to work. That they might fear for their own health, or for the health of their families at home, didn't even occur to this person, or to many others.
Although empathy for others is at least implicit in the teachings of Jesus, many Christians manage to ignore it. They demand empathy for themselves, though. And some, like the guy who posted the image I swiped for this post, glory in their lack of empathy. That's fine with me. There are reasons why Christian churches are bleeding members, and the War on Christmas probably isn't the most important. But it helps.
