It is an old drill for certain believers to get overly sensitive over what holiday greetings are being used during the holiday season. Thus, lawmakers in Texas ensured residents could now use any greeting of their choice without having to worry about being penalized by law. Republican Dwayne Bohac had a Merry Christmas law passed in Texas last year, which now enables the state’s residents to say “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Holidays” or “Happy Hannukah” even during the holiday season.

By passing the Merry Christmas law, Bohac and his legislature wanted to ensure students can freely exchange traditional holiday greetings and install whatever displays they like, as long as more than one religious and one secular symbol are included.

The legislating team possibly forgot the fact that constitutionally, this protective legislation was going to be completely unnecessary, as teachers were already allowed to wish holiday greetings to one another without fearing liability. When this was brought to attention of those responsible for the new law, they immediately claimed to have done it for those state employees who sometimes risk walking a double-edged sword while exercising their right to celebrate traditional holidays on government property.

As CNN’s Danny Cevallos succinctly pointed out in his article earlier this month, this kind of legislation did not have to be considered 30 years ago, since people were less worried about specific holiday greetings and more concerned about the festive spirit.

“When I was a kid, holiday greetings were the least of our worries. As kids, my brothers and I had other worries about what we'd hear during the Christmas season…We worried about hearing there were no presents this year because, according to Mom, ‘Santa’ already spent all ‘Santa's’ money on cartons of Virginia Slims. Comparatively then, we were not too worried about whether we heard ‘Merry Christmas’ or ‘Happy holidays’ at school… Maybe we've run out of problems. Maybe it's because things are so much better now that we focus on that which never bothered us before. Or maybe it's because of a growing chasm of distrust between parents and school lesson plans. After all, this Texas statute was conceived by a legislator who was dismayed to hear his kids report on a ‘holiday tree’ at school instead of a ‘Christmas tree,’” wrote Cevallos.

Photo Credits: The Columbus Dispatch