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The first Christmas card was not sent out until 1843 and its message from its creator, Henry Cole, and his illustrator, John Calicott, was simple and to the point, “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.”

That seems austere but perfect … and yet as an outsider to Christmas I wanted to weigh in on the serious lack of theological substance in what is left of the Christmas card biz. Cole’s message, for example, wishes its recipients a merry Christmas. Is merriment really the essential feeling Christians ought to have at the birth of a savior? Life-altering joy, perhaps, or relief at the salvation from sin, but merriment seems just a little wan to me. And then there is the mystifying connection between Christmas and the new year. The new year is a secular event devoid of any religious connotations. Why does it deserve to be paired with the birth of the Christ?

I think the main problem with the messages in Christmas cards is that they all try to be all things to all people rather than being all things to all Christians. I understand how this happened. If your Christmas card list includes Jews, the message of a savior being born in a manger may not exactly resonate. Same with Hindu friends and Muslim friends and atheist friends. The resulting attempt to avoid insulting non-Christian friends has produced anemic, cliché, un-spiritual “holiday cards” in which the Christ in Christmas, as well as the name of Christmas, has been excised from what then becomes a timid greeting for the arrival of the winter solstice.

Listen to this brief selection of what the internet calls “the best Christmas card messages”:

“Seasons greetings and every good wish for health and happiness in the coming year.”

Unless salvation from sin is a part of health and happiness this is a complete exile of any Gospel message.

Or this one..

Sending love and light to you this holiday season and letting you know that you are thought of every day.”

Here again Christmas is wiped out of a Christmas card and what the heck is a holiday season? Is it Christmas and Hanukkah? Or is it Christmas and Super Bowl Sunday?

Look, if you want to wish your Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah then send them a freaking Hanukkah card instead of watering down your Christmas card message so that it sort of, but not really, includes people who do not celebrate Christmas. I also feel the twinge of hypocrisy in this anemic greeting. Am I really thought of every day? What are those daily thoughts, I wonder? I think of my urologist every day but not with thoughts I wish to share with you, dear readers. Man up with your Christian card recipients and wish them a happy or joyous or moving or life-changing Christmas!

While I am on this Christmas card rant, let me also encourage you to not wish the people you pass “Happy Holidays”. If you know they are Jewish, wish them a happy Hanukkah. Christians get a Merry Christmas and if you are not sure you might want to try my admittedly awkward but utterly honest greeting, “Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah … pick one!”

The message for Christmas cards needs to come close to this:

“Christ our savior is born.” Anything you add to this or take away from this merely makes Christmas something less of a miracle.

A final word of praise to my friends Jack and Barbara Nicklaus who are kind enough to include me on their Christmas card list every year. They know that being a rabbi is a clue that I am not decorating a tree but they always include a nice note to tell me that they know.

This year their card is stunning and perfect. The illustration is a painting of Barbara and Jack standing with every one of their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren (I think they number 49, but some of them are very tiny and I may have lost count). The message on the inside is:

Let us keep Christmas

holding it close in our hearts

for its meaning never ends

and its spirit is the joy we share

with family and friends

– Jack and Barbara Nicklaus, and family, 2025

To which I can only say with deep admiration and abiding friendship,

AMEN.

(Send ALL QUESTIONS AND COMMENTS to The God Squad via email at godsquadquestion@aol.com. Rabbi Gellman is the author of several books, including “Religion for Dummies,” co-written with Fr. Tom Hartman. Also, the new God Squad podcast is now available.)

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