The United States is a melting pot. We have folks here from every which country in the world, of every religion. And many non-believers.

And yet, our holidays are so one-sided.

People complaining about not being able to say merry Christmas, in early November. But there’s no denying that Christmas is all around us. It starts around the first week of September in the stores. All the pine trees are decorated, not for Winter Solstice or Hanukkah. No one calls them pine trees – they are called Christmas trees.

I don’t get a day off work for Diwali, like we get at least 2 days off for Christmas and Thanksgiving. There’s a LOT of prep work (cooking, cleaning, decorating) to do for Diwali. No one gives us a single extra day off to prepare for this huge holiday. So much cooking needs to be done. Rangolis need to be drawn. But we’re expected to pull it off in our time after work, in sprints of 6-9pm leading up to the night. While still doing regular household duties. But you don’t hear me complaining about it. You don’t hear complaints from the almost 3 million Indian-Americans in the US.

Meanwhile we have stations & places playing 24 hrs of Christmas music for the 2 months prior to Christmas. So, calm down with the “attacks on Christmas”. There’s no war on Christmas.