Happy bleeping holidays

This is supposed to be a happy time of year, is it not? Peace on earth, goodwill toward men, all that jazz? Just checking. Holiday related rant #1- One of the departments at work is having a lunch next week. The department has its own director, who reports to my boss, so they decided it would be nice to invite my boss (and by extension, to invite me) to the lunch. Which it is. But my boss thought that it would be slightly awkward or not-so-nice to invite him and me and not the other 3 people in our department, who are in his direct reporting structure, not just part of a department for which he is the division head. So, the guest list expanded a bit. Then my boss pointed out that there is a group on our hallway, which is part of a department which is mostly housed in another building, but whose daily interaction is mostly with the department throwing the holiday lunch. So, the admin invited that group as well. Well, now the hosting department is getting snippy about how many people they have coming to the lunch, and the admin got offended when I told her that one of the invitees is a vegetarian (disclaimer: I was not telling her to change the menu, I was asking what the menu was because the vegetarian in question has been known to bring a lunch to eat at her desk before attending group luncheons that do not have veggie options so that she can particiate socially without having to go hungry.) My boss and I would not have been offended if we were not invited in the first place. The group from the other department would not have been offended if they had not been invited. But I think any of us would have the right to be offended by being uninvited, because that's just way uncool. And the host department is acting as though we've crashed their party even though they invited us outright, not because we pushed them to. Holiday related rant #2- I like Christmas carols. Some of my favorites happen to be the religious ones. I understand fully that many people do not share my religious beliefs, and that Christmas is not a religious holiday for them. However, I do not understand the reasoning behind changing lyrics to songs to remove only certain words. One of my favorite carols is Little Drummer Boy. There is a verse which begins: "Baby Jesu, I am a poor boy too" Most of the versions of the song change that line to "Little baby, I am a poor boy too," which trashed the rhyme. And the following verse (after the drummer boy asks "Shall I play for you, pa-rum-pa-pum-pum, on my drum?") which should begin with "Mary nodded..." is changed to "Then he nodded..." News flash- the newborn baby ain't nodding at you yet, his mother has to answer for him. The revision of some versions of Silent Night bothers me, too. Why is "Christ the savior is born" replaced with another "sleep in heavenly peace." At my old office, the radio station with the 24/7 holiday music was piped in through the sound system. I asked outloud at lunch one day, to no one in particular, why the words had been changed. I was tersly informed that the overt religious references were kind of insulting to someone who isn't a practicing Christian. Explain this to me- a whole song about a drummer boy following the Wise Men to the manger to play for the "newborn King" is OK, but the mention of his name or his mother's is offensive? "Round yon virgin mother and child" fits right in with the secular, cultural Christmas without being religious? I'm not trying to force a religious holiday on people who don't believe in it, I just just don't get the selective sensitivity. And don't even get me started on how mean people have been in the parking lot at Target. Dude, I'm just here to buy diapers and a new Brita filter, I'm not trying to get in the way of you buying Chicken Dance Elmo!