Pat Boone: Just Say "Merry Christmas!"

Boone has a great paragraph in this column:

"Do you hear modern echoes of Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol'? I sure do. What made old Ebenezer so heartless and mean? It was his total self-absorption, his all-consuming greed and rejection of any expressions of charity – human or divine. To him, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim's cheery optimism and good nature was infuriating, incomprehensible, and somehow a threat to his pinched, selfish worldview. So he tried to shut them up. 'Bah! Humbug!!'"

I have made it a particular point this year to wish salesclerks a Merry Christmas, and have noticed they invariably brighten up and wish me one right back. They almost seem relieved to be given "permission" to say the special words if I say them first :).