Milquetoast Christmas

  From Wikopedia Caspar Milquetoast

I'm sure there was a time in my life that I had some milktoast.  My memory is faint but I'm sure Grandma enjoyed her milktoast - a comfort food for a nervous tummy.   I remember dunking grahmcrakers into milk as a snack but never a daily diet of milktoast.

So how did milktoast become a term for timid, over tolerant, shrinking, and apologetic person.  That was a discovery today as I was reading "Prayer - Finding the Heart's True Home" by Richard Foster.  He mentioned  that humility had nothing to do with a "Casper Milquetoast  kind of personality". 

Having just used the expression in a previous blog, I began to wonder it's etymology.  Yet again I was "beamed" back to the 1920's and H.T. Webster who probably grew up on milktoast and decided to create a character with a personality behind it. 

We are entering the season of saying "Merry Christmas".  Business has worried about the issue of religious tolerance and political correctness around this time of year.  So the fear of saying "Merry Christmas" has morphed into a bland "Happy Holidays". 

I'm sure today's Caspar Milquetoast's Christmas Card would say:  "It may be too early in the calendar to say this - but Season's uh - er  Greetings - if you are willing to let me broach the Holiday subject - since you may not believe it is a valid holiday."