Yeah, I seriously wonder about a culture where we are encouraged to have aneurysms over worrying whether or not we will offend the over-sensitive.
I’ll share it with you, unless you die 22 years earlier. At least you were born on a multiple of 11 year as well. 
We’ll see if you make the immortality cut or not. ;p
Erek
People who complain about “Happy Holidays” have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas.
I’ve been in the US over Christmas on a number of occasions and whilst I understand it is meant to be polite and kind, I find the whole ‘Happy Holidays’ on a par with ‘have a nice day!’. It is for the most part very insincere and automatic, unless said to loved ones and friends. How about sticking to just ‘hello’ ‘morning’ etc as a greating - reserve ‘Merry Christmas’ ‘Happy New Year’ etc for the day they fall on only.
I worked in retail for way too many years, and during the month of December we were to answer the phone, “Happy Holidays, thank you for calling Retail Hell, how may I help you?”
It was the same at every place I worked over the years; we were told specifically not to say ‘Merry Christmas’ but ‘Happy Holidays’ instead, lest we offend any non-Christmas-celebrating customers.
(The rest of the year it was just, “Hi, thank you for calling…”)
My point exactly - why say it when it is entirely insincere?
Yes, but how many people in this country actually know about Mithraism and the whole Coel Coeth thing, really?
I’ve never understood why people get offended by routine well-wishes. When I worked retail, I would quite sincerely wish every single customer a good day (except for the jerks. I would say it with flat inflection and no smile, while looking straight into their eyes. Funny how we can quite deliberately communicate the exact opposite of what we’re saying, but I digress . . . .) That doesn’t mean that the customer’s day was the absolute topmost thing on my mind, but sure - why wouldn’t I hope that everyone I saw had a good day?
Hope you had a nice day today, incidentally . . .
Oh, they haven’t forgotten about it – they (or at least a sizable number of the complainers) just think that the true meaning is mandatory Christmas Morning Church Services Where Everyone Can Sing the Glory of Jeebus Whether They Want To Or Not™.
Then afterwards they gather around the cafeteria for coffee cakes and pride themselves on not living in a religious theocracy like the Taliban…
Funny you should mention that…
Re: Happy Honda-days – there DOES exist a seasonal song that goes “Happy holidaaays, happy holidaaays…etc.”, that had been around for decades (IIRC, since at least c. 1950) and the song does mention Xmas in the verse, anyway.
In any case, my cards for this year say “Season’s Greetings”, which I’ve been hearing and reading since the all my life, as well.
Or maybe I’ll just go for Felices Pascuas, a somawhat quaintly archaic usage I remember from growing up in PR, that seemed to encompass everything from Advent to the Octave of Epiphany.
[Invader Zim]
Bow down
Bow down
Before the power of Santa.
Or be crushed
be crushed
by
his jolly boots of doom
[/Zim]
Your great-grandma is 13? 
I always interpret “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Hanuhkah” or whatever as “Have a nice day on the day that is Christmas/Hanuhkah” or whatever. I’ve found it makes my life a hell of a lot easier than worrying over saying the wrong thing.
Besides, when I was working in retail, the LAST thing the holiday was was “happy”.
You may very well truely wish people a good day, but I refuse to believe the majority of people who say ‘happy holiday’ or whatever, truely wish it.
Amen!
mswas, I’ll make a deal with you. You see, yesterday was my birthday and all I got for it was a thread in MPSIMS about a man who thought women like me should die, so he killed 14 of them. I promise that on Christmas morning, when I come on-line at the crack of dawn to post, I’ll wish you a Happy Birthday, if you’ll wish me one today.
As for the churches in Kentucky, I’m now thoroughly confused. I mean, isn’t one supposed to attend church with one’s family? Also, for some families, Christmas morning is when you go to church to celebrate Christmas. (I’m more of a midnight mass type, myself.)
CJ
Hmmmm… If people are going to sanitize Christmas trees to Holiday trees, what on earth are they going to do about Wednesday? Having a day named after Woden/Odin is blatantly favouring a particular religion. How soon before it starts showing on calendars as “PersonalChoiceofSpiritualBeliefDay”?
Anyhow - I’m with Scott Plaid. My ears tend to magically translate all and any greetings into “Happy OverCommercializedRetailFrenzy” unless they come from my friends, in which case I hear “Happy TimeOffWorkandEnjoyingYourself”
From now on, my response will be ME…bursting into song.
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose…”
That’ll teach 'em.
Oops, seems someone forgot to tell the President about the war on Christmas.
www.au.org/site/News2?abbr=pr&page=NewsArticle&id=7675&security=1002&news_iv_ctrl=1241
:rolleyes:
She died in 1980. At the age of negative 12.
Duh.
Well, considering tomorrow I get to drink about 2 gallons of Barium and then get pictures taken of my insides from nipple to bunghole, I feel like I’ve definitely missed the immortality cut, and instead got in the “funky things happening to your insides” line.
But don’t let my suffering stop any of you from having a Merry Fawking Christmas.