Many of the people I know take vacation between Christmas and New Years so when I say Happy Holidays I am say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year together. Or Happy Chaunukkahhaunkah and Happy New Year together.
I used to say “I wish you happiness, good health and prosperity during this joyous season of renewal, whatever your faith and even if you have no faith at all. Here’s a cookie.” But people kept wandering off halfway through the spiel so I just switched to “Happy holidays” and kept the damn cookies for myself. Hah!
No No No.
I won’t get offended if you say to me Merry Christmas, but I will not Merry or Happy any religious holiday. It’s a holiday season, and I’m not going to exclude anyone.
Damn skippy on that. And the only flavor of “offenderati” I’ve encountered this year are the assholes who get offended by “Happy Holidays.” There’s just no appeasing those rectal haberdashers. They smugly assume that I don’t know which day I get off every year. But they are, as we shall see, fucking idiots.
Hallowe’en
My birthday
Veteran’s Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas
New Years
MLK’s Birthday
That’s 7 holidays right there. OK, forget my birthday, no one celebrates that, although everyone should. So 6 holidays, plural. To me, it’s the whole season. Why the fuck should I single out one day out of over two months? Because some politically incorrect limey tells me to? Fuck that noise.
And that’s not even incuding the holidays that are celebrated by the people without enough sense to accept the divinity of some possibly mythical kid who was born in a barn to a woman who tried to tell her husband that she was a virgin.
And if this offends you – good! Happy Holidays!
Yes you can. One just needs to find the proper motivation. For mine, opening the door to their room herds them nicely. Better than a raisin trail.
If he gets this torqued by “Happy Holidays”, His head will certainly explode if someone explains Kwanzaa to him. For the love of the soltice, don’t do it.
tike.com - This website is for sale! - tike Resources and Information. Kwanzaa
Your argument is absolutely silly, but it seems to me that all the Americans on this board can come into this thread and give you the same reasons over and over, and you will still turn it into some anti-American diatribe about how dumb we all are over this supposed PC bullshit.
You asked a question, it’s been answered. No, it’s not a PC thing. Many Americans, and I’m sure some of the Americans in this thread even, get tired of the PC schtick. It’s simly that this is NOT an example of political correctness gone astray. We say Happy Holidays because there are MULTIPLE HOLIDAYS at this time of the year. End of story. Get over it.
Manny, dammit, I wanted one of those cookies, too!
sorry, I should have previewed! 
I say “Happy Holidays” at work because when I was younger I said “Merry Christmas” and got bawled out by some guy who didn’t celebrate the holiday and was very irate that I’d assumed he was Christian.
With “Happy Holidays!” the implication is “Christmas and New Year’s,” but if you’re like that gentleman it can also imply “The day you’re getting off from work later this week and New Year’s.”
I know, it’s terribly frustrating. You’re lucky if they listen to you at all, much less decide to be perverse and do the exact opposite of what you want.
As for Diwali, I surprised a Hindu coworker of mine by actually knowing some stuff about it. We ended up laughingly comparing the need to make a lot of food and open your doors to family and friends to the same thing done at Thanksgiving in the US. (I’m just glad I didn’t have to cleanse my entire home, though it certainly could use it.)
owlstretchingtime: Kwanzaa. It’s not a religious holiday; it’s cultural and is intended to educate and uplift.
D_Odds: Ferretone works nicely, though it’s too messy for your typical herding requirements.
I’ve come to the conclusion that we’re going to need a MUCH bigger box and an awful lot more frogs for this one…
While Happy Holidays is fine by me, I prefer “Seasons Greetings” as offered by my loving companions at CNN. Mainly due to the pretty graphics. Their generic “peace on earth” ads are always nice, too.
Since it lasts a season, I think it makes sense.
I say Happy Holidays just because it covers more than one holiday and it’s quite efficient. If someone is Jewish, Christian, Pagan, or whatnot, it’s very likely that they celebrate a holiday sometime in December and then there’s also the whole American national holiday of New Year’s. It’s not an effort to be non-offensive, just trying to cover the entire season with one phrase.
It’s a fake “African” holiday invented in the sixties by a member of a militant black-power group as some sort of anti-establishment, anti-whitey political statement. Or something like that. He sold it as African because he didn’t think black people in the US would buy into an alternative winter holiday if they knew it was made up of whole cloth.
It’s bullshit, but at this point it’s harmless bullshit.
I’ve had a look at athat Kwanzaa site. I’m going to admit defeat. There simply aren’t enough frogs in the whole wide world for this.
You’re all completely Dagenham (it’s two stops past Barking)
What? What kind of a moron would get offended by “Happy Holidays?”
May I present owlstretchingtime.
i’m not offended I just think it makes you look like cheese-whistles.
It’s silly - not offensive.
Duly noted, chuzzlewit.
No “Happy Holidays” here either.
Happy/Have a good/Merry Christmas is the saying whether you’re talking to Jew, Muslim, Atheist whatever. I’ve never known anyone to take offense. It’s basically shorthand for “enjoy the couple of days on the piss” and not Happy Jesus day.
Then again even though Ireland is quite a religious country in my experience it’s more secular that the States when it comes to day to day living.