# "Holiday Break"? You aren't fooling anyone. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 20, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105 "2003-12-20T02:47:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/41 "2003-12-21T02:00:35Z")
_ **Happy Holidays!** _ ---
**Author:** ![CheekyMonkey613](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e480ec/32.png) [@CheekyMonkey613](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheekyMonkey613)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/42 "2003-12-21T02:47:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Blalron \* > \*\*HELLO? New Years is a holiday also. They are being inclusive. > > Christmas/New Years equals “Holiday Break” \*\* Actually, Blalron, New Years is not a Jewish holiday. Jews have a different calendar, and celebrate “New Year” (aka Rosh Hashannah) sometime in September. ---
**Author:** ![whiterabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/cab0a1/32.png) [@whiterabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whiterabbit)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/43 "2003-12-21T03:44:10Z")
I think you misread **Blalron’s** post – I think he meant that “holidays” is inclusive of Christmas and New Year’s. The status of New Year’s hasn’t got anything to do with it. My Jewish ex-fiance took me out for New Year’s two years ago, so I’m guessing a lot of Jews do it as a secular thing. ---
**Author:** ![Elza\_B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Elza\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elza_B)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/44 "2003-12-21T03:55:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CanvasShoes \* > \*\*Well actually it wasn’t the “christians” that did it, it was Mr and Ms. ULTRA PC. > \*\* You know, I was reading this and I swear, my eyes are going bad because I read this as “Mr. and Mrs. C.” and all I could think was “Hey, hey, hey! Leave Tom and Marion Cunningham out of this! When did Happy Days ever change Christmas to ‘holidays’?” I think maybe it’s time for bed. Ava ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/45 "2003-12-21T13:43:06Z")
Winter Break? You got a problem with the southern hemisphere, asshole? ---
**Author:** ![coffeecat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coffeecat/32/3405_2.png) [@coffeecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coffeecat)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/46 "2003-12-21T13:45:15Z")
😉 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5ac83/32.png) [@The\_Mad\_Hermit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Mad_Hermit)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/47 "2003-12-21T14:11:43Z")
There seems to be no “neutral” term left in the language- everything has a political and sexual connotation these days. It’s really too bad that this type of disagreement exists; wars have started over less. Maybe we should just call this season the “I’m glad that the earth contiues to rotate and provide us with varied seasons” holiday. We could even out the calendar and have a celebration at each solstice and equinox, giving gifts and taking time to party. Just fold all the nearby holidays into these “holiday seasons”- Easter and St. Patrick’s day into Spring Holiday, us Americans could make a long week out of the Summer Solstice with Independence Day finishing off the celebration, and Labor Day could be involved with the Autumnal Equinox festivities. 4 weeks + of partying just created- let’s go! ---
**Author:** ![TwistofFate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@TwistofFate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwistofFate)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/48 "2003-12-22T11:09:17Z")
Happy Festivus! ---
**Author:** ![Beagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/85f322/32.png) [@Beagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beagle)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/49 "2003-12-22T13:14:48Z")
“Days off with no repercussions.” Feel free to use sick days or absences for your religious needs. Don’t take it personally. ---
**Author:** ![gobear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@gobear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gobear)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/50 "2003-12-22T14:05:24Z")
Rationalist here who prefers “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays.” I like to greet each holiday as it comes instead of using the namby-pamby catch-all of “the holidays.” I detest the faux-inclusive mindset that sucks away the vitality and uniqueness of Christmas, Hanukkah (or Chanukkah–could you guys take a break from secretly ruling the world and please give us a ruling on that?), and Kwanzaa to give us a foggy, gray holiday of dullness, with accompanying Philip Glass score for Mr. Garrison’s class play. Today’s _Washington Post_ has an [article](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20106-2003Dec21.html) that exactly sums up my feelings as a Christmas-loving atheist. > [@](#): > > In truth, however, I find beauty even in the most clearly Christian parts of Christmas, and I’m not willing to lose out on it, or let the Christians keep it for themselves. For all my devout atheism, I’m still touched by the story of the wise men following the star, of the shepherds walking to the stable to view the glowing, magic baby and of the raging tyrant who tries, and fails, to kill him. This is all good folk poetry, on a par with anything in antique myth or Egyptian ritual or any defunct religion that I can appreciate without professing to. > > I’ve spent a good portion of my life looking at Renaissance altarpieces, and their evidently Christian functions never managed to detract from the beauty that I found in them. I could even enjoy how gorgeously and well they did their sacred job, without believing that they worked to catch the favor of a deity ---
**Author:** ![tdn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@tdn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tdn)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/51 "2003-12-22T15:33:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Steelerphan \* > **Maybe we should just call this season the “I’m glad that the earth contiues to rotate and provide us with varied seasons” holiday.** This just shows your bigoted insensitivity to Flat Earthers. Count me in the opposite camp as **gobear** : As a non-theist who celebrates a pagan holiday full of eggnog, gift giving, indoor evergreens, and songs about a strange diety named Christ Cringle, and all this on or about the date of 12/25 (give or take a month), I’m most comfortable calling it The Holidays. ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/52 "2003-12-23T19:48:44Z")
Glad to see I’m not the only one who detests the wishy-washy PCness of “the holidays”. I actually saw a commercial that had the gaul to call a Christmas Tree a “Holiday Tree” - wtf? ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/53 "2003-12-23T20:35:50Z")
When I was a kid I thought everyone in America went on vacation at Christmas. ‘Holidays’ in the UK does not mean Christmas - it means ‘trip to some place away from home.’ So basically to me ‘happy holiays’ sounds totally made up, and as irrelevent for Christmas as it is for any other religious festival. FWIW, I’m an atheist, but Christmas is part of my culture and I’m not about to give it up! ---
**Author:** ![cowgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8c91f0/32.png) [@cowgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cowgirl)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/54 "2003-12-23T20:50:26Z")
This is the first year that I’ve actually had trouble wishing people a “Merry Christmas” for only my own reasons. In other words: in the past I refrained from willy-nilly "Merry Christmas"ing people because I didn’t want to wish someone something they didn’t celebrate. (If it’s truly no big deal, let’s all wish each other Happy Eid this year, and Happy Chanukah next, and see how that goes, mmkay?) But this year I have been feeling less and less a part of Christmas - I celebrate it with my Anglican family but that’s about it. I don’t decorate my house, my husband/friends and I don’t really buy each other anything, I hate christmas music, etc. It just feels false for me to wish someone a Merry Christmas, unless I am entirely sure that they celebrate it. In other words, my good wishes depend entirely on how they will take it. Anyone wishing me a Merry Christmas is indulging their own interests, not mine. But as I note in [this](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=229618&perpage=50&) thread: > [@](#): > > At the same time, though, there is one major thing I like about [“Christmas”] it’s the time when you see people you haven’t seen since last year. For me this has usually meant people coming home from school for the holidays. I don’t quite know what to do with the fact that the reason they all come home is because they are expected to conform to Christian traditions. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105/55 "2003-12-23T20:58:12Z")
I wish we had something even _more_ bland and innocuous than “holidays” “Holiday” is derived from “Holy day.” That implies that there must be a religious connotation to the day that I find insulting as an agnostic. Don’t fucking wish me a “happy holy day.” I don’t \* believe\* in holy day, so just keep your hate speech out of my face! Relax, I’m just kidding. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holiday-break-you-arent-fooling-anyone/220105.md?page=2)