You really get offended?
Why? I’m a Hindu and and atheist and I wouldn’t consider it a problem for me.
Yeah, but will you gently correct, or freak the fuck out on a cashier and refuse to do business because OMG THEY HATE AMERICA AND CHRISTIANS AND THEY ARE PART OF THE SOCIALIST AGENDA!!! Because that’s what a certain asshole stripe of religious people do.
ETA: if someone knows you’re Jewish, and says Merry Christmas (except perhaps in a joking way, for a well established friend or something), I would be offended too. I would consider that an attempt to ridicule or minimize me. This is more about cashiers at the mall.
Yes. For some reason, it is very easy to manipulate people into making them feel discriminated against or threatened or offended. O’Reilly and Limbaugh has made a fortune from puppets like mac_bolan00.
Unless they said it in a really snide way, that would be a strong conclusion to come to. I’ve had Chinese coworkers wish me Happy New Year in mid-Feb. Did they know I didn’t celebrate Chinese New Year? Yes. Were they minimizing or ridiculing me? Obviously not. They were just telling me to have a good year. No offense meant, none taken. People can wish me Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Blessed Ramadan. They can even wish that the elder god Cthulhu devour me quickly in my sleep. Whatever. There are many, many things to get upset about. Polite pleasantries is not one of them, whatever form they take.
I think our culture is going to drown in its own umbrage.
Because I’m Jewish (and atheist) and grew up in a predominantly Christian culture where I get tired of being marginalized. If you don’t know me well enough to know my religious beliefs, don’t make religious proclamations towards me. If someone says “Happy Holidays” to me I fully embrace it.
And no, I’d never be rude or angry about it to anyone. It’s not worth getting worked up over it. If it was someone I knew, who also knew I didn’t appreciate it, and repeatedly did so, then I would conclude that person is an idiot, not that they are a bigot. And then I’d move on with my life.
BTW, I’m listening to my collection of holiday music (Christmas and Hanukkah) which I’ve always loved. It’s not a clear cut issue, to be sure.
I think what’s getting missed here is that there’s really nobody getting offended by being told “Merry Christmas”. This is a one-sided “War”, and that side is the defense against something that’s not really happening. It’s the people who have a pathological need for Christmas to be the only acknowledged holiday near the end of the year that are fomenting all of this. Stores are using Happy Holidays the way they have been for decades because a) they don’t want to offend or make unwelcome people who don’t celebrate Christmas and b) they want to be able to extend the holiday shopping season for as long as possible. There are no overt anti-Christian biases in this. I don’t mind being told “Merry Christmas”, but Limbaugh and O’Reilly can’t stand being told anything else, because to them, Christmas is the only holiday that should be acknowledged by anyone in the Christian States of America.
Well, I’m Hindu and an atheist and grew up in a predominantly Christian culture where I get tired of being marginalized.
But I’ve never considered “Merry Christmas” to have anything to do with Christianity. Like Miss Elizabeth said, it’s really a secular celebration in this country.
I guess I’m Bill O’Reilly’s nightmare. I claim Christmas as mine, and I’ve dispensed with the Christ part of it entirely.
And I’ve always disagreed with that view. This isn’t intended to be a snarky response, I think it’s a basic disagreement that is unlikely to change.
I’m with you. I don’t get offended by some one who doesn’t know me, or an off the cuff “Merry Christmas”. But that’s not because the phrase is secular. It’s because I assume the person means well.
However, if someone who knew me or for whatever reason learned I didn’t celebrate Christmas kept saying it because it’s secular and shouldn’t matter, they’d be in the wrong. It may not be religious, per se, but that doesn’t mean it’s wholly secular either.
Americans have been saying “Season’s Greetings” & “Happy Holidays” for many years now–to extend generic good wishes for several pending holidays to people they don’t see every day & to be polite to people who might not be Christian. Earlier in the thread, there’s a link to Bing Crosby singing “Happy Holidays” in a 1942 movie; that’s not the earliest use of either phrase.
Nobody much cared. Until the Religious Right decided that there is A War on Christmas. Here’s an explanation:
There have been a few instances of the ACLU preventing Nativity Scenes being put up with government funds, but most cities spend plenty on lights & Christmas trees & other trappings of The Season. It’s good business. Of course, churches, businesses & private citizens may decorate as they wish.
More things the American Family Association, one of the inventors of this phony war, is agin’:
“Observing” is not enough; try to do a little research before making your pronouncements. Oh, and “Different Religions™” is just too cute. I thought you were Australian & thought your country was becoming reasonably diverse. Guess there are stagnant backwaters everywhere…
Atheist and generally ignore Christmas. And anybody who knows me, knows that.
Merry Christmas doesn’t bother me any more than a Happy Diwali (or whatever) would as even as it expresses a value for the day it doesn’t impose any sense of religious obligation.
I can have a merry Christmas without having a single moment of Christian reflection and in their pleasure in their religion they’re just wishing me well. I’m cool with that.
If they, instead, said “Have a great day of reflection on the glory of Jesus, our lord savior” then I’d feel more impinged upon.
But mostly I wish people would stop saying both Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays because I feel like a douche when 3 minutes later I remember “oh yeah, I was supposed to echo that back.”
Though, whenever someone I know engages in the stupidity of getting upset about this it does make me want to seek them out on Christmas day just so I can say “Happy Holiday.”
Huh, I was shocked by this Google Ngram showing how Happy Holidays has completely overtaken Merry Christmas. I may have to rethink my view.
I dunno about you guys, but my wife and I have an ongoing etiquette debate about what direction one is supposed to offer those kinds of greetings.
That is, suppose a Christian is greeting a Jew: should the Christian say "Merry Christmas! (I’m offering you the greeting of the holiday I celebrate!) or "Happy Hanukkah! (I’m offering you the greeting of the holiday you celebrate!)?
Do you wish someone else Happy Birthday on your birthday or their’s?
First of all, mac_bolan00 you are a filthy, mean little runt who demonstrates everything unChristian about the religion you claim to subscribe to. Were you tossed into the lion’s den you’d have been shat by now.
Me too.
I grew up with no religious affliliation smack in the middle of the Bible Belt, and I’ve always felt the same. Canned Christmas music is white noise, and store aisles packed with all things Santa, North Pole, trees, treats, lights, wrapping paper, ornaments, and all manner of pagan-derived decor have dust-all to do with the birth of Christ, and I’ve known the history of Christmas since childhood, learned alongside the Santa myth, just like every other public school kid. Pope Julius commandeered the solstice celebrations in order to replace the pagan traditions with Christian themes, but retail evidence reflects Julius was only partly successful.
So I see plenty of “Reason for the Season” and such on the thousands of patronizing church signs in the region and Facebook is positively littered with orders to respond to Happy Holidays with a terse Merry Christmas, but I really don’t feel the Christian aspects to the holiday, especially with all the hostile anti-HappyHoliday rhetoric. It seems a very un-Christlike attitude, to push back against attempts at inclusion and tolerance. It’s a rather ugly attitude in the middle of a holiday season usually full of shared optimism and good will.
I ran a more complete one for you here.
“Axial tilt is the reason for the season.”
Looks like “Go to Hell” peaked during the depression. I guess poverty really does make you grumpy.
(though that is an ngram where capitalization changes really mess with the results.)
Actually, I think that’s a brand of gin.