I have an acquaintance to whom, twice, I wished “Happy holidays”, and both were met with absolute silence. He didn’t say “you too” or “thanks” or “no thanks” or anything whatsoever. Not even “Bah! Humbug!” He is otherwise a friendly, polite person.
Twice in the same season? If you saw him again after the first time, how serious is he going to take the second one?
Anyway, what’s the difference to “have a nice day” or “how’s it going”? Some people just filter out the standard stuff without giving an elaborate response. They may still be polite at the occasions that actually matter.
…or he may be facing his first holiday season alone after a significant death or divorce; or there may be some other reason why he doesn’t think “happy” and “holidays” go together for him—reasons that he may not want to explain and that probably aren’t any of your business.
My wife died a few days before Christmas five years ago. The season doesn’t bother me much now, but the first year or two afterwards, the Christmas season was very non festive for me.
Well, you know the guy and we don’t. Does he seem like the kind of guy who’d fall for these phony “War on Christmas” scares the right keeps making up? If so I’d be tempted to wish him Happy Holidays all through December. If not, I’d refrain. He may be in a bad place, as several posters have pointed out.
As a former Jehovah’s Witness, such expressions of holiday cheer were tough. If I said “you too” that implied that I was celebrating and it was a huge faux pas in JW realms. I would just say “thank you” and try to move on quickly. It was fraught. So it could be something like that. Maybe he just can’t really figure out a response that makes him feel okay in line with something like that. It might not be JW specific, but some sort of belief where he feels uncomfortable with the holiday.
This weekend I said “Happy Holidays” to a friend who then replied in a sanctimonious tone, “Merry Christmas”. I then suggested he climb down off his cross, he then pointed out that I was thinking of Easter.
We were both just kidding around, but people around us were very quiet for a bit.
I’m not Jewish, but when someone wishes me “Happy Hanukkah” I’ll respond with something along the lines of, “Thank you for your good wishes.” I won’t stare at them in cold silence.
My sister is one of those “Merry Christmas” activists. I don’t know what crawled up her butt and died, but I ignore it. Of all the things to get upset about…