I honestly think down here in Aus, coverage of Christmas by the mainstream media is completely secular. The most mystical part of Christmas is Santa.
‘Merry Christmas’ has no religous undertones at all. Christmas is the end of year holiday.
In the same vein I was taught to speak to anyone as I encounter them. I often say good morning to patrons in my office building with nary an acknowledgement. Very rude IMO.
and this, my fellow Dopers, is why someday I would like to have a few beers with kayaker in his neighbourhood pub! 
I have occasionally ignored similar wishes, too. <Shrug> It isn’t my holiday. Which is my least-bad choice: a reciprocated return of similar sentiment is kind of a lie (it isn’t my holiday, after all) and stopping to explain that it isn’t my holiday seems tiresome and rude. Simply ignoring it and moving on to other conversational topics sometimes seems prudent.
As a Christian, I love it when people say “Happy Holidays”. It’s inclusive, and they’re wishing me, what, like ten happy days? (when’s Festivus again? Gotta make my list…)
Swear to Og, when my Fox News-swilling mother responds to my “Happy Holidays” with a “Merry Christmas!” I’m going to say “So you only want me to have ONE good day?”
Since we hit the single digits (ºF) I’ve been replying to any greeting with “Stay warm!”
New Years isn’t your holiday?
Christ is back… and he posts on the Dope! :eek:
Exactly right.
not rude. A lot of us aren’t morning persons and just don’t respond the way YOU think we should. By keeping quiet, they might be refraining from actually BEING rude.
Is this acquaintance, perchance, someone that works in a service sector that does not get any time off over the christmas season?
Or someone whose religion (or absence thereof) does not commemorate this time off year?
Or a devout Christian who thinks you are a heathen Heretic for refusing to Honor the Holy Season with the Correct Appellation?(note the capitalizations)
Or possibly just someone who believes you defiled his teenage daughter, but cannot prove it, thus hates your guts but has to be quiet about it?
Or possibly someone who is remembering the 73 times when he greeted you with a chirpy ‘good morning!’, but you had not yet had your morning coffee and thus only grunted back at him?
Why does that matter? No other holiday is.
As an ex-Witness, my go to move was to smile and say thank you. I reasoned that the phrase was meant to wish me joy, so a thank you was just being polite.
Other Witnesses may be too morally conflicted to respond. So they revert to Pledge of Allegiance Mode, where you just stare into space until the moral conflict passes. They aren’t trying to be rude, but it seems that way to a lot of people.
That’s the point of Happy “Holidays”, there are a bunch of holidays during the period, including a major secular holiday. One would have to go out of one’s way to take offense to the phrase.
Yes, it’s “Merry Christmas, but in case you don’t celebrate that, I wish you joy anyway.”
I would have thought “thanks” is an okay response if you just don’t celebrate mid-winter. If you are in mourning, or dreading forced time with toxic family, an icey stare might suggest, “I’d rather you not bring that up.”
Agreed. If you can’t say anything nice… (The only time I enjoy seeing a sunrise is right before going to bed. 
Honestly, I think people overthink things. (Or under-think them?) “Merry Christmas” “Happy Holidays” “Good morning” “Good day” “Happy Hanukkah” etc. are all abbreviated and leave off the “May you have a…” part of the greeting. It isn’t some sort of secret code word to show you are members of the same organization. They are all forms of well-wishes from someone that wants to say more than “Hello” “Hi” “Greetings” or “I acknowledge your presence”. Accepting good will should not be offensive to any reasonable person, and if you feel you must reciprocate then do so with a greeting in whatever form you are comfortable. If you get stuck, just respond to religious greetings with “Live long and Prosper.” That shouldn’t offend anyone but militant nerf-herders.
Who said they took offense to the phrase?
The bolded part is absolutely wrong as far as societal customs and secondary effects go.
If someone can’t respond to happy holidays with “thanks” or “you too,” they probably have some agenda playing in their head that’s only important to them.
I had one customer yesterday who, when I gave her the obligatory “Happy Holidays” responded with a snarled “Merry Christmas.”
As I tell people, the only December holiday I celebrate is my Birthday.