See StatsCan tries to cancel Xmas.
The rabbi’s comment says it all…
I have to sympathize with R. Bulka. I’ve been getting junk mail this past week that says “Seasons’ Greetings!” or “Happy Holidays!”; the mail includes a photo, graphic, or other artwork that makes clear which season and which holiday they have in mind. I’d much prefer an honest holiday greeting that I can shrug off to a dishonest one.
I prefer it this way. Most people are celebrating some sort of a holiday, if none other than the civil new year, but we aren’t all celebrating the same holiday. I think it’s as respectful to tell me “happy holidays” as it is to ask, “do you have a partner?” instead of “do you have a girlfriend?”
Why not just say “Happy Holidays” and “Seasons Greetings” and also be correct in most if not all circumstances? Is there a downside to that?
I think the rampant political correctness has grown to rather absurd levels, and did so years back. Some people are taking to great an offense at absolutely nothing in a socio-political climate where they know minority voices can be heard over the din. Why is it such a faux-pas to wish someone a Merry Christmas in a part of the world where Christmas is the predominant annual celebration by a vast majority? If they are of a religion that does not celebrate Christmas, a polite thanks and brief explanation that they do not celebrate Christmas is all that is required. Would I be upset by someone wishing me a happy Hanukkah? Kwanzaa? Ramadan? Hell, no. Of course I have a complete lack of religious zeal, so maybe I’m not the best judge.
Just the same, the idea that a holiday season, born of a Christian celebration, filled with Christian imagery and music, should be completely homogenized so that people of different faiths who don’t even celebrate the holiday can still feel somehow included is ridiculous and smacks of sour grapes at not being invited to the party.
I’m not religious by any means. My enjoyment of the holiday season is based on the idealism of love and giving and thinking of friends and family when the rest of the year might be spent a little more focused on one’s own immediate family and career. Participating on these grounds however removes the religious aspect from the equation, and given that, why then would there be any insult, real or imagined, in wishing someone a Merry Christmas? Sure, the wishee may not be aware of your lack of religious intent in the missive, but since it is meant entirely in good cheer this really shouldn’t even enter into it. Being insulted by someone’s good intentions seems to me to be an act of ignorance and thinly veiled hostility when it is clear that the wish was not meant as a directed insult to the other person’s religious beliefs. I wouldn’t go to a mosque or synagogue and wish the members there a Merry Christmas, and anyone who did ought to expect a backlash – but on the streets where Christmas is in full swing it is only and ever meant as a jovial greeting whether or not any religious connotations are implied in the greeter’s message.
I personally think that this is all just tilting at windmills. Christmas is Christmas, whatever it means to you, and this is a nation of people who overwhelmingly celebrate it. If you take offense to it or to those who celebrate it, don’t go places where you’re likely to run afoul of it.
If you wouldn’t be offended by these things why does Season’s Greetings or Happy Holidays offend you? I think that people being generally polite and not greeting someone who could be pagan or hindu or jewish or whatever with a hearty Merry Christmas is actually quite nice. I do not get offended when people tell me Merry Christmas, so why should they get offended if I tell them Happy Holidays?
Most non-christians take the religious overtones of the holiday in stride knowing that it is not malicious, but it is harder for everyone when the little things that are done to be a bit more accepting of everyone are stamped down by the religious extremists of society. The proper response to “Happy Holidays” should not be, “Fuck you! How dare you try to force me to deny my Lord!” Just like the proper response to “Merry Christmas” should not be, “Fuck you! How dare you try to force me to worship your lord!”
It isn’t that I’m offended by such a neutral greeting itself, it’s that I find the need for these neutral greetings silly. Perhaps I’m just a sappy traditionalist but this season has always been peppered with liberal greetings of “Merry Christmas.” Diluting it with “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings” for what no useful reason that I can see – simply because there seems to be this small but vocal contingent of frumps who would appear to take it as a personal attack on dignity any time the Queen farted. All this barking at trees is just tiresome and pointless and I really don’t see the need to alter my behavior because of it.
makes the following assumptions:
- that nobody prefers to say “happy holidays”;
- that there is no reason to say “happy holidays”;
- that “happy holidays” has been systematically imposed by someone;
- that “happy holidays” is of recent vintage.
Sorry – didn’t mean to imply that any of it is new or preferable by anyone in particular. Rather, the attention that has been called to it in the last few years that is encouraging greater use of the generic because of the offense some have taken to the idea of being wished a Merry Christmas is what I’m annoyed by. It really shouldn’t even be an issue – say what you want the same as you’ve always said it as far as I’m concerned. As long as it is all done with the good intentions they’re made for then what’s the problem?
The funny thing is, I never heard anything about it until the War on Christmas meme started circulating the other year. People said “happy holidays” when it was sensible to do so, and little ruckus was made about same.
I’ve encountered all manner of holiday greetings since I was a kid, but “Merry Christmas” was the most prevalent. And it was never an issue until the easily offended started kicking up a fuss a few years back. A certain level of political correctness is fine where it seeks to bring peace and harmony to one’s communications with people of different backgrounds, but to begin impeaching firmly entrenched traditions that intend no offense to begin with just because it doesn’t jive with whatever you’re into – especially when it’s because what you’re into is not native to the land you currently reside in – is just stupid.
Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays/Seasons Greetings/Feliz Navidad/Joyeux Noël/Der ist mein ßleistift!
I’m strongly tempted to make a sig out of this. 