Don’t get angry but I think you have to say ‘Christmas.’
Only to Christians. Actually, no, I don’t have to say Christmas to anyone. I’m a Pagan, half to two thirds of my relatives are Jewish or atheist or both, I know a lot of Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and various other stripes of people, and it’s easiest just to say “Happy Holidays”. I wish you joy in celebrating whatever you celebrate and a good day even if you aren’t celebrating anything.
That would make an excellent greeting card.
How can one not get angry that you think you have the right to tell someone else what to say?
Particularly when you are telling them they have to refer to what is probably the oldest celebration by the term imposed by one of the youngest religions?
How can you believe that is remotely acceptable behavior? Not only trying to impose your beliefs on others, but in the process attacking their enjoyment of a universally recognized and beloved holiday?
Why would you think that is okay?
Oh, so you’re cutting through the obvious joke in that last post? First, it’s a bit like someone greeting you “Happy Birthday” a few days before your birth date, so a correction wouldn’t be too rude. I’m not too clear on your “oldest celebration … by the youngest religion” but I just want to blow away one of the lamer excuses that Happy-Holidays-has-been-around-since-Bing-Crosby-so-why-complain-now? It’s not an issue one can resolve through a proper time frame. We’re talking about a deliberate distortion.
If you don’t want me to impose my beliefs on you, then don’t dabble with any of them. You’re still free to celebrate Michaelmas despite that.
Don’t worry, everyone! Sarah Palin is now on the case, as she’s now promoting her new book “Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas”. I’m sure it’ll be very factually enlightening.
I picked up a trick a long time ago: anytime someone got offended when I said “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” I apologized and said I didn’t realize they didn’t celebrate New Year’s Eve. Most of them sputtered in confusion and admitted they did. I would always try to end the conversation at that point, sometimes with another “Happy Holidays!” for good measure.
Excuse my ignorance of American cultural sensitivities, but who exactly is hurt if someone wishes him ‘merry christmas’ instead of ‘happy holidays’? Why would an innocuous greeting make one feel “excluded” from the community, which is purportedly the reason people prefer the sanitized, secularized version?
Years ago I wished my (first) American boss the unpolitically correct MC and was promptly and politely corrected. “HH is the right way to greet people, and not give offense”, I was told. While I learnt my lesson, I never could understand why anyone would be offended by a little greeting.
I am not Christian, and I don’t mind giving out or receiving a ‘merry christmas’, or ‘eid mubarak’, or ‘happy diwali’ or the muslim greeting ‘salaam aleikum’, which is fairly common in India in Muslim areas. (Back in India, where I lived it was almost mandatory to wish Muslim elders ‘salaam’ when you met them personally, regardless of whether you were Muslim or not. And Muslims freely use ‘namaste’, and ‘shubh deepavali’, Hindu greetings.)
BTW, isn’t ‘holidays’ un-American too? The right term is ‘vacation’. So we should be wishing ‘Happy Vacations’ instead.
Happy Christmas. Merry holidays.
There are some aggressively proselytizing Christians over here. I can not emphasize enough that they are a subset of American Christians, most of whom are pretty tolerant and polite. However, these aggressive Christians basically want to outlaw anything else (and often some sects of Christianity they don’t approve of or don’t think Christian enough). They want THEIR religion out in public, but everyone else should go hide, or better yet, wise up and convert to their religion.
These yahoos have poisoned the well and do try to exclude anything other than their brand of religion.
I suspect the rise of “happy holidays” has been somewhat a reaction to this, and also from a desire to let the non-Christians know they are welcome at various establishments. This infuriates the extremists who want NO acknowledgement of anyone else’s beliefs and everyone else to conform to what they think is right.
So would my earlier post #19
To every person who *pointed *says Merry Christmas as if they’re part of the resistance, I love hitting them back with a hearty Yuletide Greetings! Preferable I’m sharpening an axe when this takes place.
Gadzooks, that’s a great point.
I’ve yet to hear one person tell me that he/she was ever told not to say Merry Christmas. Some people live to bitch.
I opened the Rocky Mountain front on the War Against Christmas™ yesterday. someone sneezed during a meeting, and I yelled “Happy Holidays”.
It seems like the war on Christmas starts earlier every year, doesn’t it?
It seems everything has to be an issue nowadays, which is, of course, firmly in keeping with those Christian Values. :rolleyes: I got one of those FB things from my niece and I gently reminded her that not everyone is a christian. I’m probably closest to being an agnostic than anything else. We observe Christmas in the sense that it’s a time to reflect on family and traditions, and to celebrate each other. We like the decorations and lights and concerts, and people seem to be more cheerful than usual. But I’m not a believer. Say whatever you like to me and I’ll respond in kind, as Christmas is a frame of mind and encompasses Thanksgiving through Epiphany, if you believe in that sort of thing. I just can’t get worked up over a few words.
I also got another notice from the same person saying that she was not going to shop on Thanksgiving, because it means that people won’t be with their families (Costco is the present recipient of the hate). I would expect that a lot of those employees are more than happy to draw double time and eat their turkey on Saturday, and that most of them are volunteering to do so. I told her that I agreed and also pledged not to fly, stay in a hotel, eat at a restaurant, visit the ER, call a cop, or allow my garbage to be collected. Fuck those minimum wage earners and their whole tip-based existence! And they’ll get my garbage when they take it from my cold, bacteria-laden hands!
Keep the “S+M” in CHRIS+MAS.
Chefguy, your niece is barking up the wrong retailer…Costco is not open on Thanksgiving.
Upon rereading her post, it’s just retailers in general. My bad.
A new meaning to tieing up the gifts.