OK, I've thought about this particular issue for quite a while, and here's where I stand. And remember, this is my opinion, that's all. If I am talking to someone, whose religious background I know, I wish them a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, or whatever. If I don't know their religious background, I wish them Happy Holidays. I'd like the same back from others. I'm Jewish, and though not offended, I much prefer Happy Holidays to anything else if someone doesn't know my religious affiliation. To me, it's courteous, sends a clear positive message, and is respectful of my possible beliefs. Truthfully, I don't like being wished 'Merry Christmas'. I do not celebrate. I completely understand that no malice or discrimination is intended, when someone wishes me this; they are wishing me happiness in the current season, and I consider that kind of them. It's just uncomfortable and something I'm not fond of (undoubtedly related to being persecuted and discriminated against, because of my religion, in the past, both in general and around the holidays).
If someone wishes me 'MerryChristmas', however, I don't scowl, angrily walk away, or explain to them how rude they are for assuming I am Christian. I mearly smile, and either say, 'you, too', or 'Happy Holidays', or something similar.
With all this in mind, I can understand why some stores would ask their employees to say, 'Happy Holidays', rather than something more specific. I know, I always appreciate this small courtesy, and I have a hard time understanding why anyone would be offended by either saying or hearing 'Happy Holidays'...unless Kandahar is right about some Christian fundamentalists.
I'm right there with you.
I was actually
taught as a child (by
nuns, no less, as well as at home) that "Happy Holidays" is a more universally correct and inclusive greeting than "Merry Christmas".
I don't believe anyone gets offended by "Merry Christmas", although I know some people who might prefer a different salutation, since they are celebrating a holiday other than christmas.
But I know plenty of people who get offended- or worse,
morally outraged- by "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings".
I know that every year I've been on the internet (which has been four years, so far) this same issue has been brought up around the holidays, each year as if it's a "new" issue, even though it was discussed last year, and the year before, and maybe for the past two decades, for all I know.
After having heard it debated numerous times, I
am beginning to resent "Merry Christmas" (whereas I never did before) because in light of all this hostility and defiant, self-righteous pontification on the part of morally outraged fundamentalist Christians, the salutation itself begins to feel confrontational, aggressive, hostile.... some kind of secret-code challenge; a verbal gauntlet thrown down.
So, yeah. If anything's tainted "Merry Christmas" for me, it's this dumb PC-strawman debate I have to listen to every year.
It's nothing but an empty rallying cry for fundamentalist conservatives, since nobody's threatening their right to freedom of religion or freedom of expression, or their right to celebrate Christmas or
say Christmas, or even their right to be rude, silly, and pompous twits.
This year, if you wish me a merry christmas, don't be surprised to receive a rather pointed but nevertheless perfectly cordial "
Happy Holidays" in return.
I can't, at this point, stop suspecting that every "Merry Christmas" is merely part of a fundamentalist agenda to promote xenophobia and further exclude and marginalize those of other religions and cultures.
And I
never thought that, I never did, until I started encountering this absurd "Merry Christmas versus Happy Holiday" debate over the past several years.
The Christian participants' invariable tone of self-righteous smugness is well nigh intolerable; they seem to desperately
hope that their "Merry Christmases" are mortally offending those who do not subscribe to their religion.
They seem perversely pleased when someone tentatively suggests they might prefer a less sectarian holiday greeting; they seem to take an almost indecent delight in informing that person that- preferences notwithstanding- they
will be wished "Merry Christmas" and that there's not a thing they can do about it because this is a Christian nation, blah blah blah.
All of which makes me think that the whole object is to offend or be objectionable, in hopes that someone-
anyone- will object.
