Apparently saying Happy Holidays is not PC these days....SMH

[Willie Boy]

I would've thought "Happy Holidays" was more PC...? It's very much an Americanism, though; I'm from the UK, we all say "Merry Christmas" here.

I thought y'all said Happy Christmas. At least that's what the Brits I know say.

 

[nycguydowntown]

Christmas is the Holiest of all days, so 'Happy Holy Day' would be right.
But it does sound odd.

I think in the Catholic church-- Easter is holier but who gives a crap.

 

[peeonme]

Some feel that Christmas is under attack, some store now sell "holiday trees", I mean Really?
Then there has been the fuss about nativity scenes at City Hall in some towns, the court said that if they added such things as frosty the snowman, Santa and a Menorah that they could keep their nativity scene.

I have always said "Merry Christmas" only in the last decade or so have I been countered with a "happy Holidays" in what seemed to be a corrective tone of voice.

I don't care, I say what I want, I am not changing now.

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

If there is one thing I don't get is the "taking christ out of christmas" part of it. When it has nothing to do with it.

 

[gsdx]

This just in:

For a decade, the war on Christmas has been a reliable outrage generator in the U.S. for its main protagonists, Fox News and the American Family Association (AFA), a conservative Christian pressure group, both of which have decried school boards kowtowing to parents who object to carols in their children’s “winter concerts,” or bans on religious-themed ornaments on official “holiday” trees. But this year, all is quiet on the Yuletide front, so far, either because it always takes a few days of Thanksgiving digestion before the guns of December fire, or, perhaps, because the war has simply petered out.

Even more murky is the question of who won. On the one hand, across America, state legislatures are renaming their seasonal conifers—some of which have been “holiday” trees since the 1980s—Christmas trees, and Christmas concerts are re-emerging from their “winter” limbo. The AFA, which annually issues a naughty-or-nice list hammering retailers who keep their staffs on a “Happy Holidays” rather than a “Merry Christmas” script, has seen Wal-Mart, Lowes and Sears—all former naughty-list headliners—join its very nice five-star group, whose employees now trumpet, “Merry Christmas,” as a Wal-Mart spokeswoman said, “early and often.” Wins for the Christian right, it would seem, at least if tying the birth of the Christ child ever more tightly to the seasonal orgy of consumerism—capitalism’s annual high-water mark—can be considered a victory for the AFA.

But the lack of resistance is telling. What actually seems to be happening is that Christmas is continuing down the bifurcated path it’s been on since Charles Dickens’s time. There is a religious feast centred on the birth of Jesus Christ celebrated by most Christians, and there is Western culture’s collective annual gift-giving/feasting holiday extravaganza with a particular focus on children. Both groups call it Christmas.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/the-battle-against-santa-211411616.html

 

[Taz]

I don't wish anyone a happy holiday or merry Christmas except for people I'm spending the actual day with.

 

[pat grimshaw]

If there is one thing I don't get is the "taking christ out of christmas" part of it. When it has nothing to do with it.

What is it? A holiday? A day when you get paid at double rate to work?

 

[nycguydowntown]

To answer your question ---I'm a New Yorker---I would have told her to fuck off and mind her own business.....

 

[Rickrock]

I would think that Happy Holidays is more politically correct, especially if you don't know the beliefs of the receiving party. Some people think that atheists are forcing taking Christ out of Christmas and have gone too far and are trying to put Christ back into Christmas. I agree with them and sometimes let people know that I am okay with Merry Christmas, but if they still lean toward Happy Holidays, then I am okay to let them. These are U.S. phrases.

P.S. She was being a pain in the neck and should be avoided if possible.

 

[Kahaih]

I don't wish anyone a happy holiday or merry Christmas except for people I'm spending the actual day with.

This seems right/appropriate to me.

I don't get why people toss out hollow greetings/well wishes to total strangers. I mean, store employees are told to do this to boost sales, I'm sure – the (forced?) mechanics of it seems hollow/insincere, but I get it.

But just in passing, not knowing enough about the person to be genuine with one's words, one might as well say 'good luck with your surgery', or 'happy hang gliding day'.

Saying 'I'll say what ever I want' seems like very insincere and self-serving behavior. What good comes of it – what is gained? Is it just to make the greeter feel good about him/herself? Is it a solicitation – hoping to force a 'back-at-you' response?

 

[bankside]

I'll wish people a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays...they've all been said for as long as I can remember, and I don't mind either way. Unless I'm speaking to someone who feels entitled to have me wish them a Merry Christmas. Then it's nothing but Happy Holidays. If they don't want to have happy holidays, they can have miserable holidays instead.

 

[dpnice]

We tend to say " Bonne Fête" here in France so the problem doesn't really exist.

 

[yhtang]

I celebrate Winter Solstice instead of Christmas (I am Chinese). I am fine with Happy Holidays because it is non-exclusive to one particular religion. I embrace diversity.

 

[pigface]

I don't get why people toss out hollow greetings/well wishes to total strangers. I mean, store employees are told to do this to boost sales, I'm sure – the (forced?) mechanics of it seems hollow/insincere, but I get it.

But just in passing, not knowing enough about the person to be genuine with one's words, one might as well say 'good luck with your surgery', or 'happy hang gliding day'.

Saying 'I'll say what ever I want' seems like very insincere and self-serving behavior. What good comes of it – what is gained? Is it just to make the greeter feel good about him/herself? Is it a solicitation – hoping to force a 'back-at-you' response?

^^^^ Excellent comments!
The same goes for those people who give a gift to absolutely everyone. Those gifts mean NOTHING. It's such a "me me me" attitude.

 

[dpnice]

It is called empathy or just good old fashioned politeness. Wishing someone you don't know a Happy Holiday is not necessarily an empty phrase but for many a heart felt means of sharing what one hopes will be a happy occasion for everyone.

pigface Obviously some people give gifts with ulterior motives but that doesn't mean giving gifts to many people is reprehensible; for many people gift giving is a joy.

 

[Alnitak]

Merry Christmas as a personal address is actually insulting to a non-Christian person because of the assumption that it carries. No it's not a universal holiday and no we're not all Christian. You wouldn't believe how many people really think we put up trees in our living rooms. Growing up the only Christmas trees I saw were on TV, 20 feet tall, and in public.

 

[peeonme]

Where I retired from the boss a few days before Christmas would go around handing out envelopes that said "Merry Christmas" on them.
He would shake our hands wishing us a Merry Christmas and give us the envelopes, inside was a check the last one I received was $3000.00, I am sure some were higher and some were lower.
During this time of year we got some paid days off, Christmas Eve., Christmas and New Years.
I worked with some Buddhists, some atheists and some agnostics. Christians were in the minority.

Not once did anyone decline the Christmas gift or demand to work. Not once did anyone speak of hurt feelings on being insulted.
All quickly opened their Christmas envelope to see how much this holiday got them.

 

[Kahaih]

Where I retired from the boss a few days before Christmas would go around handing out envelopes that said "Merry Christmas" on them.
He would shake our hands wishing us a Merry Christmas and give us the envelopes, inside was a check the last one I received was $3000.00, I am sure some were higher and some were lower.
During this time of year we got some paid days off, Christmas Eve., Christmas and New Years.
I worked with some Buddhists, some atheists and some agnostics. Christians were in the minority.

Not once did anyone decline the Christmas gift or demand to work. Not once did anyone speak of hurt feelings on being insulted.
All quickly opened their Christmas envelope to see how much this holiday got them.

That's not really such a great story.

The 'bribery', or 'bought off', angle of it kind of turns my stomach, actually.

That's how/why the Christians first latched on to the old Winter Solstice (Pagan?) traditions.

I've read many times that even if Jesus ever existed, he wasn't born on Dec. 25 – but, bribe people and their kids with presents/cash/days off, and they'll go along/eat it up.

 

[EJMichaels]

To be sociable, I tend to wish people what they've wished me, and wait until the new year to express wishes more freely. Many non-Christians experience the change of the standard calendar with some sort of observation, even if their religion-based year is different. I'll wish my Christian friends a Merry Christmas, or something similar.

As someone raised Jewish, I think of this time of year as Christmas and not part of what matters to me. I don't especially like Chanukah getting Christmastized by lumping it in "Happy Holidays." It's not a parallel holiday and I do not feel excluded if not wished a happy Chanukah. It's a fairly good guess that a white European sort of American is Christian, so I don't blame people if they offer me a Christmas greeting when trying to be nice. (I'm less tolerate when assumed to be straight, but that's another discussion.) As a child, I was content to be different. We quietly lit the candles and exchanged gifts, not making a fuss about the "holiday season". Now, I feel like we're supposed to be having a Jewish version of Christmas, with giant lit-up menorahs instead of reindeer and Santa. It's not the only sort of mainstreaming I dislike, and I understand how it happens -- annoying, but not a big deal.

Also, I enjoy giving gifts throughout the year and dislike the command performance period of December. On the other hand, I suppose there is some benefit of having a designated date on which to express fond feelings, gratitude, and such things. People might not bother doing that other times of the year.

 

[sixthson]

Where I retired from the boss a few days before Christmas would go around handing out envelopes that said "Merry Christmas" on them.
He would shake our hands wishing us a Merry Christmas and give us the envelopes, inside was a check the last one I received was $3000.00, I am sure some were higher and some were lower.
During this time of year we got some paid days off, Christmas Eve., Christmas and New Years.
I worked with some Buddhists, some atheists and some agnostics. Christians were in the minority.

Not once did anyone decline the Christmas gift or demand to work. Not once did anyone speak of hurt feelings on being insulted.
All quickly opened their Christmas envelope to see how much this holiday got them.

Good post!

I am not bothered when someone says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" even though I believe the reason for celebration for most Americans and much of the rest of the world is December 25th. It is about Christmas. I would not wish a merry Christmas to a Jew, Muslim, atheist or anyone else I knew to not observe the day. If someone wish me a Happy Ramadan, I would not be insulted. I might giggle, but I wouldn't be insulted.

I am not so naive as to believe most people who celebrate Christmas do it for Christian reasons, however. For most it's about family and friends and time off work.

Merry Christmas everyone!