"Happy Holidays" v. "Merry Christmas"

[lehighguy]

It's not subtle when my mom isn't allowed to put a Christmas decoration on her desk (Hunakkah and Kwanza are ok though, the bank can't get sued for those).

[hmkpoker]

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It's not subtle when my mom isn't allowed to put a Christmas decoration on her desk (Hunakkah and Kwanza are ok though, the bank can't get sued for those).

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The Jews run the banks, and the blacks don't have white collar jobs.


(this is a joke, btw)

[lastchance]

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I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all, without any reservations, the compliments of the season. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Cute, [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] but I'm not going to use it, takes too long. :P

Merry Christmas is perfect for those people who you personally know are Christian, especially if you see them on December 23rd. For those who you know celebrate Christmas, "Merry Christmas" should be used as often as possible.

Happy Hanukkah/Kwanzaa is too American for me, IMHO. It would be like saying "Happy Christmas." Too Americanized. While I use English a lot more than Chinese, I'd never say Happy Chinese New Year, it will be "xin nian kuai le." It's culture.

I actually really like this one (for school at least): "Enjoy your break." (combined with some other random stuff)

Considering our vacation is a very long two weeks, I feel "Enjoy your break" is right up there with "Merry Christmas."

And yeah, I'm still in school. At work, when your break is two or three days, I'm definitely going to need to find something new.

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Merry Christmas offended people, so it was widely replaced with Happy Holidays (to account for the small % of our population who is Jewish, non Jewish/Christian Africans, and/or indiginous germanic tribal living in America, I suppose), yet wouldnt Happy Holidays still offend atheists and muslims?

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I believe this all started when various organizations/retailers made a conscious effort to shift from saying "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays" (or whatever). It has more to do with avoiding potential offence than anyone actually complaining about anything. Store X wants everybody to spend $2000 at this time of year - why limit it to people who celebrate Christmas? Why even hint at discouraging them? Especially when "non-Christian" is a faster growing demographic than "Christian"?

As for the offensiveness of the phrase "Merry Christmas", it primarily stems from the root word "Christ" which means "annointed one" as in "annointed to be the Son of God". Now I don't care about this. I like Christmas for it's secular charms and I'm just as willing to keep calling it Christmas as I'm willing to say that today is "Tuesday" (i.e. the day of the Norse God Tyr).

The really silly thing about all this is that there is precious little about Christmas that is actually Christian in origin. The "reason for the season" has far more to do with the solstice than Jesus.

On a side note, The Daily Show and Stephen Colbert did a wonderful job on this issue this past week. I especially loved this jab at Bill O'Reilly (paraphrased).

Bill O : I don't understand why anyone would find "Merry chritmas" offensive. It's not.

A different interview:
Bill O : Saying "Happy Holidays" is deeply offensive to Christians.

[Peter666]

"If you are serious then I would have responded that there is no god and that would have really gotten things started."

Definitely, because I usually respond with something to the effect: "There is no God? Good. No one can save you now!" And proceed with a sucker punch.

I'd be very surprised if you could find an atheist that could be offended by a holiday greeting, they have a predisposition to common sense.

I heard this year that some xstians are offended by "crossing out Christ" so from now on its Xmas as far as I'm concerned [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

As South Park explained, its no longer about religion or any rubbish like that, Christmas is about.. Presents

[bocablkr]

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"If you are serious then I would have responded that there is no god and that would have really gotten things started."

Definitely, because I usually respond with something to the effect: "There is no God? Good. No one can save you now!" And proceed with a sucker punch.

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You sucker punch someone because they start a conversation about god? By the way, the last guy that tried to sucker punch me ended up in the hospital (don't miss).

[hmkpoker]

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"If you are serious then I would have responded that there is no god and that would have really gotten things started."

Definitely, because I usually respond with something to the effect: "There is no God? Good. No one can save you now!" And proceed with a sucker punch.

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You sucker punch someone because they start a conversation about god? By the way, the last guy that tried to sucker punch me ended up in the hospital (don't miss).

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Did you just make a physical threat or brag in a message board?

[bocablkr]

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I'd be very surprised if you could find an atheist that could be offended by a holiday greeting, they have a predisposition to common sense.



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I am offended by Merry Christmas, not a generic Holiday greeting. Also offended by 'in God we trust' and 'one nation under God'. It implies that I believe in God which I find very insulting.

[bocablkr]

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[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
"If you are serious then I would have responded that there is no god and that would have really gotten things started."

Definitely, because I usually respond with something to the effect: "There is no God? Good. No one can save you now!" And proceed with a sucker punch.

[/ QUOTE ]

You sucker punch someone because they start a conversation about god? By the way, the last guy that tried to sucker punch me ended up in the hospital (don't miss).

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Did you just make a physical threat or brag in a message board?

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Peter666 made the threat - it's not bragging if its true.