"Happy Holidays" v. "Merry Christmas"

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"Happy Holidays" is a simple phrase that applies to everyone.

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no it doesnt.

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Close enough.

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yeah, its close enough that they might as well stick with merry christmas.

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I'd be fine with that too.

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id be finer with strangers not saying anything.

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Good luck with that

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i know [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

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Happy Holidays is the more general term. Top companies make sure they dont use "Merry Christmas" just so that people dont sue them or file a lawsuit. Aparently, people get offended If you use "Merry Christmas". I got this version from my company secretary and I work for one of the top five consulting firms in the world.

This is a nice one that shows the ptoblem with Christmas being all over your face.

A Jewish Mother Letter to Santa from the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

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This is a nice one that shows the ptoblem with Christmas being all over your face.

A Jewish Mother Letter to Santa from the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

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Very touching. That 1st Santa was an ignorant jerk. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

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I know it's been a day since the last post on this thread but I wanted to put in my 2 cents on being offended, etc. by holiday greetings.
As a point of reference, I was raised as a Jew but now am more of a very spiritual person who realizes that the ways of our universe cannot be confined to the limitations that any major world religion attempts to place upon it and its workings. Anyway...

I am not personally "offended" by people wishing me Merry Christmas, happy holidays, etc. However, I do sometimes find it annoying. Yes, all intentions are good. People are wishing me to have a happy and enjoyable holiday, and I am grateful for that. However, to wish someone Merry Christmas still comes from a place of major ethnocentrism. It makes the huge assumption that all people in this country are Christian, or at least are so engulfed in a Christian society that they don't mind being told to have a happy time this year celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

Someone asked, "would you be offended if you went to the Middle East and wished you a happy Ramadan?" No, I wouldn't, because in most Middle Eastern countries (and in many countries) there is an official religion, and that religion permeates many aspects of their society.

Yes, Christianity does here in the US, too, but it shouldn't. If one of the foundations of this nation is the separation of church and state, then we shouldn't have a national (NATIONAL!) holiday based on the head figure of a religion.

To say happy holidays is also kind of silly because, truly, it's the lazy politically correct way to still wish someone Merry Christmas without saying it. It's like saying, "hey, look at me. I'm an all inclusive person now! Happy Whatever, non Christian!"

The really funny thing about the whole shebang is that Hannukah isn't even a major Jewish holiday!! Society just assumes it is because it is around the same time as a major Christian holiday!

If we were to flip it around for a moment, it's like if Jews went around wishing everyone a great Passover, but then realizing that that isn't all inclusive, made sure to wish everyone a great Good Friday, assuming that that is a huge Christian holiday.

People, be aware that the major reason why Christmas is such a big deal is because of the gross materialistic commercialization, and if I were a Christian, THIS would offend me greatly. It would be corrupting a most sacred part of my religion, and it's an insult to Christianity and it's an insult to Jesus, who I do believe was a brilliant man and an enlightened being who was sent to us to raise our level of consciousness. But we corrupted and misinterpeted his messages and turned it into a season of buying crap for relatives and bad sitcom specials. Does this ring a bell?


"Merry Christmas, Urkel."
"Merry Christmas, Winslows. And God bless us, everyone. Now, who's got some cheese? (snort snort)"

And to all those who say, "It's a time of year when everyone is getting along and being nice to each other, isn't that a good thing?"
Yes, it is, but it's not a good thing that we have designated times of the year when we express our love for each other. We buy gifts for people on Christmas, for their birthdays, and we buy some expensive shiny thing for our women on Valentine's Day. It's as if our society has said, "It's too much work to show our affection every day, so do it on these days, and if we all agree to do it on these days, then you won't have to do it on the other days."

I let the important people in my life who I love know it on a regular basis. I buy people gifts for people when I feel like it and I see something that I think they'd like, not necesarily on days I'm told I'm supposed to get them something.

And this to me means more to do nice things for people on a regular basis, and not some official time. And I'm not saying that people are normally jerks and then all of the sudden on Christmas they're nice (although some people I know are like that).

But we sure do use holidays as a reason to get along.
"Come on, let's not fight- It's Christmas!"

Well, crap, if we're fighting some other time are we just supposed to have it out? Sure, why not? No one important died TODAY.

Wow, this ended up a lot longer than I thought. Sorry.

For the record, when someone wishes me a Merry Christmas or happy holidays, I say thank you and wish them the same. And I do mean it.
I am just of the opinion that we need to stop having excuses for being kind to each other; we need to stop making it a special occasion, because then it allows for us to take each other for granted the other 360 days of the year. Are you with me on this people?

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I am just of the opinion that we need to stop having excuses for being kind to each other; we need to stop making it a special occasion, because then it allows for us to take each other for granted the other 360 days of the year. Are you with me on this people?

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I am with you, mate. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Nice post. One quick comment about this:

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If one of the foundations of this nation is the separation of church and state, then we shouldn't have a national (NATIONAL!) holiday based on the head figure of a religion.

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That's still a big debate here in the U.S. -- Evangelicals, particularly, think the "separation of church & state" is not part of our heritage, but rather we are a Christian nation.

I am atheist and I do find it a little offensive when people tell me Merry Christmas. I am not offended when people wish me Happy Holidays, because I consider New Year's part of the holidays. I am, however, highly offended by the Christmas display in front of my small town's city hall. I have called about the display to see if it was purchased by the city, and indeed it was. I have already made arrangements to contact the ACLU regarding this. How dare a local government that is using MY tax dollars purchase religious displays.

Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. State churches that use government power to support themselves and force their views on persons of other faiths undermine all our civil rights. Moreover, state support of the church tends to make the clergy unresponsive to the people and leads to corruption within religion. Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society.
We have solved ... the great and interesting question whether freedom of religion is compatible with order in government and obedience to the laws. And we have experienced the quiet as well as the comfort which results from leaving every one to profess freely and openly those principles of religion which are the inductions of his own reason and the serious convictions of his own inquiries.
-- Thomas Jefferson, to the Virginia Baptists (1808). This is his second use of the term "wall of separation," here quoting his own use in the Danbury Baptist letter. This wording was several times upheld by the Supreme Court as an accurate description of the Establishment Clause: Reynolds (98 U.S. at 164, 1879); Everson (330 U.S. at 59, 1947); McCollum (333 U.S. at 232, 1948)