Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays

More and more often I'm hearing people say that they're sick of the expression "Happy Holidays," I guess because they feel tired of having to worry about offending people who may not be Christian by wishing them a Merry Christmas.
I use both and don't take offense no matter which expression people use when talking to me, but that's just me.
Christians or people who say they're Christians (and most of the people pushing on this don't seem very Christian to me ), may be the majority in this country, but the last time I checked people of other faiths and people who didn't practice any religion at all were welcome in this country and I'm getting a little tired people who seem to think differently.
Personally, I don't understand why this has become an issue with some people, kind of like the nitwits who complain about the "press one for English" message on phone menus. So, shut up and press one. Unless you press two or three by mistake, what's the big deal?
Anybody else have any thoughts on this?

 

Yes, you need not to watch so much cable TV news and say whatever you damn well please.

 

No guns, no butter, they can both kill you.

 

Yeah, but I can't kill you from across the street with butter.

 

I say Merry Christmukuh just to fuck with people.

 

I find myself using "Happy Holidays" or "have a good holiday," not as much because of the whole "don't offend non-christians" thing (although that's some of it), but also because I'm pretty much lumping the whole next week in together. As far as I'm concerned, Dec. 24-Jan. 1 is a block of time I'd like my acquaintances to enjoy.

 

Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.

And to all a good night.

 

Boy, does this place get predictable sometimes.

 

That's how I've always thought of it too. Even if you're a Christian, you're likely to be celebrating two major holidays -- and "Happy Holidays" is a lot easier to say than "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year". But certain shit-disturbers have gotten it into some people's heads that the only way you can accept Christmas is by ignoring every other holiday that falls in the December-January window.

True story that I think I shared last year around this time: My first days as a Cracker Barrel cashier fell in the middle of the season. I tried to mix my valedictions so I wouldn't fall into the habit of mindlessly repeating the same words in drone-like fashion. If it was pretty obvious the customer was Christian (cross around their neck, Scripture on their checks, what have you), then I'd wish them a Merry Christmas.

One morning I was plowing through the usual breakfast rush and got a customer who was paying for her meal and a bag of mints. She hands me a $20 to pay for it, I give her the change, no harm, no foul. Until I make the mistake of saying "Happy Holidays".

At which point she looks at me as though I asked her to fuck herself with a pecan log, says "Merry CHRISTMAS" in the most cold, contemptuous tone I've ever heard it delivered, and walks out, leaving me more slack-jawed than usual.

Seriously, you're so worried about the words "Merry Christmas" that you don't even think about the spirit in which you deliver it? I can understand to a degree why some people would be bothered by the trend away from talking about Christmas (really, would A Charlie Brown Christmas, with its unrepentantly religious overtones, have a chance of being made like that were it to show up on the CBS president's desk?). And I believe most (or at least many) of the people who despair of the use of "holidays" as opposed to "Christmas" aren't doing so to rub salt in the wounds of the non-believers. But some are, and surprise, surprise, it's their voices carrying the day.

Of course, I think the Christmas most of us celebrate is 20 pounds of bullshit in a 10-pound bag. At this point they should rename it "Commercialism Orgy Day" and be done with it. Given my druthers, my Christmas celebration would consist of a trip to my church on Dec. 24 to celebrate the birth of my Lord and Savior, and that would be that. But instead, I have people buying me gifts despite my repeated insistence that I don't want any part of it, and so I either reciprocate by buying people I barely know anymore things they may or may not want, or come home empty-handed and feel like a grade-A shitheel for getting without receiving. But people in my family would rather be accused of necrophilia than listening to someone else, I think.

I don't have a problem with people using Christmas or Holiday, and I don't even have a problem with people offended/hurt by what they believe is the eroding influence of Christmas on the holiday season compared to the world in which they grew up. I just wish, for their sake, that the flag-carriers of their cause weren't such buttholes using it to get theirselves and their followers over.

 

Mystery's said it all.

Lock this sucker.

 

I'm with you. And it takes no more effort for me to say that than it would to say Merry Christmas.