"Happy Holidays!"

It's funny that the connotations of "Happy Holidays" vary by country.

In France, I've never noticed any political correctness issues around "Merry Christmas", and "Happy Holidays" is just a shortened version of "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year".

Maybe someone should remind the American fundies that there is still New Year like a week after Christmas.

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I know a college professor whose school sends the staff an email this time of year telling them to only say "Happy Holidays" and not "Merry Christmas" or whatever else. I have no problem with "Happy Holidays", but trying to mandate what holiday greetings people can/can't use is rather lame.

Somehow you know that the time is right.

Joulu (=Christmas) is derived from Yule, so hyvää joulua might be slightly "less christian" than merry christmas, for those who care. I'm just as likely to say happy holidays (hyvää lomaa) as merry christmas (hyvää joulua). If I knew someone cared either way I just might say the other, though. But I can't imagine anyone caring.

This. Though Is right too.

Nohbody:

Your location could be part of it. The impressison I have as an outsider is that rural south has a higher concentration of the more hard core christians than other areas. Ever tried to say/heard someone say happy holidays? That no-one gets riled up from merry christmas doesn't mean everyones "meh" about the issue.

Edit: For me Christmas isn't a religous holiday anyway. Just a time to enjoy time with the family and special food, so merry christmas might mean different things to me than some others.

edited 18th Dec '11 12:18:00 PM by Qeise

Laws are made to be broken. You're next, thermodynamics.

It's probably because the school needs to avoid giving any impression that they endorse one religion over another. "Happy Holidays" is, at the very least, neutral in that regard.

It's too bad that saying "Merry Christmas" has to be seen as an endorsement of Christianity, but as long as the evangelicals insist upon using it as a bludgeon—"It's called KEE-RIEST-mas!"—that's exactly how a lot of non-Christians are going to see it. As far as I'm aware, nobody really objected to being told "Merry Christmas" until the fundies decided there was a war on and began behaving accordingly. But now you never know whether someone is saying it to be friendly or to score points in the Culture War.

edited 18th Dec '11 12:14:25 PM by Karalora

Stuff what I do.

My dad (atheist with a slight Jewish streak) would respond with a forceful "Merry Christmas" to anyone who said "Happy Holidays", because he thought that anyone who said that was also the kind of person who'd ban Huck Finn and performances of Everyman at the high school. He never took perceived infringements by halves, but I think our cheerfully secular Christmas tradition might also have something to do with it.

Hail Martin Septim!

I like the phrase "Happy Saturnalia", meself. :3 I like the way it sounds. :p

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This, too

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I don't have a huge problem with it. Happy Holidays makes sense because there are a bunch of holidays bunched into one season, so if you're going to address all of them I don't see why not.

Agreed!

Wow, that sounds like a pretty rude thing to do.

Yeah, politeness was not something he ever cultivated on purpose.

Hail Martin Septim!

@Medinoc: probably wouldnt work, given the drive behind it is the logic from the highly fundie sorts that of all the various holidays in december, the only one that actually matters is the day they celebrate Christs's birth. Hannukah is sort of a "jew only" curiosity, Kwanzaa isnt a "real holiday" and these sorts likely dont know any other holidays exist except maybe a vague understanduing of Yule as "what christmas was before the filthy pagans converted to jesus"

They hate Happy Holidays because to them, its taking "christ out of christmas"

I'm not sure, but I don't really say either, mostly because I don't really talk to people other than family/close friends. But if I had to, I'd probably say Merry Christmas. Partially because I only really know about Christmas, partially because my I think my family are Christians (I know my mum's side is), partially because Christmas seems way more commercialized and not as religious now (I'm not particularly religious, but I hate almost all the decorations my parents have bought. A dozen cookie jars and mugs in the shape of Santa, snowmen and reindeer? That aren't allowed to be used?)

Mostly I would use "Merry Christmas" because "Happy Holidays" sounds... odd. I'm really not sure why. Maybe it's the alliteration. Or maybe it's the word "Holiday", I don't think I like it for some reason.

Happy holidays does sound like you're overgeneralizing. It has the connotation of shortened version of several holidays in the same month.

Now using Trivialis handle.

That's the point.

Until , I noticed a conspicuous lack of Kwanzaa in this thread. And I still noticed a lack of World AIDS Day.

I mean, I'm not black and I don't have AIDS, but, y'know, they could factor into the discussion, right?

Anyhoo, I say "Merry Christmas", but I don't get offended by "Happy Holidays". My mom, on the other hand, who is usually pretty moderate about most things, is extremely against saying "Happy Holidays". As for my dad, he's just slightly racist, so let's not worry about that.

I will say this, I live in a part of the world with a higher population of Jewish people than most places (this part of the world being Central New Jersey), so it's a lot more common to see menorahs and Christmas trees together here.

edited 18th Dec '11 11:21:58 PM by 0dd1

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Merry Christmas from your friendly neighborhood atheist.

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On that note, I have an atheist friend who still loves the Christmas season (and yes, she was specifically referring to Christmas). Then again, she's an expatrate of Vietnam, and I don't really know how Christmas is celebrated there (and I don't really remember how she described it).

edited 18th Dec '11 11:32:59 PM by 0dd1

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I'm an atheist who loves the Christmas season. I still use Happy Holidays if I'm unsure what somebody celebrates.

I am irreligious and love Christmas season. Of course, it tends to be interchangeable with a New Year season to me, yet I still don't mind celebrating specifically Christmas. Probably an influence of my mother. As she used to put it, "Whether you believe or not, it is essentially a birthday party for a rather decent person, and you're invited"

edited 19th Dec '11 11:51:29 PM by Beholderess

If we disagree, that much, at least, we have in common

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I call it "Happy Shut The Fuck Up".

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As a Christian, I have mixed feelings on this one.

I mean, if I don't know what religion someone is, I'm not going to risk offending them by saying "Merry Christmas," but the whole "any reference to Christianity anywhere at any point in time" thing bothers me. I mean, name one non-Christmas holiday that uses a tree? None? Then why do stores call them "Holiday Trees?"

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There are actually a couple of other cultures that decorate trees for New Year instead of Christmas, especially around here where we have a large population of Russian and Ukrainian immigrants.

edited 20th Dec '11 10:37:22 AM by DrunkGirlfriend

"I don't know how I do it. I'm like the Mr. Bean of sex." -Drunkscriblerian

Still, I don't know who they're going to offend by calling it a Christmas Tree.

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