If someone says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", I think it's important to note that they are still extending a friendly greeting and they're being nice. To me, I value inclusion. I might tell someone Merry Christmas, or I might tell them Happy Holidays, or Best of Season .. whatever I decide to say at the moment.Again, all of it is a friendly greeting, and whatever the words are chosen by someone else to say to me, I recognize it as friendliness and appreciate the gesture. I will never be offended by that.

I don't think there's a war on Christmas. I think some people react far too negatively to the concept of "politically correct." In fact, I think the irony here is that it's politically correct to complain about being politically correct. :lol: Rather, I see the whole "Happy Holidays" effort as being about inclusion and respect. But on the flip side, I've never known anyone in my whole life who was ever offended by being told "Merry Christmas" even if they themselves were not exactly of the Christian faith or whatever. All my friends always just appreciated the gesture of goodwill and friendliness (see paragraph #1 above). If your experience has been different then maybe you just need to meet nicer people!! :lol: Or you know what, make the choice to truly own the values you want to represent, and lead by example.

Just be nice to each other. It's really not that hard. :)

Peace out! And Happy Kwanzaa to all. :)

I vote this one "Best Answer" :)

I'll say Merry Christmas but with the Modern Christmas season having so little to do with the birth of Christ, Happy Holidays is just as appropriate.

Well said!!

Nailed it!

If I was to say Merry Christmas to someone Jewish, I would be delighted if they said Happy Hannukah back to me. And that goes for any other faith or belief as well.

AquaAddict

I love how we allow other cultures to come into our country and dictate our traditions and values.

I still say Merry Christmas.

Our entire family says MERRY CHRISTMAS.

I'm all for multiculturalism, but that does not mean we have to make our own Canadian traditions subordinate to traditions from other countries. Being strictly PC makes me want to gag, btw, which is probably true for a lot of other people. If people are offended by our saying Merry Christmas, then that's their problem since greeting fellow Canadians with a hearty "Merry Christmas!" is a long-standing Canadian tradition. If others want to greet each other with other sayings fine. If I'm traveling in another country while they're celebrating their own religious holidays, great, I'll use their traditional greetings. If I'm in their country, I'll be respectful of their traditions. That's not PC, that's just being polite.

I agree with AquaAddict and would be delighted if someone from another faith or culture greets my "Merry Christmas" with their own traditional greeting. Allowing the PC Police to impose a generic "Happy Holiday" on me, though, just won't fly. If my daughters' school imposed a ban on Merry Christmas at school, I'd make it a point to walk through the hallways and greet every teacher and administrator with a hearty "Merry Christmas" just to take a stand on this issue. I'd rather they teach the kids to be proud of their own cultural traditions and greet each other with either a "Merry Christmas" to acknowledge Canadian traditions or their own "Happy Hannukah", etc. rather than impose a PC "Happy Holidays" on everyone.

Here in Canada:

• If someone greets me with a "Happy Holidays",
• then I'll likely ask, "To which holiday are you referring to?"
• to which they will probably respond, "Christmas",
• and I'll come back with a "Merry Christmas to you, then!"

For myself and my family, we greet all of you with a hearty "Merry Christmas!"

Anthony, Irene, Felicia & Isabella

Poll reopened.

Merry Christmas!

Despite being from a different faith, I greet with "Merry Christmas and happy holidays" (whenever greeting is expected)....that covers both ends and I don't get into trouble.

To whom it may concern:

Merry Christmas & happy holidays fellow reefers :mrgreen:

Do you people actually know anyone who told you they were offended by you saying "Merry Christmas" or are you just sensitive to the issue when someone uses a different greeting?

Here's the thing (maybe I live a sheltered existence but I kinda doubt it) I've never known anyone to be offended by the phrase. But on the flip side I know a LOT of people who seem to feel defensive about this or at least needing to emphasize that it "should" be "Merry Christmas".

Say Merry Christmas if it makes you happy. But if someone uses a different greeting to you .. maybe just be happy that they made the effort to say something nice to you. Isn't that more along the spirit of the season anyhow?

A client where i used to work tore a strip out of us for saying Merry Christmas and offering him a flyer for Pet photos with Santa. He didnt celebrate christmas and he made sure we knew that after what we said. Appearently we were supposed to be psychic and know he was jewish and not say such horrid offensive words to him.

These people do exist.

I do not have religious bone in my body nor believe in any faiths however with that being said there is nothing wrong with saying "Merry Christmas" it's just words after all

For me Christmas has been and always will be for the kids for them it's a magical time of the year it's adults that ruin it for everybody else IMO

I say Merry Christmas always have and always will. I don't mind others saying Happy Holidays what I mind is all the Christmas stuff getting put up in f'ing October and November!!!!

My post was in response to Kien's posting about how his "kids school is one of those highly politically correct schools that have banned "Christmas"." To me that's just wrong. I'd be one of those crazy parents who protests this sort of PC heavy handedness if it happened at my kids' school. Fortunately, the admin and teachers at Brantford Elementary are not PC Nazis.

Anthony

I sure do. I don't see why anyone should be offended. It's just a generic greeting used around Christmas time. And since December 25 is an official stat holiday labeled as Christmas your just wishing them a good day :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yep, more than once.

You know, I can't actually remember seeing anyone being offended by either Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. I am sure it happens, though. I will use either depending on whom I am addressing (even though I am not known to be a PC kind of guy).

But having worked in retail most of my life, I understand the fine line that front line people have to straddle sometimes with this subject. And in many cases, their employers instruct them to say Happy Holidays, so they have no choice. So hopefully no one gets offended by them just trying to do their jobs as best they can.

And wonder if this subject will always come up this time of year,... over and over and over.... Maybe we are all too sensitive..., or just don't have something better to do than comment on this subject (like me, haha).

My family has been in North America for 7 generations, and in Canada for 5.

Merry Christmas is a way of life.
If you don't like it, go stuff yourself.
This is CANADA and we celebrate CHRISTMAS

I'm not a xenophobe, but you better get used to it :biggrin:, or I will become one ...

aarg
double post

I think you hit the nail on the head right there! With all this politically correct hoopla, and human rights it's made people ultra sensitive. I wish we could go back to the 90s.

90‘s? Pffftttt... 90‘s were aweful. You want to go back to the 70‘s, where you can talk like Archie Bunker! (YouTube him if you dont know).

I would prefer to forget the '70's altogether bellbottoms, lederhosen and really really bad hair styles now the '80's were the rebellious years ...

Haha, I loved the 70's, going to school, having fun, no worries,... I do remember the long hair, beards, and yeah, hate it when my wife brings out the old pics to show kids, friends... Do remember the bellbottoms, not the lederhosen, though.

But it certainly was not a PC time, and seemed liked anything was OK. No social media, or even cell phones back then. Did watch Star Trek, though. People would have laughed at Happy Holidays.... My, how things have changed!!... Although many things do come around again, too, incl common overused language phrases (eg cool, awesome, like, like, did I say like, haha, etc). I guess kids will still always be kids...

I say it. My boss even encourages it which is nice.

I haven't had any bad experiences saying it either. I wouldn't get offended if someone said "Happy Chanukah" to me or anything and i'm not jewish. I wish my muslim colleagues Happy Eid, and try to be thoughtful of others celebrations around the year.

I prefer bah humbug

The only time I can honestly say I have met people who were offended by the the words Merry Christmas was in the lower mainland in 2009.

I'm not a fan of the lower mainland to begin with but I went on a 3 day trip with 2 friends in early December to go Christmas shopping and every store we hit it seemed that there was a cold chill in the air when we would say those dreaded MC words. Even many of the customers in Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond all seemed to have a burr up their butt about using those words.

We got what we wanted and flew out a day early granted we had fun but couldn't believe the negativity down there. Must say they definitely were not feeling the Christmas spirit that year.