It’s the festive season and with it comes the debate over “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays.”
In the U.S., a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey revealed 72 percent of adults prefer “Merry Christmas” on signs greeting them with a seasonal message. Only 22 percent wanted “Happy Holidays.”
Are you offended by phrases such as Seasons’ Greetings or Happy Holidays?
Do you say Merry Christmas? If so, why? If not, why not?
Is the whole greeting thing played out of proportion?
Merry Christmas is perfect. If others want to wish me well with the greeting of their choice, then that’s fine too.
The idea that we should somehow be insulted by being wished well with the greetings of another religion is ridiculous.
I prefer “Merry Christmas” because of the CHRIST who came about 2000 years ago to save us from sin, and He was the first Christmas more Precious Gift in the whole history.
God bless you.
I don’t care whether someone says “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays”. Or for that matter, “Happy Hannukah” is fine, too! For me, it’s the message being said – the message of good wishes – that matters. Whether the message is “Good day”, I’m happy to hear it! And anyone who worries about being greeted with “Merry Christmas”, they are missing the point of carrying Christmas in their heart.
Like Louis Armstrong sings, I believe no matter the words that are chosen, “they’re really saying ‘I love you’”.
I say Merry Christmas to honour the birth of Jesus Christ.
I say and will continue to say Merry Christmas, when people say “Happy Holidays” to me at work I kinda have to hold back from rolling my eyes
I’m always happy to hear Merry Christmas. I find Happy Holidays mildly offensive as a greeting, but prefer it over nothing at all. It bothers me most when stores carefully step around using the word Christmas – when it’s the holiday they are cashing in on!
Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays are both greetings that are cool with me. For people to act so upset and offended when they see or hear Season’s Greetings or Happy Holiday is ridiculous. Also, I think it’s the out of control commercialism that people should be worried about, if you ask me.
Seems to me that those who are truly Christian would welcome friendly greetings that promote goodwill in our world.
Merry Christmas, definitely. Jesus is the reason for the season.
More and more society expects that we be politically correct all inclusive and non-offensive to all. Not only is this in opposition to our rights of freedom of speech and freedom of religion (as they in a round about way are all expecting us to conform to how they see the world and encouraging us to restrict ourselves to the same)But it strikes me as being against the Word of God as we once again are trying to remove Christ out of Christmas (part of the naturalistic world view)as they have done so many other places and then fill it with something that is secular. enough is enough. To them I just repeat “Merry Christmas May you never forget the reason for the season, JESUS CHRIST!
Ofcourse the only thing is to say MERRY CHRISTMAS! Christmas is THE holiday.
Merry CHRISTmas.
This holiday is to celebrate the birth of CHRIST. So Merry CHRISTmas.
Before Santa came along December 25th was celebrated as the birth of the Christ child this is a relegious day! Merry Christmas is a Religious greeting! There is no reason for changing this tradition.
I would prefer to change Santa Clause Day to December 26th and would be more then happy to say Happy Hollidays!
wouldn’t it be nice if commerce and government stayed out of Religion!!!
The two most important Christian events on the calendar are under attack by commercialism.
Personally, every greeting card which arrived at Christmas stating “Happy Holidays” or “Seasons Greetings” got fast tracked to the recycle bin.
Even in stores I encountered many times servers and clerks who reluctantly accepted my correction and wished me “:Merry Christmas” because their boss had told them always to say something like “Seasons Greetings”.
Easter is going the same way where Easter Egg hunts are more important than celebrating the greatest personal sacrifice in the history of the world.
It’s time for us to take back these events and stop folks and the media squeezing out Christ from Christmas and Easter.
I too have been a server and cashier, taught to sing out”Thank you for shopping at WalMart” But when it gets such a perfuntory saying, I need to change it up and add “Won’t you please consider shopping with us again?” My creativity frequently brought my Supervisors running to criticize me. Often customers were a little more relaxed as they listened to the words and it promoted repeat customers so my Supervisors stopped the criticism. When it comes to the season of Advent, I make an effort to wish other cultures the happiest of seasons when they are celebrating Divali, Hannakah, etc. As a Christian Student Pastor, I of course believe that Jesus is the reason for the season. But when I see immigrants to Canada celebrating their own High Holidays as well as respecting Christian traditions of putting up a Christmas trees, I do not see it as overt commercialism at all. It is the mark of a people observing the rites of their own faith while repecting the faiths of others they share a country with. If we are to achieve PEACE in this world, we need to live by the precepts of our faith and repect the precepts of other faiths.
This is Canada and it is our tradition to say Merry Christmas. Some things don’t need to be changed! We should embrace our own traditions and culture. If anyone says, “Happy Holidays” to me, I reply, “and a Merry Christmas to you too”. It irks me that we are prepared to drop our traditions to keep up with “modern” times.
I’m a little late to this one, but let me be the first to offer an Easter greeting – “Happy Holiday!!”, and for that matter if I miss, let me offer a Canada Day greeting – “Happy Holiday!!”. Hope I made my point – this innocuous little saying fits everywhere there is a holiday, so why is it only contrained to Christmas? It is a generalization and does not specifically reflect any reason for the holiday. If you are into non-descript generalizations then continue to use it. If you like to be more specific and name the holiday then let that be your modus operandi.
Likewise “Seasons Greetings” only has one specific use, as I see it. When a new season is upon us then it would appear that that would be the time to use it. It has nothing to do with holidays.
I would say “Merry Christmas” as celebrating Christ’s birth and wishing you to have a merry day. I would say Happy Holidays if you were going on a holiday and I wanted it to be a happy one when ever it fell. Season Greetings to me is greeting someone during the Christmas Season so from around the 15th of Dec to say the 1st of January……..
I think the whole greeting thing is getting blown out of proportion. I welcome any greeting with a smile and a reply. I have no problem with Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Season’s Greetings, Happy Hannukkah, or just plain Hello!
if people are in a christian country then by all means greet people with merry christmas, the greeting has been going around for a few hundred years, dont fix what is not broke!.
I say ( and always will) Merry Christmas!. Lets not forget that Jesus is the reason for the season. Lets keep Christ in Christmas and show our Christian values by saying Merry Christmas to everyone we meet!
I prefer Merry Christmas. To my friends of other religions, I wish them Happy Hanukah, Happy Kwansass, ‘a spiritual’ Ramadan and others as appropriate, as a way to acknowledge their religion. However, to deprive from saying ‘Merry Christmas’, because it offends others, is something I find insulting. We have beliefs and personal spiritual values, and should not be dictated by the forces in the name of political correctness.
I wish people “Happy Holidays”.
Jesus isn’t the “reason for the season”. It’s a pagan celebration of the winter solstice that was around for centuries before Jesus (including symbols such as yule logs and evergreen trees) – Church officials only adopted it in the fourth century – that’s why there is no biblical reference.
I don’t assume everyone I meet is a Christian and is celebrating that holiday. (I have a great non-religious dinner with one side of the family and Christmas with the other).
I have friends and family of all religions and ethnicities. I wouldn’t tell someone in a turban to have “Merry Christmas”. But “Happy Holidays” covers WHATEVER that person may be doing during the time off from work and covers my Muslim, atheist, Hindu, AND Christian friends, instead of being exclusive. Unless you KNOW the person to be Christian, an inclusive greeting seems to be the more Christian thing to do.
Merry Christmas? The most significant event ever to happen in the history of man just happened to occur on the day Christmas is celebrated…God came to us in the form of a human body in order to be like us to die for us. Should we be merry about that? Ohhh yeah! Merry and grateful.
I am 100% for saying “Merry Christmas” It is traditional and has a lot of meaning for many people. Saying “Merry Christmas” is not a negative or offensive term to anyone, weather they celebrate or not. It is actually offensive to ban the greeting in schools and local businesses/shops. I am not a religious person however Christmas has a special meaning for my family, friends, and myself. To me Christmas represents a time of celebration, a time to help and love others and a time when people come together for a greater good. I will always say “Merry Christmas” and I hope others will as well.
For me it has always been and will always be Merry Christmas! That is what I celebrate. I encourage everyone to hold true to their celebrations and the geetings associated with them as I will continue to do with Christmas.
Greetings are about connecting with fellow human beings. It would wise to use terms that are inclusive to the largest group possible, as we often find ourselves with people we only know by circumstance, i.e. taking the same bus.
Show compasion, feel a love that isn’t based on exclusion, embrance the other.
I say many greetings Happy Holidays to my Jewish friends and Merry & Happy Christmas to most. Being in a large city with many different cultures I find with people who are definitely Muslim (by dress) I say Happy Holiday. I guess to most I just say MERRY CHRISTMAS. Not meaning to offend anyone. I don’t think anyone takes offence if you get it wrong.
Merry Christmas, why change now what we’ve always said in Canada, the 25th day of December will always be Christmas Day that is what we are celebrating not the fact that we get a day off from work.
Jesus is the reason for the season… so Merry Christmas it is..
Merry Christmas for sure. I totally agree with Paul Belcher’s opinion of January 7/10!!!
I prefer Merry Christmas, however the idea of anyone telling me that it’s not politically correct anoys me immensely. I also believe that our children of Christian parents should learn what we believe to be the real meaning of Christmas. It doesn’t hurt them to learn the beliefs of others either so that when they become adults they too can choose to make the greeting of their choice. MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
As an atheist I don’t really care whether someone says Merry Christmas, but then again I wouldn’t be offended if someone wished me a Happy Hannuka or a Merry Qwanzaa either. I’d say thank you and say right back at ya. It’s like being upset someone wishes you a good day instead of good morning.
For those of us who are in no way religious this is a time for getting together with friends and family, enjoying nice meals and nice visits. I like to think about the history and how so long ago the germanic people who sat in their homes on the longest nights of the year would hold feasts with decorated trees, holly wreaths, mistletoe strung up, and a nice yule log in the fire. Giving gifts the way the Romans did at this time of year while they celebrated Saturnalia and how we are still doing the same thing 2500 years later.
Merry Christmas with a capital “C”. The only reason that we have a holiday is because we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ for whom the season is named. MERRY CHRISTMAS everyone.
merry christmas to respect jesus christ so god bless us all.
As someone who does not believe in any kind of god, I truly am ok with the term Christmas. I’m also ok with happy holidays. The name is besides the point and is just a word.
For me the point is the spirit of the season, (the human spirit, that is, not the devine one…)namely peace, kindness, compassion, community and understanding….
For roughly 4000 years or so, (and long before christianity i might add) people have come together at this time of year to celebrate and rejoice in these ideals.
I certainly won’t turn my back on this celebration of these universal values just because the modern society in which I live happens to call it Christmas, (non christian that i am, that’s what I still call it, by the way…)and by the same token, I don’t think anyone has any right to feel that Christmas somehow loses it’s identity if it’s not always mangers and angels.
The peace and goodwill part is a lot more important than the Christ part…
Merry Christmas.
For my family, Christmas is a celebration of Christ but also a time of holiday celebrations and cheer, and, for some, the visiting of santa. I say Merry Christmas.
No one should be upset by that as it is my holiday celebration. I mean no disrespect to anyone. If someone wishes me a happy (fill in the blank) it is a respectful and welcoming salutation. I then have the option to ask them more about it or not or… to just take is as the friendly salutation that it is.
All this political correctness is masking a peaceful, welcoming gesture of kindness to another, whatever their beliefs or background.
Most of you are saying that CHRIST is the reason for Christmas, hence “Merry Christmas”. As a christian, I agree. But, we have to accept that there are other religious celebrations as well. How christian would we be if we judged others on their beliefs? Or if we didn’t accept them because of what holiday they celebrated? Although the majority of Canadians celebrate Christmas, there are others who don’t. If we wish people a “Happy Holidays”, that covers every celebration. Is it really that bad that we try to include everyone, not just single out those one celebrate Chirstmas? You know in your heart what you beleive, so do others. I hope everyone has a joyous and happy holiday season!
A few years ago, all of a sudden it seemed that Christmas was being referred to as “Happy Holidays.” How did it originate as a seemingly secular holiday & not Christmas? Personally, I noticed references from the U.S.A. Many of us thought Christmas was being replaced & becoming irrelevant within the Canadian society. It appeared to be a “politically correct” movement. And maybe it is. But being wished, “Happy Holidays!” has no meaning. Personally, I have no holidays. I venture to say that all people who are retired & many who are not working do not have any holidays. So how can the phrase have any meaningful connotations? I still do not see that 2 days off at Christmas time is any more of a holiday than a “long weekend” off. “Merry Christmas” is definite and means a lot. Christmas Day, as a religious day off from work, most likely was established so that people would be able to go to the church of their choice to worship the birth of Jesus & was not intended to be a secular holiday. Of course, people don’t have to go to church & many don’t. So, we most likely are in a transitional period involving political correctness which in itself can also be folly. Do we give up Christmas for holidays? I don’t want to do that. Christmas is still very relevant even though the holiday movement would like to do away with it. “Merry Christmas & best wishes everyone!”
The Merry Christmas boosters should take a breath. The origin of the word “holiday” is actually “holy day”, so the greeter who says “Happy Holidays” is actually wishing you happiness in your celebration fo this most holy of days.
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I tend to say Merry Christmas because it is the holiday that I celebrate. But I am not offended to see happy holidays. After all there are others who celebrate Christmas under different names. I’m not necessarily talking about non-Christians either. Most notably there is Hannukah which is definitely not Christmas but surrounds the same event. I think the goal of happy holidays is to be all inclusive and leave nobody out during the giving season. But on that token if i say merry Christmas I expect people to be wise enough to understand that I am wishing them seasons greetings in my own “language”.
While I think it may be getting close to the “out of proportion” phase, so far I haven’t seen anything to indicate that it has indeed gone beyond a rational point.