Here comes Santa Claus!

[Mastiker]

Happy Holidays everybody! *gets mugged by Christian conservatives*

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1358020

I think this is ridiculous. Christmas is still a holiday. In fact, December is known for having more than one holiday. You know, with New Years, and Hannukah, and Kwanzaa, besides Christmas.

Some people celebrate holidays other than Christmas, such as New Years, and since there is more than one holiday, the english language says that the word "holiday" must be pluralized, thus: "Happy Holidays" makes perfect sense.

I think its perfectly okay to say "Happy Holidays" during Christmas time. It's a generic term that shouldn't offend anyone.

But, then again, what would I know? I'm just a rational non-Christian.

[Firefly]

The retail stores and the Christian Conservatives are both being idiots.

the Christmas Tree IS a Christian thing. Started in Germany. Something about it being the holy trinity.

but the whole "Happy Holidays!" thing is just...selfish. To say Merry Christmas, in my opnion, is politically incorrect, because, well, THERE ARE OTHER HOLIDAYS TOO. These conservatives can't control, and shouldn't be able TOO control, what is put on cards and holiday shops, because, um, whatever happened to the separation of Church and State? You can still find "Merry Christmas" and I should be able to find "Happy Holidays" just the same.

But then again, Christian Conservatives piss me off :)

[Jay]

ONLY NINE MORE SLEEPS UNTIL SANTA COMES! And hey...

If you've been very extra special good he might come twice. ;)

[Jynx_lucky_j]

I think its perfectly okay to say "Happy Holidays" during Christmas time. It's a generic term that shouldn't offend anyone.

But, then again, what would I know? I'm just a rational non-Christian.
I agree with you. Being offended by people saying "Happy Holidays" is just as stupid as people getting offended when people say "Merry Christmas" *waits a moment for the irony to sink in*

Target stores became the focus of a Christian conservative boycott, after banning Salvation Army kettles. Salvation army collects money for the people. Not christian people, not jewish people, not aethist people...just people in general. Sure they are a religious orginization but they are helping everybody.

What are they doing to help? Disaster relief services, day care centers, summer camps, holiday assistance, services for the aging, AIDS education and residential services, medical facilities, shelters for battered women and children, family and career counseling, vocational training, correction services, substance abuse rehabilitation, and more. More than 30 million a year are aided in some form by services provided by The Salvation Army.

Now to me banning the salvation army kettles because people associate them with christmas is not being politically correct. It goes twards showing a lack of consern for people in general.

After using the more inclusive "Happy Holidays" in its ads and in-store promotions last year, Macy's is now embracing "Merry Christmas." And, after hundreds of phone calls, Lowe's stopped selling "holiday trees" and switched to "Christmas trees." Maybe I'm missing something here...but what other holiday has a tree? For that matter what other holiday has a tree decorated in lights, aand various ornaments? If YOur going to do the tree thing then unless you want to create you own new holiday to celebrate (christmahuanikwanza anybody?) then it's a christmas tree.

And on that subject the title of the national holiday that we all have off (exept for me because my job sucks) is Christmas Holiday. Therefor any goverment sponsered event based on the national holiday should be Christmas. At least until the national goverment changes it to be Winter Holiday or some such.

In addition There are really two differant version of christmas, there is the religious christmas (with baby jesus, angels, the manger, ect) and the non religous version (sans religious elements). Lets face it unless you specifically celebrate huanuke or kwanza then you pretty much have to be celebrating christmas, unless you don't celibrate anything at all. Even some people who do celibrate other holiday celibrate christmas as well (in its non religious form) I know a few jews that celibrate christmas, and every aethist I've personally ever met celibrates christmas (once again in its non religious form). And does anyone else think its funny that the "Happy Holidays" decoration use the very same decorations that are traditionally used for christmas? All they change is the words. So its kinda funny that this has actually appeased the the vocal minorities scince they still are displaying the icons of the christmas holiday as opposed to the icons of thier holidays.

But never fear I have a solution! People get offended when you display holidays besides theirs, and they get offended when you don't display any holiday specifically. So why not just display decorations for each holiday? I think that more people would be appeased by acknowliging each holiday than by trying to hid them all under a generic term. Equal representation for all.

That said, I wish you all a Christy Christ-mas, and a Christy New Christ :p

[Unactuality]

There's nothing wrong with saying "Happy Holidays". There is something wrong when all references to Christmas are systematically replaced with a bland, generic greeting for fear of offending someone who doesn't celebrate it.

Kwanzaa is meaningless silliness dredged up from the fevered imagination of a nutcase a few decades ago.

Hanukkah is a relatively minor Jewish holiday whose only connection to the "holiday season" is that somebody noticed it happens to fall within the same month and decided it would make a great "replacement Christmas" for Jews who were uncomfortable celebrating Jesus' birth. Gotta sell those Hallmark cards somehow.

We in the US and western Europe live in a culture with a strong Christian background. That includes the celebration of Christmas. If you're not a Christian (or even if you are), you don't have to observe it or even like it. It is, however, extremely offensive to suggest that those of us who do observe and enjoy celebrating Christmas should hide any sign that Christmas is what we're actually, you know, celebrating.

I wonder if all the politically correct Grinches out there think we should keep our celebration of Martin Luther King day on the back burner because it might bother David Duke and his friends?

[setrict]

I'm a dendrophobe, and as such do not support any holiday involving trees. I hereby request that you refer to these Holiday trees and Christmas trees as Holiday Greenery. Greenery is really such a fine word, I can't see why anyone would have a problem with it.

On a related note, Arbor Day has got to go.

[Kari]

This obsession with offending no one is absolutely ridiculous. Things that were associated with Christmas should keep "Christmas" in the title, because that's what they are, aye? The official trees kept by cities should remain Christmas trees, because they were originally put there to celebrate Christmas. Rather, the decision to have an obvious religious tree in a country where there is a supposed "separation of church and state" should be questioned.

Christmas appearing everywhere isn't really something to complain about either. America is a mostly puritanical nation, and all the stores want to do is sell things, so why not target the majority as they do in every other situation? It's not a religious statement. All they want is money.

Sure, it's a pain, and I understand the non-Christian viewpoints as I'm not Christian myself, but it's only to be expected in largely Christian countries. The Christians freaking out back is really overreacting as well. Why can't people just enjoy their holidays? o__O;

[Idlethought]

ONLY NINE MORE SLEEPS UNTIL SANTA COMES! And hey...

If you've been very extra special good he might come twice. ;)

ew i dont want santa coming at all

[Spaatz965]

My wife loves this site...checks it every year and has gotten the kids into it as well...personally, this is where I found out that the USAF Band publishes MP3's on their website...lots of cool Christmas music!

NORAD Santa (http://www.noradsanta.org/index.php)

Merry Ho Ho Ho

[mangamuscle]

As a side comment Firefly, AFAIK christmas trees do not have a christian origin, it is one of the many so called pagan traditions that christianity absorbed as it became the predominant religion in europe.

But I do hate the so called "american political correctness" movement, what is next? calling Halloween "the anti-holiday" because the convervative christians think their sons are going to become blood sucking fiends *think for a moment about GW Bush* ... maybe they are right :P

[Jon885]

i think happy holidays is ok. it includes every holiday including christmas. but i really don't care if people say merry christmas either. out of all the political issues this has to be the most trivial.

[Dead Sexy Vocab]

And this is why I dislike being named after a religion...

Damn Conservatives being selfish during a Happy Holiday...

Pun intended.

[Mastiker]

hell, I don't care what you say. what I think is ridiculous is the fact that people aren't allowed to say something because one groups finds it un-christian. that's ridiculous, because, as a few of you have stated, christmas isn't necessarily a christian holiday. for the most part, it's just a holiday. and new year's just happens to be a holiday as well.

happy holidays shouldn't offend anyone. that was my point. i never mentioned anything about "merry christmas" offending anybody, although i can see where the confusion came from.

[Jynx_lucky_j]

Ok I've never really been offended by the saying Happy Holidays. Saying it offends me just other people justification to say Merry Christmas offends them. However I am now at my wits end with this Happy Holidays crap. After work yesterday I when to the local Wal-Mart to buy some Christmas decorations. I only had one simple thing in mind, and that was I wanted a decoration that had the words "Merry Christmas" on it that I could put on my door. That's a pretty broad category isn't it? The only problem was THERE WERE NO DECORATIONS THAT SAID MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Everything just happed to dance around the word Christmas. It was all generic holiday phases, but these were not generic decorations. Santa Clause is a Christmas symbol, Candy canes are a Christmas symbol, Angels are a Christmas symbol, the decorated tree and reefs are a Christmas symbol, frost the snowman is a Christmas symbol, baby Jesus a Christmas symbol. There was even a manger scene that said Happy Holidays on the top! In fact every decoration they had was a Christmas decoration, yet none of it said Merry Christmas. There were no Menorahs, no Stars of David, no Dreidels, no Kwanzaa flags, no indication of any other holiday. Why don't they just call the Christmas decorations what they are?

We all no that it wasn't that long ago that long ago that some people really started to complain about stores and such displaying Merry Christmas, saying it offended them because they celebrated other holidays. To me it obvious that there only goal was to get rid of Christmas, because the only thing the stores changed was the words. All the decorations are the same. They are not carrying the icons of the other holidays... The only thing that changed is the words and they are happy with it. That's like when people tell you they are offended by the Nazi Swastika, so you change the name to some thing else and now they are all ok with it. I'm pretty sure that Jewish family there isn't going to buy a Santa doll just because it says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. If you want to be inclusive then maybe you should include some other holidays under the banner of Happy Holidays.

I was eventually able to find a ribbon in the fabrics section that said Merry Christmas and it is now taped under my reef. And yes I know that a number of charismas symbols were absorbed from various pagan traditions, but every culture absorbs cultures from others, none of us exist in a vacuum. The Point is that They are now Christmas symbols as none of the other holidays are using them.

[Lea]

I’m not Christian and I’m not religious. I don’t care if someone says Merry Christmas to me. I don’t care if they say happy Kwanza or whatever either. Does it really matter? I still have my tree with an angel on top sitting in the family room. Those things don’t represent Christianity to me, they represent a time to take a break and be with my family.

This whole politically correct stuff is starting to go over the top. If someone said happy Kwanza to you, you being a white person for example, would you have the nerve to say that you don’t celebrate such a thing to a black person? Would you fear being branded a harsh Christian who hates all non-Christian holidays? Probably. But since you are Christian, you know that now you can’t say Merry Christmas to this person. Such a backwards effect.

It could be considered unfair that there happens to be a lot more Christians in the world than any other religion, but it’s true. It's only natural that Christmas will be much more heavily marketed than other holidays; it's understandable. If people were truly all about equality then nobody would care if someone says Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, or Happy Kwanza to them. We should all appreciate each other's holidays.

[drdan]

I’m not Christian and I’m not religious. I don’t care if someone says Merry Christmas to me. I don’t care if they say happy Kwanza or whatever either. Does it really matter? I still have my tree with an angel on top sitting in the family room. Those things don’t represent Christianity to me, they represent a time to take a break and be with my family.

This whole politically correct stuff is starting to go over the top. If someone said happy Kwanza to you, you being a white person for example, would you have the nerve to say that you don’t celebrate such a thing to a black person? Would you fear being branded a harsh Christian who hates all non-Christian holidays? Probably. But since you are Christian, you know that now you can’t say Merry Christmas to this person. Such a backwards effect.

It could be considered unfair that there happens to be a lot more Christians in the world than any other religion, but it’s true. It's only natural that Christmas will be much more heavily marketed than other holidays; it's understandable. If people were truly all about equality then nobody would care if someone says Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukah, or Happy Kwanza to them. We should all appreciate each other's holidays.

*Hats off to you*
What you said sounds great. It's too bad most people don't feel the same way.

[godmode]

If you want to get technical about it, the word holiday comes from "holy day", so its not completely devoid of some religious meaning. I usually say Merry Christmas to all my co-workers, no one seems to be offended.

I'll just wish you all a Happy Non-Denominational Winter Solstice Celebration! :D :p

[Roxie]

I don't mined "Happy Holidays", since, as godmode said, it does mean "holy day". That's cool.

Just none of this Holiday Tree bullshit! We don't use trees in any other holidays!! It's a freaking CHRISTMAS TREE PEOPLE!!! It's OKAY to say CHRISTMAS TREE!!

[Zaysho]

The retail stores and the Christian Conservatives are both being idiots.

the Christmas Tree IS a Christian thing. Started in Germany. Something about it being the holy trinity.

but the whole "Happy Holidays!" thing is just...selfish. To say Merry Christmas, in my opnion, is politically incorrect, because, well, THERE ARE OTHER HOLIDAYS TOO. These conservatives can't control, and shouldn't be able TOO control, what is put on cards and holiday shops, because, um, whatever happened to the separation of Church and State? You can still find "Merry Christmas" and I should be able to find "Happy Holidays" just the same.

But then again, Christian Conservatives piss me off :)

First off, isn't the Christmas tree a secular symbol? I'm pretty sure it was a pagan thing and then it was adopted by the Christians.

Personally, I'm not religious at all, so the issue about "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays" doesn't bother me that much. What pisses me off is that these conservative dumbasses are saying that other religions have no place in this country basically. What the hell is that? "Freedom of Religion" is part of the first amendment for cryin' out loud!

[Collapse]

No one gives a damn about what's-it-called nowadays anyway. Those who make it an issue are rather insecure thus creating anarchy in opinions which people will argue for days, months or years because of something which isn't really supposed to be an issue.

Just call it a two-week vacation for the skeptics and should keepo quiet. I shall say "Christmas" or "Holidays" whenever I want to.

[PopCulturePooka]

This shit is happening in Australia too.

Funny thing is, most muslims and buddhists here themselves agree that 'bannin' or PC'ing' Christmas is stupid.

[Daishikaze]

This cinches it, whenever I go out while I'm in the US, I'm not saying a damn thing to anyone, That way I don't have to deal with this BS