Happy Holidays

Two years ago while delivering UPS packages I said "Merry Christmas" to customers whom I encountered; until I ran into a "War on Christmas" guy. He thanked me for saying "Merry Christmas" instead of "Happy Holidays" and started on a rant about he says "Merry Christmas" to stick it to all those atheists and liberals who want to ruin Christmas. A few years before that I was treated to a similar "thank you" and accompanying rant by someone who was appreciative that my store's ads said "Christmas Savings" (they actually ran ads that said both "Christmas" and "Holiday Savings"). Every year I read Facebook posts from people who proudly proclaim that they're saying "Merry Christmas" whether anyone likes it or not, sometimes suggesting that "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" are somehow subversive. And now we have a President who has vowed that we'll all be saying "Merry Christmas" as if it's been outlawed or something. (To be fair I had a pagan acquaintance of mine some years ago tell me that he would not respect me or any other pagan who said 'Merry Christmas", so it's not all one-sided, and be fair again, I greeted the Governor, a right-wing hyper-partisan if there ever was one, last year with a hearty "Happy Holidays", and he returned the salutation with a "Happy Holidays" of his own)

No one is trying to take the Christ out of Christmas, there is no War on Christmas.

We all should be free to use whatever greeting that pleases us without being "corrected". We also shouldn't use our choice of greeting as a weapon against those who employ different greetings, or observe different holidays.

If you run into me and say "Merry Christmas", I won't be offended, even though I'm not a Christian, and I don't expect you to be offended if I say "Happy Holidays". Or even "Snappy Saturnalia".