Note to readers....this is my own opinion. My opinion changes from time to time. I am a nice person with her own opinions.
Every year in December, we hear those two little words..Merry Christmas.
Christmas is a celebration of Jesus Christ, and we Christians have a right to celebrate and say those words. We are not forcing our religion down non-Christians throats. We are celebrating a birth.
Many stores are saying "Happy Holidays" so they won't offend anyone. I am well aware the word Christ is in Christmas. Christmas has been around for quite a long time. Why now are people wanting to say another word for Merry Christmas? It is just a traditional phrase we say like "hello and goodbye." So, are we going to say here is your holiday present? It sounds awkward to me. If we say Merry Christmas, we are not implying you are to convert to Christianity. We are implying "Merry Christmas" and we hope Santa Clause comes to your house tonight. We have our freedom of speech, and we have every right to say "Merry Christmas". I say Merry Christmas to people all the time, and I haven't offended anyone. Merry Christmas is just a traditional phrase. Meaning both the birth of Christ and the traditional holiday.
It doesn't have to be religious to everyone. If you are not religious, and someone says Merry Christmas, put your own personal beliefs in it. I know that there are other holidays out there. And, I am trying not to offend anyone.
So, happy early "Merry Christmas". That means I hope you get presents, have a wonderful family gathering, have a wonderful white snowy yard, and a visit from Santa Clause:) Jingle bells! I, also, mean celebrate the birth of Jesus. But, if you are not a religious person, "Happy Holidays"
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If you had bothered to do any research into the origins of "Christmas" you would have realized Christians took a holiday that already existed and make it more Christian-oriented. Furhtermore, the ONLY reason Christmas was even created was for the sole purpose of celebrating Jesus Christ's birth.
Phoenixes are superb. They are also fictional beings..but that isn't the point!
It was just a post, there's no need to insult people and throw facts in their faces to make them sound unintelligent. So what if Christmas was only made to celebrate the birth? Jesus is a very important symbol in Christian faith, and we make holidays today that celebrate people's death; how is that any different?
Perhaps you could have said it in a nicer way but your point pretty much pegs it.
Taking things one step further, what is happening now is that the religion of secularism is trying to co-opt the Christian holdiday for its own purpose. That purpose happens to be commercialism and making money. History is just repeating itself. I really can't blame Christians for being upset about it as they watch their Holiday being stolen from them.
I suppose I am nominally a Christian since I was baptized and confirmed as an Episcopagen. But I really don't believe that stuff. Not even slighlty.
But I love participating in the culture wars. It is about the only thing I like about Christmas because I hate the commercialism and I hate all the work and what seems to me a lot of false cheer. Seeing family is OK but I much prefer the Thanksgiving holiday format of turkey, family and football. The whole Christmas exercise is profoundly depressing. To do my part in the culure wars I send the most religious looking Christmas cards I can find (on sale the previous January) and I always meet a Happy Holidays from some store clerk with a cheerful but punctuated Merry Christmas. My hope is that everybody ends up as miserable as I am and that the whole Holiday will eventually fade into obscurity.
Yeah I forget the specifics, but Christmas was actually a holiday celebrated by pagans. In an attempt to attract these pagans, the church adopted the holiday.
It's not surprising that a store would change the name to happy holidays because they're in the business of making money. They want to reach as many as they can. If they were really worried about offending people, they'd drop it altogether. But the holiday season is where a large portion of their profits come from.
I understand what you are saying, and I agree with you whole-heartedly. I don't see anybody getting offended over Happy Easter or Happy Hannukah, etc., etc., etc. In any relation, happy early Merry Christmas to you, as well! :)
I don't think the "Happy Holidays" is about not offending anyone, but rather about recognizing that there are other holidays in the same months. It's an all encompassing phrase.
~ElegantFree~
No one cares, or should care, when a Christian says to another Christian, Merry Christmas or decorates their house with Christmas trees or gives them Christmas presents. People do get offended when you assume, by saying those words, that a stranger is part of your faith. While I personally don't care, I do understand how people can get offended when a clerk in Walmart says Merry Christmas to them if they aren't Christian.
I have never been told to have a Happy Hannuka by anyone who did not know me. No one in a store. No one on the street, Jewish or not. And it can be offensive. It is like saying that Christmas is the only holiday that counts in this time of the year. Well, there are others and they do matter to people who practice them. I think that it is incredibly idiotic of the Christian Community when they get angry because people in stores say Happy Holidays. Most people of other religions would probably be fine with them saying nothing at all.
"Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"
Douglas Adams
"That is not dead which can eternal lie / And with strange aeons even death may die."
H. P. Lovecraft
I think it's ridiculous for anyone to get offended because someone didn't wish them anything in particular in a cliche phrase.
If someone says "Enjoy your evening" I don't get mad because he didn't say the more common "Have a nice day." If someone says "Happy holidays" or "Merry holidays" or "Enjoy your Christmastime" or "Have a great rest of December" or "Enjoy what's left of the year," I'm not going to get mad because he didn't say "Merry Christmas."
If someone wishes me a happy "any" time, I'll take it, and it seems petty to turn a good wish from someone else into something negative.
Army08 wrote: "I would be kind of offended if someone told me "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas".
You just killed your entire argument with that statement. So what you're saying is that I shouldn't be offeneded when someone says "Merry Christmas", but you are offended when someone else says "Happy Holidays"? That makes no sense at all. You know that you could offend someone, yet you say it anyway, but someone else who is trying not to offend and do the right thing still has to worry about offending people like you! Why would you be offended? I just don't get it.
I don't celebrate the birth of Jesus, so why should I have to say "Merry Christmas"? I try not to say "Merry Christmas" any more, but I might do it on accident. I do still celebrate Christmas, but I celebrate it for exactly what it has turned into...a commercialized holiday. You even agree with me on that one when you said ("So, happy early "Merry Christmas". That means I hope you get presents, have a wonderful family gathering, have a wonderful white snowy yard, and a visit from Santa Clause"). I thought you said that ("Christmas is a celebration of Jesus Christ"). What is it? Gifts or Jesus? Or both?
Anyway, I am a Pagan (Wiccan); so what if I walked up to you and said Happy Yule? You would look at me like I was crazy and I'm sure that would offend you as well. Everyone knows what Christmas is, but it doesn't mean that everyone should have to subscribe to your way of thinking or your religion. I don't get offended when people say Merry Christmas to me, but it does tell me that they do not care about the feeling of others...either that or they're just uneducated.
Just because something has been done a certain way for a very long time doesn't mean it's still the right thing to do. If that was the case then, we'd still have slaves, women wouldn't be allowed out of the house, nor would they be able to work or teach in any capacity that put them in any way shape or form in a position of power over men (see your New Testament 1 Timothy 2: 11). Also, what would happen if a white man walked up to a black man and called him a "boy" or the "n-word"? Those terms use to be ok, but aren't ok any longer. And the same should go for "Merry Christmas".
Happy Holidays (which means I hope you get lots of presents; no really that's really what I mean)
Tabias-
Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas. Happy New Year. and so on.....
Saying "happy holidays" is great, it is unassuming, merry christmas, or happy hannukah or happy kwanza is more personal. Consider though that holidays literally means "holy days".
This is such a dumb issue. Nobody gets mad over someone saying "Happy Earth Day", so why be offended by any other holiday?
"Oh, I don't celebrate Earth Day! How dare you push your views on me!"
FYI: Atheist here.
I love abortion. Read more here:
http://progressiveu.org/044921-i-love-abortion-even-if-it-murder
Chrismahanakwansica.
To me this has always been one of those issues that just wasn't an issue.
"How can we win where fools can be kings" Muse