I hate "Happy Holidays"!

Except of course that the celebration is actually for the Winter Solstice. Christmas was tacked on to the WS celebration in order for the early Christians to survive in the Roman Empire.

Jesus was actually born on the 7th of January. Had the early followers celebrated his birthday on his actual birthday, they would have been rounded up and dispatched to the Coliseum for entertainment purposes.

They had the brainwave of celebrating his birthday at a time of huge festivals across the Roman Empire. This allowed them to survive. As the cult grew it was considered expedient to keep December 25 as the day of celebration as other pagans besides the Romans also celebrated that day.

Easter is also a pagan festival that celebrates the rebirth of nature at the start of the northern hemisphere spring. The early Christians couldn't stop this festival either so tacked their story on to the pagan festival and commandeered it.

The real reason for celebrating is not Christmas at all, it's a pagan festival that pre-dated Christianity by thousand's of years.

People in the southern hemisphere should celebrate this in June and Easter in September(ish).

This is not "PC gone mad", it's simply a recognition of historical fact. The only people who get irate about others commandeering a celebration which was itself commandeered from a much earlier pagan festival. If people want to celebrate this fiction, then go ahead. Just don't impose it on everyone else.

So, as Christmas is a fiction, have yourself a very happy northern hemisphere winter solstice.

Nothing I like more than an unselfish holiday sentiment.

Thanks for sharing.

Happy Holidays - Frank

I came to live in Thailand and hoped to get away from Christmas ....but it's here just the same but not so much in your face ... kids here don't expect expensive gifts or even any gift at all .. those that do celebrate Christmas seem to know the true meaning.

Happy Christmas to one and all.

I celebrate Christmas and when I'm downtown doing my shopping, or online like now, I don't know who you are and what you celebrate.

.... I celebrate Christmas

If it offends you if I wish you a Merry Christmas, then you are far too easily offended... and @whatever ... interesting post and info but it still remains that both Christians and non-Christians have been celebrating Christmas on the 25th for as long as I can remember, so no one is going to change now. Some celebrate it as a religious holiday ... some just take the gifts and family and merriment of Christmas and leave the religion behind.

There's enough in the world to be really offended about without thinking that a Christmas greeting is offensive.

EDIT: ... but if you really want to be offended, it most certainly is your right to be offended. lol.

Going back to the OP:

Seems to me you're assuming that everyone else assumes you're a Christian. The only way that this assumption of theirs would be true is if they knew you.

What do you want them to do in future, have them ask you what religion you are first?

Then, depending on your answer they can wish you a happy Christmas, Hannukah or Holidays.

Isn't it more offensive to be asked your religion first?

Isn't the only way to not offend you just to wish you a generic Happy Holidays greeting?

Isn't it ironic that the person for whom this holiday is supposed to be about, was the least materialistic person who ever lived, and yet his followers get offended by people who reject the most materialistic time of the year?

Also, isn't this topic straight out of the FoxNews playbook of things to get outraged about? Don't they beat the drum every year on the (phoney) war on Christmas?

Anyway, I hope you and your family enjoy your Holiday Season.

You and Bill O'Reilly.

Bill O'Reilly declares victory in the 'War on Christmas'

Happy Winter Solstice, Everyone!

Winter Solstice 2014: Shortest Day Of The Year Marked By Pagan Celebrations

I must preface this by saying I do not wish/intend to offend anybody. Having said that...

My take, as a devout atheist:

When someone wishes me "Merry Christmas," I do not take offense. I do, however, feel pity and sadness.

Pity that this presumably otherwise intelligent, reasonable person is confined to the worldview that I believe organized religion imposes on it's members, and pity that he or she lacks the empathy to understand that those simple little words convey so much more than they appear to on the surface (i.e. the full history of religious tyranny in our world)

Sadness that this presumably otherwise intelligent has placed me now in a position of having to defend myself against this display of insensitivity toward my own preference to have no engagements with them about their (IMO) uninteresting gods or religious mythology.

Why is it safe to presume that I am ok being wished a Merry Christmas when you know nothing about me? And isn't explaining that you mean no offense up front basically admitting that you know you are walking into a minefield and you have no idea how severe the consequences of that action may be?

Sort of like the way I just did in this post?

So, no. There is no offense taken by those words. I know you don't mean to cause these feelings. But every time I hear them, it does fill me with an unwanted, visceral reaction that is far more negative than positive.

My "holiday" wish would be for all organized religions to better confine their religious celebrations to themselves and those who actively seek them out. Of course, as that is counter to the actual intent of most religions (which is to spread the word and convert others), I know my wish won't be coming true.

I 'LIKE "Happy Holidays"! Nothing wrong with it. It's a nice friendly expression to say to people who aren't Christian. Why would I say "Merry Christmas" to my Jewish relatives in the States? Since I'm not Jewish (due to my great grandfather marrying a gentile|), I can understand why they may not be feel natural saying Happy Hanukkah to me. "Happy Holidays" is a happy medium. I'm happy when someone says "Happy Holidays" and also happy to hear "Merry Christmas." Non-persecuted Imaginary-Persecution-Complex mainstream folk need to find something real to focus on. Lighten up.

I am not affiliated with any religion and I am not affilated with the tag atheist. I find one label for me personally, as bad as the other. Both strident when speaking of their beliefs and non-beliefs to others, unless that conversation is welcome by both parties.

That being said, I don't mind at all when Christians and non-Christians greet me in any friendly manner and I do in fact celebrate the holiday of Christmas in my own fashion. I take what I love from it and leave the rest.

I find the notion that people greeting people in a friendly manner could be offensive no matter what affiliation you have. There is no malicious intent. So you don't celebrate Christmas and someone says Merry Christmas. Big deal. Have you been insulted or harmed in any real way? Has someone attempted to convert you just by greeting you? I doubt it.

I guess if you tag me, it would be agnostic with Jewish ancestry - both sides. Mom and Dad decided to not expose us kids to any religion so we could decide on our own.

It seems to me that when people say Merry Christmas, most of them probably mean it with as much religious meaning and orientation as Happy New Year. Just a friendly, social wish that happens around this time of year.

Dan

This whole issue to me is just plain stupidity.

People, worldwide, have celebrations of what, to them, are days considered holidays to them. One of the traditions, globally, of holidays is to wish other people a good [your choice of holiday here]. I've been wished a good [holiday] for holidays that I have no clue what they even are. It should be completely unthinkable for a person to be "offended" by someone wishing them well for any reason.

I have been on the forum for a decade now. I've been actually "offended" three times. Once I was so horrified, I don't even know if "offended" is the right word. It was so drastic a post that I couldn't even express my outrage - just pm'd Paul to have it stricken. His reaction was very similar to mine so ya know it was completely outrageous and not just a little bit of "hey that was out of line".

If you are "offended" it means that someone slapped you in your personal integrity. If they didn't do that and you are "offended" - then you need help sorting out your emotions - or at least your behavior.

It seems that there's a host of holiday traditions this time of year, and for anyone anywhere to become stinky over a greeting of celebration is just childishness - and control freakish. People want to "apologize" for saying "Happy [whatever]" and that's also childish. When did people start needing permission to open their mouths and spit out good tidings of any sort. Someone is "offended"? Well I have an answer to that.

I've had people state they were "offended" by my saying such things as "Merry Christmas" a few times. My answer? "Well excuse me. I was just trying to be seasonally cheery and friendly. If you want the actual truth, if you were to drop dead right here and now, I couldn't actually care less. It would make no impact on me whatsoever. Feel better?"

Since I do not always know what every individual in a group is celebrating this time of year, yet want everyone to have a great holiday in their own fashion:

I guess I don't understand what all the hoopla is about. I say whatever happens to be closest to the mouth at that moment - Happy Christmas, Merry Holidays, etc.

More than once I have been wished a Happy Hanukka, growing up in a predominantly Jewish town. Never bothered me much.

Grew up a lapsed Catholic. Still practice that today. Perhaps that's why I don't care what greeting people use

Merry Christmas to All of You!

I'm with you. "Happy Festive" is way worse than "Merry Christmas" or another specific holiday greeting.

I like the term "Happy Holidays" and use it copiously and in context. For example, I'm currently doing contract work for a very large insurance company and my peers are from various Christian backgrounds, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, and yes, we have some atheists too.

So that specific term is very appropriate in this ultra-conservative corporate environment.

I say Merry Christmas to those that say it to me first; I say it to my family and friends; and I say it in places (like Church) where I know I'm dealing with people who celebrate Christmas. I don't say it to complete strangers.

In a corporate environment where I know for a fact that there are a bunch of different belief systems, religions, etc., I use the term Happy Holidays because it covers just about everyone (except the Scrooges, but luckily in this office, there are none).

RoD

First World Problems.

He means First World Problems - Funny First World Problem Meme Images

Make your own Christmas Greeting - this is very cool!

The Merry Maker - Let's Get Merry

RE: "Happy Holidays" to me is the perfect all-encompassing seasonal greeting
i.e. I can convey everything including new year in two words...love it!

Offended? No.

I find it to be more of an annoyance, sort of like spam. My friends know better than to do that to me, my acquaintances often mean well but don't know any better, and anonymous strangers who don't care about me flood me with it.

It is utterly meaningless, but not offensive.

I find "Merry Christmas" to be much more of a reflection on the person who says it than the actual message they hope to convey. Think about it this way. If you truly don't get what is wrong with saying it to someone who you know is not a Christian, then you are what is wrong.

Having said that, on the scale of problems in the world, this is not a real one.

Happy holidays everyone.