I have seen all over the news Christians all upset because stores want to use Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. In other words the stores want to ex-knowledge that there are Americans who are not Christians yet have holidays at this time of year and we buy stuff. I think it being respectful of others. I even notice one chain had Pagan decorations for sale in their store. Faery tree tops, I mean how cool is that, after all Xmas trees started out as Pagan tradition.
I don't think the stores are taking anything away from Xmas or taking Christ out of Xmas. They are still selling nativity sets. So I ask what is the big deal? Why not have a little respect for the rest of us.

Yule Tidings ya’ll.

You have to realize that xians are very insecure by nature. The idea that someone else actually experiences something apiritual without Jesus is so scary to them they overract. They are so fragile. If they really believed in what they preach, they wouldn't have to shove it down everyone else's throats.

I've heard some Christians say that they are offended just for the simple fact that the stores aren't saying or selling things that say Merry Christmas on them. I've heard others say that it's because the Christmas Holiday is the reason why these stores have so many shoppers and now they won't even acknowledge the word Christmas.


Personally, I don't know what all the fuss is about either. Saying Happy Holidays is like saying Merry Christmas, Happy Quanza, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Winter Solstice, Happy New Year, ect all in one. So, saying Happy Holidays doesn't offend me in the least.

Well, the reason for this is simply that christians are ignorant, self-centered miserable little people who simply will not accept the fact, that everything does not revolve around them and their petty little needs. They live in their own imaginary and sick world where they make the rules and standards, where they are right and everyone else are wrong and if they get in touch with reality and find out that there are people who do not follow the christian ways, then they will scream like little kids in a toy store, desperately trying to get their way not realising how idiotic that is. Nobody is pointing a gun to your head making you buy the "evil" pagan decorations and other products. If you don't like them, then just simply do not buy them! Thanks to paganism you get to celebrate your christmas, "christ's birthday" so I in my humble opinion using pagan slogans and selling pagan products from time to time is by far not too much to ask!

Our Prime Minister (Australia) has recently been pushing for stores to put in more effort by using more nativity scenes and putting back on the "Merry Christmas" signs as many stores have stopped doing so because they dont want to "offend" anyone. Simply put, if stores dont put up Christmas slogans they are "offending" Christians- but if they do theyre offending "everyone else". Whats with the offence at all? Christians arent insecure, everyone is and if its tradition why stop if for a minority group that find it "offensive"? Theres nothing offensive about Jesus, Nativity Scene, Pagan Holidays or anything at all.
I think people should stop their whining. I dont think people should fear the word "Christmas" because it will offend some people, as they are the ones overreacting.
Merry Christmas y'all! Offended yet?

exactly ramster. christians should remain true to their heritage and force their practices and traditions on all. maybe there will be enough of a christian uprising over this that non-christians can be faced with torture or death for not being christian.

sounds like a wonderful time.

Hmm, I've seen heaps of Merry Christmas signs, I think that's just another word nowadays and has no real spiritual force anymore. It's like saying Good bye! Merry Christmas!

You've completely misread me. I said everyone needs to stop their whining. Not only Non Christians. I find that people take offence to absolutely anything these days and its ridiculous. What im saying is that if there are no Christian decorations Christians are offending, but then there are Christmas nativity scenes etc..Then non believers are offended. Get my drift? Not one side is better than the other- both a bunch of whingers

I celebrate Christmas (and the Winter Solstice actually) and I couldn't care less what pleasant greeting someone gives me.

I really don't understand how "Happy Holidays" can be so hated. It's impossible to say the phrase from an angry or hateful point of view. It's a nice thing to say. So what's the deal?

I don't think the fact that someone is Christian makes them have the problem though. I think that the fact that someone is a close-minded, attention-seeking idiot makes them have the problem. There are a lot of Christians that aren't like that.

I think that the media has blown this all out of proportion. I am all for greeting people in the way you believe. If a christian greets me with merry christmas or someone of the jewish faith greets me with happy hanukkah that is their thing. I will greet them with happy holidays or seasons greetings, no big deal. Although I was at a party the other night and I heard a lot of merry xmas's but when I greeted people with happy holidays I did get an unhappy look from one of my christian friends. I think with people talking openly about the original origins of the season that the christians are getting a reality check. As for the advertising of the holidays, a store or print ad should be as the company owner wants to portray the season.
I am glad that the season is becoming more secular because the christian holiday isn't the only thing being celebrated in december.

I don't think the stores started using Happy Holidays because people find Merry Christmas offensive, but because it is excluding. There is a growing non-Christian population and they have money to spend. I had to dig trough a mountain of Christmas Cards to find some that said Happy Holidays (I was looking for Yule Tidings.) I was about to give up and forget the cards this year when I found some. If I hadn't, the store would not have gotten the money out of my pocket. The chain that sold the faery tree tops got my money as well as some of my Pagan buddies who I called on the phone to tell them about my find. It all comes down to bucks; they just want to expand their market by including the rest of us in the spending spree.
I worked in a store as a cashier in my pre- Pagan days. I quit saying Merry Christmas to people because so many people would say I am Jewish or whatever. I didn't care whether or not they were Jewish and didn't really want to know, so I just would say "Have a Happy Holiday". That way I got a smile from everybody. It wasn't about offending anyone it was about being inclusive.

When people say Merry Christmas to me I answer Yule Tidings. Which means 'good news'.

Happy Festivus Everyone

I don't think people use the term Christmas as a eligious one all that much anymore. Like PA said it is the same as hi bye. Nothing different.

This is why I am proud to be one of a small group of Christians that are so secure in their beliefs that such things don't matter to us. Besides, for the past few hundred years we have been celebrating the birth of our Lord on the wrong day- in the wrong month- in the wrong season. Sad, isn't it?

Yes and your point is?

Jesus birth is celebrated in December because it is a holiday season. Many know that his birth is either in spring or Summer. And this should not matter. we hould celebrate his birth yr long as well as his death. I worship Jesus everyday.

I have to agree with every one of you….as far as I am concerned this shouldn’t even been a topic of discussion in the media. As Falseprophet15 stated (I am paraphrasing), if you are secure enough in your beliefs, it doesn’t matter. As 101 pointed out, the present holiday hasn’t really been a religious holiday per se for quite some time (at least since the 50’s), so whether or not you say Merry Christmas isn’t that important. I may not be a Christian, but I do wish my Christian relatives, friends and acquaintances a Merry Christmas, just as I wish my Jewish friends a Happy Chanakah and wish those of other religions whatever the celebrate at this season (although I have never really figured out what to wish Mithrans, somehow “Happy Mithra’s Birthday” is just a little too “clunky” to me).

What bothers me is the 'holidays' label on Christmas decorations! I understand that there are other beliefs who might be offended by the term Christmas, and I also understand that the Christmas we celebrate in modern days is very much Pagan; However, they're Christmas decorations! They're made and sold for Christmas, yet they have to be termed holiday decorations so as not to step on any toes.

If I was Muslim, Jewish, or any other faith than Christian, it wouldn't be the term Christmas that offended me; It would be the vast amounts of hype and merchandise surrounding it, whether or not it was termed 'Holiday'. Nobody's fooling anybody by calling things 'Holiday'. A Christmas decoration is sold for Christmas.

But when I put them on my tree they are Yule decorations. Why can't I have Yule decorations for my tree and yard? Why do they have to be Christmas decorations? A tree top Faery is a Yule decoration, according to you the store should not sell them, because they are not Christmas decorations.
I went out shopping today and Christmas was every where.

You know what is funny, most of the Christmas decorations are made in China and they don't celebrate Christmas.

Those CHRISTians happen to be very close minded. Being a christian i am not offended at all! I DON'T think it's fair, but why when i say merry christmas to someone who is Jewish they get offended. If someone said Happy Haunaka to me i would say it right back!

The part that gets me is the fact that department stores even say happy holidays! What about the people that dont celebrate anything, nobody cares about them! I work in a daycare where we cannot even celebrate a "holiday" so why dont we all just get along!


Geese i dont know what worse about Christmas, "peace on earth" or "good will twords men"

Most buddist's are christian's my dear, ever heard of Tich Naht Hahn you should look him up!

YOU my friend are very wrong and lieing...do you know every christian in the world??? Didn't think so....so what were you saying?

oh yea another thing!

i think stores should have a seperate isle for every holiday, do for one as tou would everyone else.

By the way kids, christians werent the ones who got "offended" in the first place, we were fine until non-christians got offended and they CHANGED it to "Happy Holidays" so nobody would get offended!

So only Christians are ignorant? How about all people buddy. Certainly I can say that calling Christians ignorant is an ignorant statement on its own, thus making you ignorant as well. There are many smart and loving Christians who give their all for inconsiderate people only to be called ignorant by judgemental and cruel speaking people such as yourself. Want to talk about living in an imaginary and sick world? We all live in the same world buddy. People die everyday in the most harshest ways and there is nothing we can do to stop it, yet many go on wishing they were God and cry when things don't go right. This too is imaginary, thinking that you can make a difference more significant than any religious person's. Please show some respect and the same will be done to you. It appears you are only looking to stir someone's grits, that is why the right to say "Merry Christmas" is being taken away from us. That, sir, is ignorant.

God bless and may he pay special attention to you. You need it.

Oh, and Merry CHRISTmas!

Christmas is a pagan holiday and Jesus probably hates the fact that you put him in it.

Why even care what it says in the first place? I don't go to a store to read. I go to shop. I don't care if it said "I love Satan".

Yeah, I don't think Jesus would approve of Christmas.

First you spelled his name wrong its Thich Nhat Hanh. He is not from China his is from South Vietnam. Check out this web site on him.
http://www.seaox.com/thich.html

He is not a Christian he is a Buddhist. Most Buddhist I know are not Christian. You can be a Christian and be Buddhist because Buddhism is more of a philosophy than a religion, though there are certain differences in Buddhism and Christianity that would be irreconcilable. All of Revelations would be one.



Out of 1.25 billion people in China there are 7 million Christians that would be about half the population of Beijing.
So my dear, most Buddhist are not Christian.

How is your right to say Merry Christmas being taken away, the only thing I see being taken away is the right of the store to use Happy Holidays if that is what they choose to use. They have a right to do that. You can say Merry Christmas all you want no one is stopping you. If you work in a store and your employer is paying you, you say what they want or you have the right to leave and not get paid. I live in a right to work state and that is the way it works.
When you go home you can say Merry Christmas until the cows come home and poop in you living room.
This whole thing about someones right to say Merry Christmas is being taken away is a fallacy and that is what I don't understand. Christians are using it to take away the stores right to use the phrase they want to use.

Oh, and Yule Tidings to you.

I've been thinking about this and just came to an amusing conclusion. Instead of saying Merry Christmas, they'll say Happy Holidays.

Think about where we get the term holidays from? Holi-days, holy days. The phrase was coined when people would take time off work and attend their various religious holy days. Now, holidays has a very different meaning, but going back to its roots, Happy Holidays is saying the exact same thing as Merry Christmas

Regards, PA

You're right, i apologize. Just kinda remember that if you're traditions were being changed, it wouldn't be that easy for you to change. As far as saying happy holidays in stores, I don't see the big point, but I'm sure its not that easy to stop saying 'Merry Christmas' after so many years of saying it, so people will just have to be patient i guess.

God bless

No need to apologize. This is a stressful time of year. Relax have a little nog. (Oh man, I could gain twenty pounds on McD's egg nog milkshakes. ) This time of year the cashiers are so over whelmed anyway you're lucky if they say anything other than cash or credit. I really don't care myself. I just didn't like all stuff about it on the news, Churches boycotting stores for having Happy Holidays in the windows. People have gone nuts, but it could be worse. I gleaned this off the History channel site.



"An Outlaw Christmas
In the early 17th century, a wave of religious reform changed the way Christmas was celebrated in Europe. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England in 1645, they vowed to rid England of decadence and, as part of their effort, cancelled Christmas. By popular demand, Charles II was restored to the throne and, with him, came the return of the popular holiday.

The pilgrims, English separatists that came to America in 1620, were even more orthodox in their Puritan beliefs than Cromwell. As a result, Christmas was not a holiday in early America. From 1659 to 1681, the celebration of Christmas was actually outlawed in Boston. Anyone exhibiting the Christmas spirit was fined five shillings. By contrast, in the Jamestown settlement, Captain John Smith reported that Christmas was enjoyed by all and passed without incident.

After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas. In fact, Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America's new constitution. Christmas wasn't declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870."

If we as Americans start running around saying this is a Christian country and this is how you will behave then we are no better than Cromwell or Islamic countries that outlaw any religion other than Islam. It is our differences that make us strong as nation. Our freedom to believe as we choose is very important and we need to have respect for people who exercise that right.

Please consider that the majority of the founders of the united states were not christians.
thomas paine, franklin, jefferson, etc., most either theists or freethinkers.

What the whole thing amounts to is people walking around with signs chanting, "Don't be nice to me your way. Be nice to me my way."

You'd think people in this world would be happy for any niceness that comes their way. We need a good plague or alien invasion or something so people would have something to worry about other than this petty nonsense.

He IS a christian buddist, i've read 6 books by him. He puts christ on his alter. That's reason he was exiled from tibet becuase of that he MOVED to china to practice his religion. Also i know three foriegn exchange students from china and they ARE christian buddist and all three of them told me that EVERYONE celebrates christmas!

agreed!

If Jesus don't approve of Christmas then why wouldm a Christian celebrate it?

It is not the day or the month that matters it is whether Jesus is in your heart. He would not mind if we celebrate Christmas at all.

i just smile and reply "happy hannukah". usually they smile back.

well as to the order of the day, i then wish you, Gideon, a Epiphanic Serendiday.

However, when I say "happy holidays" at my job in the mall this season, half the folks give me a very dirty look and say "Merry CHRISTmas" from what sounds at least like a very angry if not hateful point of view!

Just demonstrating that good ol' "Christian Love"!

It's really strange when you think about it. Who do they think they're talking to when they sneer and growl "Merry CRISTmas" at me? Who would you do that to? If A Christmas Carol was written today would he be an evangelical Christian? Talk about forgetting the spirit of Christmas! Sometimes it feels like half the culture wants to make everything--everything--into a war, these days. God help us all!

Right you are 101!!!

And further more.. do we really think God cares if we say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays... I seriously doubt it....

As long as it is in your heart... that is what counts.

Merry Christmas... Happy Holidays, Seasons Greetings, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanza, Happy Winter Solstice...

Let's stop fighting this out and give respect to everyone and just say Happy Everything!!!

My husband didn't write that i did, i just forgot to sign out of his name!

When you first started posting here, I understood that BF was you boy friend...If there has been a change of status, Congratulations - I mean it. Hope you have a long an happy marriage - Mako

Hey... you can always say

"Happy Christmashanukkahkwanza"

That at least knocks three out with one word!

you could also go for the classic "bah humbug", or just tell the cheery little ****** to "nick off".

i am going to stick with my new "greeting".

Ignorance?




Em hotep

I tend to agree, but on the other side of the coin, it is said in the Bible that Christians (Jews actually, it's in the OT) are to worship God on God's terms, not on man's terms. And if we think that Christmas is originally a pagan holiday, is this not trying to worship God on man's terms?

Just a thought.

Regards, PA

I don't get why this is a big deal or even why this topic has even gotten to page 2. Who cares what it says? Go in the store, buy what you need and get out. I don't go there to stare at the banners and writings. Hell it could say "Atheist own Christians!" and I'd no care and shop for what I need. =P

those christians really need to start realizing that if they want equal treatment, they should treat others equally as well. there is no favoritism shown in "happy holidays" as it includes all religions celebrated at this time of year. saying merry "christmas" would be excluding all other religions. it is unfortunate that they are willing to have hissy fits over such petty issues.

lol, so true.

It's kind of hard to tell what religeon someone is when all you know about them is that they are in a line to buy something from the store you work at. If you wish me a "Merry X-mas", that's sweet but, since I don't celebrate X-mas, it's kind of a strange message. How would you feel if you walked into a store and they all said "Happy Chanukah!". Nice sentiment but, you aren't going to have a chanuckah at all. Much less a nice one, right?

It's an attempt by decision making people who get paid too much and think too little. They are trying to keep from offending a small minority but, are in fact upsetting the majarity.

As many frequent readers of this site know, I'm Jewish. I live in the "bible Belt". I really don't care. I'm quite sure of my beliefs and I don't feel threatened by someone who says "Mery X-mas". I usually just respond with a "Happy Chanukah" and let it go. Of course this also exposes me to the far right X-tians who think that it is a cue for them to try to convert me. I honestly relish the oppertunity to defend my faith.

As far as "Happy Holidays" is concerned, I think that it is a more all inclusive statement. I personally have no problem with it. I do think that the person behind the counter should have the right to chose thier own greetings and farewells though.