By Katie Kieffer
Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/ybgm24a
If you have a reputation for being the life of the party, you can protect it at upcoming corporate holiday functions, ugly sweater parties and other eggnog raisers by announcing your fashionably late entrance with this phrase: “Merry Christmas!”
Studies infer that you’ll annoy more people by saying “Happy Holidays” than “Merry Christmas,” so listen to science and forget the PC jargon.
On Nov. 29, Rasmussen released a poll indicating that 72 percent of Americans prefer the greeting, “Merry Christmas” over “Happy Holidays.” Only 22 percent of Americans prefer “Happy Holidays” and six percent can’t decide. So, if you’re inclined to say “Merry Christmas,” but you’ve been hiding in the closet because you’re afraid of offending others, now is the perfect time to come out.
I don’t celebrate every single holiday. I celebrate Christmas. Most people don’t celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa: They celebrate one or none of these holidays. So, I don’t expect other people to wish or share multiple holidays – that they aren’t even celebrating themselves – by wishing me “Happy Holidays.”
I would love it if people simply shared and wished the holiday that they celebrate with me. For instance, if someone says “Happy Kwanzaa” to me, I could take it as a compliment – because they are sharing their holiday with me. It’s personal and thoughtful. “Happy Holidays” is the opposite – generic and thoughtless.
We can only share what we possess, so unless you are personally celebrating ever single holiday, just wish your friends, clients and colleagues the holiday that you actually celebrate. I know it’s scary, but you can do it! Practice in front of the mirror a few times and you’ll get it down. For many people, this will mean saying “Merry Christmas” and getting over the fear of offending others.
Ben Stein Image credit: Getty Images, http://tinyurl.com/ydbg2vo
Bottom line, you can’t offend someone by sharing your joy with them. If you think someone might be offended by your joy, don’t share it – they’re a scrooge and they don’t deserve it. Writer, actor and TV personality, Ben Stein, seems to concur. He wrote on his website:
“I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don’t feel threatened. I don’t feel discriminated against. That’s what they are: Christmas trees. It doesn’t bother me a bit when people say, “Merry Christmas” to me. I don’t think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn’t bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu. If people want a creche, it’s just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.
I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat.” (bold added by me)
So, this year, take a tip from Rasmussen and Stein and rock your kicks to the tune of your favorite Christmas carols. Leave the wallflowers to celebrate “Happy Holidays.”
This is a great post.
I agree with Ryan. I also think that this whole “fake war” terminology is interesting because the only places I read or hear it referenced is in liberal magazines or from the mainstream media. In other words, Christians and people who celebrate Christmas didn’t declare this “fake war” – it seems to me that the media declared it on their behalf to make them look like angry and petty religious individuals. I agree with Ben Stein and I think the media and government should quit making Christians feel pressured to say “Happy Holidays.”
it’s that they feel like they’re forced to NOT say it because they might get sued by someone who “was offended” by their sign or greeting.
Ryan, I think you misread the motives of a huge corporation. Is their wish to piss of Christians, or is it to sell products? I think it’s to sell. Selling things to a wide variety of customers makes catering to each individual’s religious preferences very difficult. I’m sure if WalMart could somehow read your mind as you came through the door and determined you were a Christian, they would wish you Merry Christmas. Because they cannot, they’re forced to use “Happy Holidays,” as it’s the easiest way to greet the widest variety of customers. There’s no hidden anti-Christian agenda here. There is, however, an aversion to getting bad press: so they will change when pressured enough by groups such as the one in the MSNBC article. More here.
Here’s one about a lawsuit pertaining to the Bible.
The constitutional issues are insanely complex. Can any old cult get their monument on public property (like that case I linked to)? What if a city’s park runs out of room because Scientologists are throwing a bajillion statutes out there? What if a judge or teacher wants the class to recite a Muslim prayer? Or spread Jewish teachings? I’m not saying any of that is good or bad, but the answers are complicated. But, it’s complicated because there’s tons of people with different views who are trying to get different things, not because everyone’s secretly unified in trying to piss of Christians and not because a shadowy evil liberal conspiracy is making companies be PC.
There are numerous lawsuits out there about crosses on Federal property.
That’s because the groups that want to evangelize want to do so on public property, which some people have a problem with. It’s not about some anti-Christian bias, it’s about whether it’s Constitutional or not to let religions use government property to spread a religion. Meaning, most of these lawsuits are brought by the religions themselves. Not saying that’s good or bad, but people are definitely not “going after religion” for the sake of being PC. Certain religions are using the courts to try to get more power to express themselves, which they’re totally entitled to do.
@Aguy – Oh really? So why exactly did Walmart, along with basically every other big-time store, start using “Happy Holidays?” It couldn’t be because they thought they might get sued …. http://www.bpnews.net/bpcolumn.asp?ID=2082 for reasons similar to the ones in the article. That’s really what the problem is. It’s not that Walmart doesn’t want to say Merry Christmas, it’s that they feel like they’re forced to NOT say it because they might get sued by someone who “was offended” by their sign or greeting. Thankfully, Walmart has switched back to wishing shoppers “Merry Christmas” http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15639425/.
There are numerous lawsuits out there about crosses on Federal property. Here’s one lawsuit that’s going on. http://legacy.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060720/news_1n20cross.html . I don’t pretend to be a Constitutional lawyer so I don’t know how valid any or all of them are. It’s just one more aspect in the attack on Christianity. Here’s one about a lawsuit pertaining to the Bible. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83370. Can you imagine what would happen if someone tried to ban the distribution of the Qur’an under the same circumstances? They would get sued so fast for discrimination, and it would be all over the national news. It all goes back to the political correctness that has become so prevalent, which is a load of garbage. It’s gone way past the bounds of guarding against racism, bigotry etc, and it’s ridiculous.
Anyone who is offended by “Merry Christmas” can go jump off a cliff.
But that’s what makes the Fake War on Christmas fake! It’s fake because no one cares if you say Merry Christmas. Not one single person on the planet is irked by this, except for the scary God-hating liberals that exist only in the minds of far-right evangelicals (ie “I’m not going to try to soothe your tender psyche or put up with your feelings of entitlement.”)
This whole discussion is made-up nonsense, as is the idea that the largely white, rich, politically-connected, evangelical movement is somehow persecuted.
lawsuits for the banning of crosses on federal property,
I know you’re not referring to the recent Supreme Court decision denying other religions’ monuments while at the same time explicitly allowing Christian monuments, (which is fine by me), so I’m not sure what you’re talking about.
Great article, Katie, I’m so sick and tired of the politically correct (pardon my language) BS! Everyone is so scared of “discriminating” or “offending” someone, and then the subsequent frivolous lawsuit that they have to tiptoe around everything and give out generic Christmas greetings along with numerous other examples. Anyone who is offended by “Merry Christmas” can go jump off a cliff. It’s Christmas time, without Christ the holiday wouldn’t exist, so get over it. I’m not going to try to soothe your tender psyche or put up with your feelings of entitlement. People feel like it’s owed to them that everyone else look out for their feelings, and that’s just not how it should work.
@Aguy – There’s a systematic attack on Christianity in this country right now, camouflaged as the pursuit of civil liberties. The fact that stores are pushed to switch to using the words “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” is one example, along with the new hate crimes legislation, and lawsuits for the banning of crosses on federal property, to name a few.
Ah yes, the fake war on Christmas. Tis the season, I suppose. What is it, 10 years now? Still going strong!
“I could take it as a compliment – because they are sharing their holiday with me.”
I assume you mean religious holiday. What if you’re, like 1/4 of 18-25 year-olds, an atheist or agnostic? I don’t think Bill O’Reilly or George W. really give it that much thought, sending out “holiday cards” or selling “holiday ornaments.”
The fake war on Christmas reminds me of this Bible verse … and of the work of Jim Henderson. It’s damaging to evangelism to conceive of a world in which I must get out there to “save Christmas,” but it fits with the weird victimization thing a lot of evangelical Christians have after listening to too much Focus on the Family. If anything, the culprits not using “Christmas” are the businesses who are trying to appeal to a wider audience. That’s not blasphemy though; that’s capitalism.