Either / or. I think the attempt by certain religious whackjobs to make saying "Holidays" or "Xmas" into blasphemy is ludicrous in the extreme. Kinda defeats the whole peace on earth and good will toward mankind feel of the season. How someone celebrates the end of the year is a personal choice and should be respected in any form.
I always say "Merry Christmas", and prefer people to say it as that is what this season is and was called. If others like saying "Happy Holidays" whatever - but the whole trying to get rid of "Christmas" is lame.
...I think the attempt by certain religious whackjobs to make saying "Holidays" or "Xmas" into blasphemy is ludicrous in the extreme... Actually I resent the paranoid anti christian movement that is so afraid that they might be coverted by the mere mention of Christ, that they are devolving a season of joy and love and peace celebrating the promise His birth brought to us, into one only concerned with corperate profits and politically correct bland best wishes. The real "whackjobs" are the single individuals that steal a Giving Tree out of a grade school so it has to be replaced by a Giving Counter because a "Christmas Tree" is religious icon and they (one person) were offended. By the way, it didn't stop the kids from careing about their less fortunate friends. Way to go Kids!
'Happy Holidays' is more of an American thing. I know none of my friends or family say it. However, IMHO I think it sounds more modern. 'Merry Christmas' is traditional - and makes the time of year sound more like Christmas. Christmas has a feel to it - a happy, shiny feeling, one of anticipation. I think that 'Merry Christmas' reflects that more than 'Happy Holidays'.
Why don't we try for kindness and good will toward all here in this forum. If you are Christian and want to wish people a Merry Christmas, then why not? If you are Jewish, then wish us all a Happy Hanukkah. If you prefer to wish people Happy Holidays then why not do so? This should be a happy time of giving. How about a gift of tolerance? Celebrating during this time of year, around the winter solstice, is universal among all cultures and religions, has gone on since neolithic times, and has undergone many, many changes over the centuries. A search using google about the winter solstice will give you a fair amount of information (including some wayout stuff--you have to use your head when reading any of it.) Check out this example I found through google: http://www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm. And I am not endorsing this group. I know nothing about them and read no further than this first page, but it is, nevertheless, informative. My husband and I sincerely wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I guess it depends ... and no, I am not sitting on the fence for once. The Happy Holidays thing is an American fudge to get around the problematic fact that the nation is essentially a christian nation albeit one with a constitutional bar on placing religion and religious leaders in the political arena. The upshot of this is that Christmas day (12/25) and the millions (even including practitioners of non-christian faiths) who take part in the orgy of spending and consuming need to be insulated from the uncomfortable knowledge that their celebrations are probably unconstitutional. Here in the UK we have the same trouble but for different (even sadder) reasons PS The 25th is a Sunday this year and in the UK we will have the public holiday defrayed over to Tuesday 27th (because the 26th is already a public holiday anyway -- Boxing Day) Personally I think the American's get a bum deal with very few public holidays that are set for Mondays to make nice long week-ends. But then we Europeans would die of stress if we tried to work to US working hours. Gimme 6 weeks paid holiday a year or I won't sign that contract! And no ... I never wonder why the US is the most powerful nation on earth ... you guys worked for it, you're welcome to it!
It actually never occurred to me that buying presents for my children might be unconstitutional. They believed in Santa Claus and I didn't want to disappoint them. I can't stand it when little children cry. 6 weeks paid holiday!!! :shocked: OMG! Do you need any accountants over there? My husband is a really GOOD one. I'm so-so. Anyway, are Americans the only people who buy Christmas presents for friends and family? It would be interesting to know what other countries expect. I had an image in my head (maybe very misguided) that Germans went all out at Christmas time. Worldsims might be just the place to tell each other what we do for Christmas. My husband and I go to church then spend the day with his family because mine is too spread out. Except that my daughter is flying in from California, arriving 9 pm Christmas night and will spend the week with me. Hubby and I bought each family member one present -- books. I'll put up a few decorations (no tree this year) because of my daughter's visit. When I was very young my mother used to sew a new outfit for each of my dolls every year. I still have my daughter's dollhouse and I like to get it out and decorate it for Christmas. (Maybe I'll post a picture next week.) What does everyone else do?
Well my family all meet at someone's house (I'm the un...I mean lucky one this year ) and we just chat, have a BBQ lunch, swim and play cricket. Not very exciting eh?
LOL Lynet. We have Christmas bigtime here too. Even better (or worse depending on one's degree of humbugage) all of our public holidays are weekdays. So this season we have Dec 26, 27 and Jan 2 as public hols. The nations factories and offices generally close down for the best part of 2 weeks when Christmas falls in midweek ... it being uneconomic to keep opening and closing a business for 1 or 2 days then shutting up again for a long weekend. We have 8 public holidays a year and most employers offer 3 weeks (15 days) paid holiday in addition to public hols, making 23 in total. By law we're entitled to 4 weeks (20 days) anyway! In my last job I had 5 weeks plus the 8 stautory days. Holidays couldn't be saved up but there were no other limits concerning how they were used. As I hate winter I often fantasised about taking a 70 day break centred on New Years ... but then I'd have hated having to work for 45 weeks afterward to actually "earn" the second half of the holiday
Me and my group of friends don't give eachother Christmas presents anymore, we just do a Secret Santa as it's cheaper LOL. (Where you pick someones name out of a hat and you you have to buy them something; no body knows who got them their present) And no, America isn't the only country that gives presents to family and friends. I believe the tradition started in Turkey where St Nicholas (the real life Santa) would give gifts to children or something. In the Netherlands they give presents on 5th December because this is the day he died. All countries that celebrate Christmas do this I should think. Also the Christmas tree came from Germany. Seriously, if an alien came down to Earth he'd think Christmas is a festival about spending loads of money and wrapping paper!
