I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts on the "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holiday" debate and all that is wrapped up in that (no pun intended).

Anybody who wants to say "Merry Christmas" because they are Christian, should be allowed to do so. Now, if a cashier at Walmart or Target holds the line up by taking the time to impart the entire Christmas story to some unsuspecting nonChristian patron...then he/she should be reprimanded.

I had this problem as a student office manager in college. I was put in charge of the "holiday party"..and then instructed not to have a "Christmas" theme or to wish everyone "Merry Christmas." Well, I figured that since I was the one who had worked hard to get promoted to office manager, and since I was the one who had been put in charge of the party, then I could certainly exercise the freedom to put my own personal touch to it! Sure, we had staff members with vastly different religious and cultural backgrounds, but they weren't the office manager nor were they put in charge of the party. Abuse of power? I think not. Privilege of the position I worked to attain? I think so! It would only have been an abuse of power if I either required my staff to reply "Merry Christmas" back to me, or, if I were a nonChristian boss, if I had forbidden them from wishing me a Merry Christmas!

The way I see it, if somebody doesn't like being wished "Merry Christmas" by a Christian, then they can either ignore it or reply with an alternative greeting or retort, as they deem fit. Freedom of speech is at stake here, not freedom of religion! If someone wants to reply "Happy Holidays" to me when I say "Merry Christmas" to them, that's perfectly fine with me-it's their personal choice!

Now let's think about those silly "holiday trees." They're Christmas trees! Calling them anything else would be like calling the Hanukkah Menorah a "Display of Eight Candles"...or Rosary beads a "Necklace of Meditation". Come on now, let's have a little sense about these things! This is rather like the "Moment of Silence" that schools have...it's a moment for "prayer" or "meditation". But we can't mention such words in public, now can we? So we call it silence, and pretend that nobody is praying. So, what're we going to do? Start calling those evergreens "holiday trees" and pretend that nobody's celebrating Christmas? Perhaps we'll all pretend that the star that has often replaced traditional angels atop store trees is not the beautiful star of Bethlehem?

• 1
• 2
• next page >>

---

Add your voice

Know something about The difference between saying 'Happy holidays' versus 'Merry Christmas'?
We want to hear your view. Write now!