It’s amazing to me that a post I put up originally almost two years ago is still drawing attention — both agreement and disagreement. That’s gratifying.

I would suggest that the truth about all the feelings regarding “Christmas v. Holiday” is probably somewhere in between my original comments and your suggestions here. I agree there is “fault” on both sides.

I doubt, however, that the folks who seem to be replacing “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holiday” are not nearly as intentional as you imply. Although I think some are motivated by PC in doing this, I doubt many are doing it out of some motive to replace or eliminate the use of “Christmas.” There may truly be a few zealouts out there who are, but for the most part I don’t think people using “Happy Holidays” are all that intent on eliminating “Merry Christmas.”

Having said that, I DO know of Christians who definitely DO want to eliminate “Happy Holidays” as though it were somehow evil or wrong. (I was flipping through TV channels the other day and came across a television evangelist/talk show host who had a pile of shopping catalogs he’d gotten in the mail. His wife was going through each catalog one-by-one and pointing out those which had “Merry Christmas” on the front and those which had “Happy Holidays” on the front. She carefully pointed out those with “Happy Holidays” as merchants Christians should avoid. The studio audience literally clapped and cheered each time.)

Very interesting issues involved here, I agree.

Gary

It’s not that Christians suddenly came along and insisted on the use of “Merry Christmas.” It is that certain non-Christians came along and insisted on NOT using “Merry Christmas.” You are attempting to turn the table on the whole matter and suggest that Christians created this debate.

Your point regarding the origin of the word “holiday” and the ignorance of many regarding the origin is probably correct. In fact, those that are against the use of “Merry Christmas” and in favor of “Happy Holidays” are within that group. After all, the majority of those complaining about the phrase “Merry Christmas” do so on the grounds that the phrase promotes a particular religion, etc. So, if they were aware of the origin of the word “holiday,” then they would also be against the use of that word since “holy” suggests a deity, etc.

The bottom line is not in the use of a particular phrase or the ignorance of a word’s origin. The bottom line is the INTENT of those attempting to remove certain phrases. These are the individuals needing to “get a life” as you say. If these individuals do discover the origin of the word “holiday,” then they will be advocating the use of “happy xdays” or just “happy days.”

The term “Separation of Church and State, was not meant to remove religion from the State, but to remove State control from Religion.

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…is that most people who say “happy holidays” have no clue about the origin of the word “holiday”…so I agree with you.

Of course, those who trip all over themselves to be “politically correct” and use that term so as to not “offend” others, are in fact unknowingly acknowledging that Christmas is a holy day (see definition below)….and thus, that perhaps would be even offensive to use to those who reject Christianity.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/holy

Hmmm….

Anyway, I absolutely do say “Merry Christmas” and/or “Happy Holidays” to others…even my Muslim friends. After all, even they claim that Christ was a “great prophet”, so why not?

I have to assume that those who get bent out of shape about the use of “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” are doing so because they understand the motives of those who are doing this…and are not thinking of what the word “holiday” means.