Love ItLove It WINWIN

"Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays"?

499 Views 20 Votes 26 Comments

I don’t know if this is a big issue outside of the USA but, since we have solved all of our other problems in America, some people have decided that saying “Merry Christmas” to people they don’t know is worthy of public execution. I thought I’d take a rather unscientific poll.

The image of the manger scene is in the public domain.

#Politicalcorrectness #religion #holidays #Christmas

  • Question of

    If you live in the USA – Which greeting do you use?

    • Merry Christmas
    • Happy Holidays
  • Question of

    If you live outside of the USA – Which greeting do you use?

    • Merry Christmas
    • Happy Holidays
  • Question of

    Do you celebrate Christmas?

    • Yes, as a religious holiday
    • Yes, but not as a religious holiday
    • No
  • Question of

    If you do not celebrate Christmas, are you offended if someone says “Merry Christmas”?

    • Yes
    • No

Report

What do you think?

20 Points

Browse and manage your votes from your Member Profile Page

Written by Gary J Sibio

26 Comments

  1. I don’t celebrate the birth of Christ, but the Winter Solstice. I don’t mind when someone tells me “Merry Christmas”. I know they don’t mean to offend me, I know they wish me well and they’re used to that expression. It takes time to change, switch to “Happy Holidays”. I’m even one of those who say “Merry Christmas” out of habit. ?

    1

    • In the USA a lot of people won’t say “Merry Christmas” because they are afraid of offending someone who doesn’t celebrate Christmas. It’s good not to want to be offensive but why should saying “Merry Christmas” be offensive. It’s a big thing in America.

    • I can see that but I think it is better if you are specific. I’ll say Happy Hanukah to Jewish people, Happy Dawali to the Hindus and Have a Nice Eid to the Moslems. (I live in a very ethnic neighborhood.)

      1

      • the suburbs of DC are huge ethnic areas and you never know by looking or dress what someone is, so Happy holidays it is for me.

        If I know the person and their personal faith, I will address that specific holiday but again I have to know the person first.

        1

    • A lot of people get upset when they go into a store to do Christmas shopping and the clerk says “Happy Holidays.” Although I’m a ‘Merry Christmas” guy myself, I don’t get mad at them. They’re only doing what their bosses told them. I just respond “Merry Christmas.” But then again I haven’t been inside a store for Christmas shopping for about 10 or 12 years. I do my shopping online.

      1

  5. That is very interesting to read. I know more and more people are saying ‘Happy Holidays’ nowadays, but I’ve always said Merry Christmas, as do many of the people around me. It makes no difference to me how people wish to say it though.

  8. In my country, with the majority of which are of other faiths, most of them can accept the greeting but there are also those who still reject it, even our relatives. But that doesn’t matter, because on Christmas day they visit us as we visit them on their religious holidays.

    1

  10. In my country we do wish each other Merry Christmas but among Christians. We can either use Merry Christmas in English or Krismasi Njema in Kiswahili which is the national language.

    1

  11. In the former Canal Zone in Panama the English version was “Merry Christmas” while in the Spanish speaking nation it is “Feliz Navdidad.” which is a song that made singer Jose Felicano famous.

    1

    • If I remember my high school Spanish correctly, Feliz Navidad means “Happy Christmas,” pretty much the same thing. I’ve gotten the feeling that, outside of the USA, people say Merry Christmas or the equivalent in their language.