So what should I say tommorrow?

[sqbr]

I like wishing people a merry Christmas. But I know that as a Christian-encultured atheist I'm a lot more comfortable with Christmas as a secular holiday than people from other cultural or religious backgrounds.

I'm not sure the American "Happy Holidays" is an improvement: it assumes that everyone has a holiday around this time, which is fine if you're jewish(*) or (most types of?) pagan but not so much if you're Buddhist or Muslim etc, as are a great many of the people I know who are members of a religion other than Christianity (eg it's reasonableness as a greeting assumes the sort of religious demographics you get in America but not here(**)). And saying it tommorrow feels like "I'm wishing you a merry Christmas but giving it a veneer of inclusiveness."

Worse along these lines is "Happy Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/whatever", imo.

I like "A merry Christmas to those who celebrate it and a generally happy day to everyone else" and similar.

What are other people's thoughts?

(*)Though apparently Hanukkah isn't that big of a deal compared to some of the other holidays?
(**)Plus Americans have Thanksgiving. We all have New Years I guess, but I don't think people mean "Happy new year" when they say "Happy Holidays".

Comments

[rainbow]

oh, this is fascinating. i'd never thought of the intersection of local demographics and holiday greetings.

* no, chanukah is not a major holiday.

** i can't speak for anyone else, but if i said "happy holidays" i would consider it to include wishes for a happy new year, too -- but then i'm not christian at all; i'm more of a secular pagan and celebrate solstice. i do sometimes wish a merry christmas or happy chanukah to the people who celebrate it, though.

i'm trying to remember back when i was in jr high and high school in the 70s in calif. there was an increased focus on the separation of church and state around then in the area i lived in (san francisco bay area, near berkeley), with increased pressure on schools to be inclusive of students who weren't christian and increased pressure on municipalities to have "holiday displays" on govt property instead of christmas specific ones (and oh, did that cause some ruckuses when suddenly places that had had creche displays for decades had bells and holly and etc instead).

i remember we had holiday decorations rather than xmas decorations at the schools by the time i was in high school, and it was really drummed into us that not everyone celebrates christmas and that we should include everyone in our holiday celebrations.

i suspect it's different for people who grew up after "happy holidays" was already common.

[sqbr]

*nods*

It's something I've been thinking about for a while, since the US attitude is superficially similar to ours but the underlying dynamics are different.