Anyone else sick of this?

To me it's MERRY CHRISTMAS, I cannot understand why christian countries have to change their greeting, just not to offend non-christians, I cannot understand why they would be offended.

I remember living in Manchester and took the dogs or a walk in a local park, to find there was some sort of Indian festival going on, it was a colourful event. I remember being greeted quite a few times with happy (whatever) cannot remember what it was.

I was not offended and I enjoyed seeing their colourful parade.

I'm sure if you go to a Muslim, Hindu, Budda part of the world, they do not celebrate their occassions with 'happy holiday', they say what it is, and so they should.

And so we should!!

No Christian country HAS to change its greeting. It's your personal choice and if you want to say Merry Christmas, then do so. This has been argued for so many years now, it's passe. Life is too short to sweat such small things.

Watching the build up to Christmas on TV for instance, I never heard Merry Christmas once.. I only ever heard Happy Holiday.

Sure, I can and do say Merry Christmas, but all public announcements tend to say Happy Holiday.

Which is what I am getting at.

This is what I cynically suspect to be financial decisions by the media outlets/stores because they want to attract viewers/listeners/buyers from all walks of life. We live in a much different world today and I admit it took me (an old guy) a long time to come to terms with it. An epiphany a few years ago made me realize the changes were here to stay so suck it up or slash my wrists. I realized that the only person being aerated was me.

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an
environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender
neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable
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or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all and a fiscally
successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset
of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the
calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make
our society great (not to imply that our society is necessarily greater than any other country
or is the only society in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the
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or sexual preference of the wishee.

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This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good
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whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance
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Halfway through reading this my eyes glazed over.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hogmannay, and a guid New Year and to you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

....would it work for you if they met you half way and said Merry Holiday?

...or if they met you half way and said "This is the middle of the effing Atlantic, Merry Drowning."

OK................

'Christian' Countries include Europe, and (limited) Parts of WESTERN Asia.
Anything else (including US, Canada, Central and South America, Africa, Australia, NZ...............) are Shamanistic Countries where the 'missionaries' took over.

Getting off my soap box now.

Totally agree. This is a REALLY important point. But one thing to bear in mind is that the "Happy Holiday" thing is all down to do-gooder Christians over-thinking how "Happy Christmas" could offend other faiths. I suspect other faiths cannot believe how predominantly Christian countries such as US and Canada have such a complex over celebrating their faith. The fact that other religious festivals coincide at this time of year is not enough reason, in my opinion, to dilute one of Christians' most important festivals down to a generic holiday.

Of course the Americans started all of this but Brits in our usual style have just as many nauseating do-gooders, per capita. I've already heard of many PC horror stories around Christmas celebrations. If I had a wet trout for every one of them, they'd be getting a good slap around the chops in a kind of festive wake-up call.

Happy holidays - covers Christmas and New Year celebrations. We always celebrate both and see few work colleagues between the two so why not wish them the best for both?