Marcia wrote:
Oh, ok.
I don't live in a monoculture, so maybe that makes it more acceptable to be distinctive.
There's actually no problem with "Merry Christmas" in the US. Hardly anyone complains about it, and the people who complain about "happy holidays" are simply making stuff up. I don't know when the fiction that "happy holidays" was a sign of a war on Christmas, or anti-Christmas, or whatever kind of martyred fake-oppressed attitude people came up with became popular, but before that happened, no one cared when you said "happy holidays" instead of "merry Christmas" because it was just a pleasantry.
Now people complain about political correctness and how Jews and Muslims allegedly hate Christmas, and I have to wonder just what kind of fiction these people believe they're living in. No one's out to kill Christmas. But, the problem isn't that anyone really wants to stop Christmas. The problem is that sometimes people acknowledge that everything in December
isn't about Christmas, and I guess that attitude, that the American WASP monoculture isn't the entirety of the US cultural fabric, just offends some people. Mostly, I think they need to get over it because it's not that big a deal. It shouldn't be any kind of deal. Anyone who wants to make it one is just being oversensitive and looking to be offended.
Wiki on the topic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_controversy