Why do people get their panties in a knot over "Happy Holidays"?

[Verto]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Why do people get their panties in a knot over "Happy Holidays"?

Originally posted by Geronimo
It's all in the motivations. A Holiday needs sound foundations or a long honored history to be deserving of the slightest respect.

Jebusday didn't have either of those for at least hundreds of years and Kwanzaa certainly doesn't have either of those and I'd much rather it simply go away to make our lives simpler.

All holidays have to start "from scratch".

[Geronimo]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Why do people get their panties in a knot over "Happy Holidays"?

Originally posted by Verto


All holidays have to start "from scratch".

no they don't. They have the option to not start at all. Or preferably start at some gap in the holiday calendar so we can try to leverage it into more paid time off.

[Dis]

Merry get presents day

[Sirotnikov]

Originally posted by Verto
"Happy Holidays!" vs. "Merry Christmas!" - what's the big deal? Why is the first seen as some kind of attack on Christmas?
[...]

To me, the most offensive of the two is "Merry Christmas", since it seems to imply that everyone celebrates Christmas, and that no one celebrates, say, Hanukah.

[...]

FWIW, I (work in retail) now wish everyone a Happy Hanukah, when they wish me a Merry Christmas. Childish? Sure. But I do it FOR SCIENCE! MULTICULTURALISM! or something.

I really see this as a rally about nothing.

I wouldn't mind if stores blessed me with one holiday or the other!

I do think that if the area is predominantly christian, then there's every logic that people will be greated with "merry christmas". Though it is a christian holiday, it is now mainly about family and positive feelings about a new year. There's no way that someone wishing me a merry christmas would offend my Jewishness.

I do understand to some amount how people can be against "happy holidays" if it is made into a standard PC greeting. I think that any person should say it like he jolly damn pleases, and any attempt to regulate blessings is idiotic. Obviously, a store in a Jewish area would certainly want to bless people with "happy Hannuka". But making a big deal out of it, is pretty stupid.

It is so incredibly stupid, that a greeting for a holiday that is supposed to be about love and giving, is made into a farce by political bikkering over a few greetings.

I think that saying "happy hannuka" to everyone on purpose is silly. You take this job of "enlightening people" too far.

If someone says "merry christmass" to my jewish arse, I'll simply say "thanks" cause I know he wished me well.

wishing everyone a happy hannuka just to drive home a point is a bit condescending.

Originally posted by SlowwHand
You're all going to Hell anyway, so it doesn't matter.

QFT

(Not that I believe in Hell)

[Gatekeeper]

"Happy Holidays!" vs. "Merry Christmas!" - what's the big deal? Why is the first seen as some kind of attack on Christmas? Why do people threaten boycotts of stores that wish you a happy holiday, instead of a merry Christmas?

It's a big deal, Verto, because so-called Christians in wealthy, Western nations have nothing better to do with their time. Y'see, they feel so persecuted in America that this is the one way they can lash out against the rising tide of secularism in the public square. Whipped forward by Bill O'Reilly-type commentators, these poor, persecuted Christians are simply stepping forward to reclaim what's rightfully theirs.

God bless America's fundamentalist, right-wing Christians. The poor bastards got it so bad here, y'know.

Gatekeeper

[Solver]

Yep, it's sad how people can get offended. I don't have a problem with wishing other people happy Christmas, or when they say that to me. If someone wishes you happy Christmas, they are being polite and mean well - to get offended about that is a well-refined form of idiocy. I don't force myself on anyone by wishing a happy Hannukah to everyone, though I may jokingly do so with people I know well.

I also like how the Latvian name for Christmas translates to "Winterfest" and doesn't even seem Christianity-related, it's more of an, uhm, traditional holiday.

[Drake Tungsten]

"Happy Holidays" is retarded because Christmas is so obviously the most important holiday in the month of December. Hannukah isn't even in the top three of Jewish holidays and 99% of the population know nothing about Kwanzaa beyond the name (if that). Replacing "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" makes about as much sense as replacing "Happy Halloween" with "Happy Holidays" out of respect for Sukkot and Dia de los Muertos...

[Lul Thyme]

I always understood Happy Holidays to mean Happy Christman and New Year's Eve or just the fact that you get free time (holidays) until the whole debate came up, I had never tought of holidays in HH representing say Hannukah. (I'm willing to admit I had never put much thought into it)

So for people trying to "Defend Christmas against Hanukkah" or whatever, they are actually going against their purpose for ppl like me...

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
"Happy Holidays" is retarded because Christmas is so obviously the most important holiday in the month of December. Hannukah isn't even in the top three of Jewish holidays

Still, to Jewish people, Hannukah is far more important than Christmas

[Drake Tungsten]

So what? The fact that 2% of the US population might consider Hannukah more important than Christmas doesn't make "Happy Holidays" any less insipid...

[SlowwHand]

I'm going to start a thread for a lot of you.
Hold on, I'll be right back.

[Solver]

I can assure you most Jews don't get offended by "Merry Christmas". I have no doubt that the occasional guy does, but most of us won't have a negative thought about Merry Christmas.

But I also consider "Happy Holidays" to mean more like "Happy Christmas & New Year and the other free days" than "Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa or whatever you may celebrate".

[SlowwHand]

Happy hookers.

[LordShiva]

Originally posted by Solver
But I also consider "Happy Holidays" to mean more like "Happy Christmas & New Year and the other free days" than "Happy Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa or whatever you may celebrate".

Exactly, "holidays" as in "days you don't have to work or go to school, two of which are Christmas and New Year's Day."

So the question stands, why do people get their panties in a knot over it?

[DaShi]

I was listening to a bit of Rush Limbaugh last week while on the road. He was basically arguing the same thing as this but in reverse. He was complaining about all the liberals getting offended when you say Merry Christmas to them.