What's Wrong with "Happy Holidays"?
Lileks is against it, and he's part of a national movement. Among all right-thinking bloggers "Happy Holidays" is out and "Merry Christmas" is in.
To which I say, Come to Dallas. Nobody here (except me) will wish you, "Happy Holidays." Everyone will ask whether you're ready for Christmas and wish you a merry one. And if, like me, you don't want to cause anyone to feel bad, you'll respond politely and let them go right on assuming you celebrate Christmas.
I can't blame Christians, who are the vast majority of Americans and the ones whose religion is celebrated in all those carols at the mall, for wanting their holiday acknowledged in public. I don't get offended when Dallasites assume everyone, of course, celebrates Christmas. (Everyone they know does, after all.) And I hope to have a happy, though not necessarily merry, December 25. But I wish good-hearted folks like Lileks would consider that Christmas greetings don't make everyone feel good.
Why criticize merchants for including all their customers in wishes for a happy holiday season? The holidays do, after all, stretch from Thanksgiving to New Year's, both nonsectarian holidays. "Happy Holidays" includes Christmas, for those who celebrate it. But it also includes holidays we all share, as well as some others only a minority observe.
When you extend these greetings, are you wishing people happiness? Or affirming your Christianity? Do you want people who don't celebrate Christmas to be happy (or merry)? Or do you want to make them at least mildly uncomfortable? The answers will determine what you say.