All right folks, I have two questions to get you sharing with your neighbors:
One, did you have a Merry Christmas in the CD?
Two, are you bothered by “Merry Christmas”?!
For the sake of conversation…
1. Yes, we did! We had friends over, watched movies, ate good food, played Wii, visited with some neighbors, all the while embracing the mantra “drink and be merry”. ;)
2. I’m afraid this could dissolve into a religious discussion, but I’ll try anyway. It would seem (thankfully) that the politically correct movement is waning. I acknowledge that we have differences – as opposed to pretending we don’t – and go from there. I am not much religious, but I say “Merry Christmas,” because that’s the holiday I was brought up with. Do you have a problem with that? Some do, some don’t. Please feel free to throw me a Hanukkah wish or what have you, I will gladly accept it. Do you concern yourself with this?
In the end, Merry Christmas. Or Happy Holidays. Or whatever. :)
Thanks for this post. It is interesting to see what people say these days. I do feel a little like the PC responses are lessening as people get more open minded and tolerant of one another (which is a little ironic). My family is not religious, but we celebrate Christmas out of tradition. We make it about family and a giving spirit, not about Christ. My husband, a staunch atheist, is never offended when people wish him Merry Christmas – he feels they are sharing their joy of the season with him, and that makes him happy.
I have cousins who are Jewish and they never seem offended either way. Many of them have married Christians (non practicing) and they celebrate both Hannukah and Christmas with their children and inlaws. However, my sister in law, who was raised Jewish but does not really practice, recently vented that she thinks people are ethnocentric when they wish her a Merry Christmas and she gets offended – which is odd because I just spent Christmas at her home and she sure didn’t seem to be offended that all of her inlaws had descended upon her around a lighted tree with dozens of gifts – she was, honestly, celebrating too.
I try to be thoughtful and say Happy Holidays when I feel it is appropriate, but sometimes a Happy Christmas (I prefer that to Merry) escapes and I smile and usually, so does the other person.
Happy Christmas and Happy New Year, neighbor!