In a recent letter to the editor of the Guelph Mercury, there was a letter from a person who expressed his disdain for a company who in a Christmas-themed ad used the phrase "Happy Holidays". Here's how I interpreted his meaning:
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Someone who celebrates one of the other holidays that has the misfortune to fall around the same time as Christmas should know that their retailer cares more about Christmas than whatever their holiday happens to be. That's not why they get those two consecutive days off. That's not why most people give gifts at this time of year.
I grew up celebrating Christmas, and when I was growing up, no one that I knew celebrated anything else, or if they did, they had the sense to keep it to themselves.
Why should I have to now have to accept that people are different from me, even though it used to be that I didn't have to? And why should a business that I might choose to frequent be allowed to tacitly acknowledge that they are catering to a predominantly Christian market and yet still avoid openly saying so? Clearly, any business that does not go out of its way to explicitly state that they are celebrating Christmas - and not any other holiday - at this time of year should be castigated.
I've heard others try to justify the usage based on the fact that the word "holiday" comes from the root words "holy" and "day", but I think that's not the point. It's about the use of the word "Christmas". It's the fact that these retailers want to make people think about Christmas, and they want people to purchase their products to give as Christmas gifts, but they don't want to turn away people who don't celebrate the religious holiday, especially if they also give gifts to one another at this time of year.
It may not be in the best interest of a business to deliberately or accidentally offend people of religions other than mine, but I will punish any business that doesn't.
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Perhaps I am wrong, and this person has a different viewpoint than what I have ascribed to him. But when someone takes the view that saying "Merry Christmas" represents a significant milestone in courage, I think they are being unfair.
Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Not everyone who chooses to give gifts at Christmas time is Christian. Other holidays fall during the month of December.
No one is making you celebrate any of those other holidays. Why do you feel it is necessary to try to force them to celebrate yours?
edit to add: I just emailed a version of this post to the Mercury.
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