I say Merry Christmas to everyone.

If they find it offensive, that is their problem and not mine.

Merry Christmas! If someone wants to wish me a Happy Haunuka or Happy Kwanzaa or whatever, I am accepting of those as well. Every religion should celebrate their main festivals. And share with others. Despite what many in the media want to project onto our society, we are a very welcoming and accepting nation. Don't believe the hype!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!!!

If I know the person celebrates it I say Merry Christmas, if I don't I say Happy Holidays. I spend almost no time thinking about this and default to HH if I don't know. There are over a dozen major holidays for many religions in between Thanksgiving and New Years so the "reason for the season" depends on your faith.

My question to you: why does it bother you how people greet one another?

And since I know your preference: Merry Christmas Dr_of_Style!

I do it both ways depending on how lazy I am when typing. I prefer " Merry Christmas and Have A Safe & Happy New Year" but "Happy Holidays" is a lot less typing. As far as being "politically correct" - if it was just because of that I would say MERRY CHRISTMAS 100% of the time. I am so sick of a few people trying to control the majority and it seems to get worse every day.

Something close to 90% of Americans are Christian and yet the majority of us need to change our ways because it might offend someone? Give me a break!
Same way with stuff like the Nativity Scenes in public places or IN GOD WE TRUST on our money. America was founded by Christians and Christians accept all religions. Some other religions feel the need to discriminate against Christians but Christians accept all religions - which way makes more sense for a peaceful world.

God Bless!

Hail Satan!

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I am in no way a christian - but celebrate Xmas/solstice. Jesus isn't the reason foy my season, but I say happy holidays throughout Nov/Dec and Merry Christmas on Dec 25th. Lots of other holidays/celebrations throughout the 2 months. I have zero problem with hearing or saying 'Merry Christmas', but have certainly encountered one or two strangers angrily correct an early Dec 'happy holidays' from me. Sad angry people turning goodwill into something negative.

Sign me up for "Merry Christmas". I with you Dr, about as politically incorrect as one could be.
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah to all

There doesn't seem to be a holiday this time of year for non religious people, so I just celebrate time off from work.

If your world is exclusively Christian I guess?

Who cares.

Well said!

I have noticed a lot more "Merry Christmas" greetings this year and it's odd to me. It shouldn't be odd, but it feels that way. That really ticks me off because I'm tired of media / gov't making me feel guilty about my beliefs. Im not even overly religious but it bugs me.

I always say "Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays" or Happy Hanukkah to my friends that celebrate.

I say happy holidays to be all inclusive. I support displays of whatever mythology you like as long as it's paid for privately and on private property.

Anyone that feels excluded or is offended because someone says "Merry Christmas" has bigger issues...

Merry Christmas!

I say Christmas, and I'm totally non-religious. I really don't think anyone gets offended except for social justice warriors who get off on creating drama to feed their own disconent. I've never met any Muslim, Jewish person, agnostic, etc who is offended by being wished a Merry Christmas. Nor a Christian who is offended by being told happy Diwali, hannukah, etc.

If you're offended by people wishing you a happy holidays rather than a merry Christmas, then that demonstrates you expect others to cater to you by explicitly using the word "Christmas", which is just the other side of the coin compared to those who expect to be catered to in the form of people explicitly not using the word "Christmas". It's silly. Get over it.

Don't place your expectations on others. Say what you want to say, and take pride in it, as you do. Don't waste your time and energy being frustrated by others not having the same beliefs as you, you can find more productive uses for that energy.

When I say Merry Christmas to somebody, I'm not taking into account their religious beliefs, nor do I care what they are. I'm not ramming Jesus down their throats--I'm expressing wishes for all the positive feelings associated with the season regardless of religion. To me, Christmas is a season that all can enjoy even if they don't believe in the "back story."

Similarly, I've been given Hanukkah cards and wished Happy Hanukkah even though I don't celebrate it. I understand the sentiment behind it and accept it as such, and it means as much to me as someone wishing me a Merry Christmas.

To me, that's the true spirit of inclusiveness without fear of being politically correct. I choose not to spend a lot of time around people who can't accept a holiday wish without getting pissed off about it. Who needs that kind of negativity?

Have always said Merry Christmas.

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I usually say Happy Holidays for the simple reason that there is a lot of holidays this time of the year. Not because of some B.S. fictitious "war on Christmas"

I think you are remembering history a bit different than reality...

Many popular customs associated with Christmas developed independently of the commemoration of Jesus' birth, with certain elements having origins in pre-Christian festivals that were celebrated around the winter solstice by pagan populations who were later converted to Christianity.

Christmas is a pagan and solstice celebration.

REALITY CHECK. Thanks.

I say Merry Christmas.

I really prefer "Have an Epic Christmas"

IF he even existed, "Christmas" would be in June. Christmas these days is a corporate sales target.

I wear an onion on my hip to commemorate the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Happy FSM-days.

Oh Boy, I have to be careful here.

I have always said, "Merry Christmas", as the Spirit the Holiday now conveys, as a bit less "Jesus".

So the meaning of "Christmas", is "Christ" means the "Anointed", and at that time Jesus was the anointed
leader of his following, its both political and theological, and analogies, are "President" or "Iman".
Mas is = Mass, a prayer service in honor of, along with religious adulation and reflection.

Even though the Pope, and those in theology share the Gospels that Jesus was born in the Spring,
the Holiday is a mixture of Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, and the Birth of Jesus.

If I can share this with those that have an open mind, and an inquisitive nature.

Check out why the story of Hanukkah, in the Book of Maccabees, is in the Roman Catholic Church Holiday list,
and the Book itself in the Bible of the Church.

Jews dont have the Book of Maccabees in their Bible.

Therefore, Christians celebrate Hanukkah, and Jews dont.

Talk about how far apart this is.....and when one learns why this is true, the perpetrated narrative of Power and Control
tells the truth about History.

100+ Years ago, it was a week long drinking festival, with very little resemblance to what we have today.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!

bummer

Lets bring it back!

Every holiday season, I try to greet other people in the manner that has the absolute highest potential for upsetting, annoying, or pissing someone else off.

That's what Christmas is all about!

As an aside, why do we have this thread every single year? Are we that bored with Christmas?

I grew up with Merry Christmas, I am totally non religious so as others have said, to Me its Christmas, not because of Christ, but just because. That being said, the media pisses me off with this oh no we don't want to offend anyone, so now its best to say Happy Holidays...

hey, say what you want. wish people whatever you want to wish them. we should all just be nice and help one another. and I follow the ole adage, if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year all!!!

p.s. Levi, I am not bored with Christmas, I am bored at work! LOL

I think its living in NYC or area....

Lived and worked, family and friends....almost a different country, NY!

OldPinGuy...your explanations were a little incomplete, though totally accurate.

Christmas was put in December when Christian religious leaders were trying to convert pagans over to Christianity. Paganism celebrated gods of harvest, etc. and their "holy" days were typically around the solstices. Winter solstice happens in mid-late December, depending on the year, and Christian leaders saw making a very holy day close to the timing a pagan holiday as something that would allow an easier transition for pagans to Christianity.

Modern Channukah is nothing more than a rabbinical counsel that decided to put a mystical spin on what was originally nothing more than an 8-day celebration. The miracle of the burning oil was added as Judaism's answer to the birth of Christ on Christmas...neither is truthful or accurate, but both gave masses a reason to celebrate. Keep in mind that when these decisions are being made that literacy and education only exist with the entitled aristocracy and religious hierarchy.

And Jews actually do have the Book of Macabees but long ago it was voted by another rabbinical counsel not to be included in the Torah, as are other books and psalms. Both the Bible and the Torah are simply constructs of religous counsels of men...they kept what they thought benefitted them and their religions, modified or made up content as they saw fit and simply deleted or ignored that which wasn't consistent with their ideology.

So.. I say "Merry Christmas!!" because anyone who gets worked up about the phrase isn't intelligent enough to find out exactly how bereft of religious meaning it actually is.

There is documentation of Jesus in many non-religious historical writings. To argue he never existed is like arguing that Homer or Alexander the Great never existed. Now if you want to say he isn't the son of god that is fine but you can't erase him from history.
Merry Christmas

That's a bill of goods they sell each year. The President says Merry Christmas for crying out loud. This is a made up "War" to boost TV ratings. Who cares what anybody says...if people are so insecure in themselves that hearing Happy Holidays sends them off the deep end they have bigger issues.

PS The USA is not a theocracy.

There is also documentation in many non-religious writings of Santa Claus, dragons, trolls, vampires and aliens. It doesn't mean that we should take them in their literal context.

I'm not arguing that Jesus didn't exist, but I am saying that if someone chooses not to believe that he did that an equally compelling argument can be made. It's the whole reason why religion is based on faith, not facts.

Merry Christmas TO all!! If you are offended,please respect my right to observe this holliday as I see fit!!! Happy New Year and, as always:Peace!!

I say Merry Christmas! Im happy to get any other holiday replys anytime of year. I think diversity and different believes is what makes this world work. Happy Holidays pinside.
Keep Flippin!

The arguments are more than compelling against...as was said, religion is based on faith in things that are often factually impossible to prove:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/12/18/did-historical-jesus-exist-the-traditional-evidence-doesnt-hold-up/?tid=hybrid_experimentrandom_1_na&utm_term=.e520ef9dd4c6

The earliest sources only reference the clearly fictional Christ of Faith. These early sources, compiled decades after the alleged events, all stem from Christian authors eager to promote Christianity

How about "Peace on Earth" instead of all the other nonsense?

Its a bit more complex than that, yes the Holiday of Hannukah, is a modern celebration to compete with Christmas.

The Story of Hannukah, is Part of Jesus, as establishing his Davidic lineage. It has not been in the Torah, since the Mishnah
of 120 AD. It was never part of Judean, Eastern Greek Hebrews...they were the Seculids.
It was always part of the West Greek movement, the Country of Israel, and became the core of Christianity after the diaspora
from Alexandria.

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/omitting-the-maccabees/

Check out James Tabor, Bart Ehrman, and Martin Goodman, the Globes leading scholar from Oxford...Rome and Jerusalem.
(My family has been working on this for over 100 years, as settlers, Rabbis, and Archaeology in Israel and Jerusalem)

Its controversial, so there is definitely room for more than one opinion, I dont say mine is the "truth",
more that the war was like today, Sunni vs Shia, and we all say, "Muslim"
Same thing then, Labeled "Jews" especially after the battle of Beth Heron..the 9-11 of the time, it really was a civil war brought on by oil, theology, and immigration.....exactly whats in the news today.....shit doesnt change much.

Jesus is listed in his trial, within a generation, in the Talmud at the time of the (Mishnah? 90AD-130AD).....Its been recently recovered after edicts to erase.

"Our rabbis taught: Yeshu the Notzeri had five disciples - Matai, Nekai, Netzer,
Buni, and Todah."

Yeshu ha Notzi, is the slang/translation for Jesus the Nazarene.
He took Nazarene rights, and has been changed to being "of Nazareth"
after the King James revisions.

Matai: One who is a gift from God. The name of one of the four sypnoptic gospels (ie: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John). Matai is an early Hebrew-Greek word for the Gospel of matthew, and the name translated to Matthew

I say Happy Holidays all through December to wish people a truly happy holiday season (whatever they celebrate or pray to) including New Years.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I will say Merry Christmas.

Getting bent out of shape over people not saying Merry Christmas when it is not yet actually Christmas seems silly to me. Doesn't seem very Christian-like either.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Look at you, opening the theological can of whoop ass on me! Very well played, sir! Merry Christmas!!!

I say Merry Christmas to everyone who deserves it (fuck'em if they take offense) and I couldn't give one shit about your, or anyone else's, ridiculous stone age religion. The world is not a polarity dude. Time to wake up.

We are on the same page!

Merry Christmas! Thats all that matters!

Who cares. This "War on Christmas" is way overblown.

Well, there is always an article to support ones own viewpoint if you dig around long enough. I'm not an atheist but the ones from this newsgroup seem to agree he existed. Of course they then conveniently compare him to Hitler.

http://www.thethinkingatheist.com/forum/Thread-Jesus-apparently-existed-outside-of-the-bible

I promise to step away after this one. Never intended to get sucked into a debate. Peace on Earth

try 71% (and shrinking ... statistically, Atheism and Islam are the fastest-growing belief systems in the U.S.)

However, nobody is trying to stop you from being Christian. Nobody, i repeat, nobody is offended when a Christian says "Merry Christmas" to another Christian. But if you truly and honestly wish good cheer to other people during this time of year, then you would want to wish them a happy whatever-it-is-that-person-celebrates (aka "happy holidays" or some other equivalent), not a happy what YOU celebrate. It's the same reason we don't go around wishing random strangers a happy birthday on our own birthday. that would be weird and passive-aggressive. If you honestly wish well on another person, you would want them to have a happy time celebrating THEIR holiday, not yours. It's just more sincere (unless you have something against their religion, in which case, hell, just drop the pretense of good will).

Obviously if you know the other person's religion, it's even easier -- just say Merry Christmas or Habari Gani, or whatever is appropriate. the most considerate and sincere way to wish someone well if you don't know what religion they are, though, is some form of "happy holidays" because it means you recognize that they might not be the same religion as you, and it expresses acceptance and genuine good will without the passive-aggressive undertone of forcing your religion on them.

i mean, that's what a sincere well-wishing entails to me, anyway. I say Merry Christmas all the time to friends and family. But if I'm addressing a group with mixed religions, I make it more generalized because that's a little bit kinder. And what is the point, if not kindness?

Dude, the founders had nothing to do with the phrase "in God We Trust" and in fact went out of their way to make sure the very first amendment to the Constitution expressly forbade such nonsense. the first amendment is very clear on the matter (it literally starts out "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"). "In God We Trust" was a phrase adopted in the 1950s due to reactionary Red Scare paranoia. Maybe you consider Joseph McCarthy a founding father?

i guess i would argue, how can your welling-wishing be taken as sincere when you are actively avoiding caring about what that person is actually celebrating? seems kind of hollow to me. that said, though, Merry Christmas, Beelzeboob!

+1

Ill go away too after this one...gotta go to my last day of work!!!!

Those that say Jesus did not exist, have not educated themselves enough. Not faith, he is in History.

But in respect to what they are trying to say, is the Christian faith, especially the first 400 years, is an
evolution encompassing the regions the diaspora brought slaves.
It grew like a snowball, incorporating Mithra, Zoroastrian, and Babylonian theology at first.

To the East, the Eastern Orthodox, he became divine at Baptism.
To the West, he became divine at Death and Resurrection.
To Greco Roman Rome, he became divine at Birth.
This started in Roman Court Cases, Circa 172 AD.

Charles Waite...The History of the Christian Religion 1882, I believe....Great Read..No Bias.
( A text book still used in Seminary schools)

The division of the Trinity and Divinity, exists today, and 2000 years of wars, and the problems we have today
exist over one debate, and essentially one only.
When was the divinity.

All divisions exist today, the west is now Islam.....Jesus as a Prophet in life, Divine at death, resurrected to the right hand of God. Eastern orthodox, says at the Jordon river, receiving the Holy Spirit, as he was anointed to be in line after John.
In Greco Roman world, because of Persecution and the Jewish fiscus taxes, the religion separated from Judaism,
and in doing so, per the society of Rome, was declared divine at Birth.

Really sad we fought for 2000 years and do today in our news, over the simple, yet Great Schism.

Sermon over...all out!

like 10 seconds