'...it is the context and the intent that make it sound "spiritless" or insincere, not the phrase itself.'

With respect, I disagree, David: the phrase itself is knackered in the extreme in the spirit department by all the same things that would render a poem so: it is a compromise, vague, evasive, imprecise -- indeed fearful of precision -- artificial, so deliberately abstract as to be meaningless, tied to no particular reality or living tradition, devoid of association, barren, sterile, wimpish. It is a committee-created politically-correct euphemism, bearing the stamp of MiniTruth all over it. Wish me Yuletide Cheer, or Merry Christmas, or Happy Hannukah, or Io! Saturnalia!, or Damn Yer Bloody Eyes, Stevens! -- something real -- but Happy Holiday? It's like saying 'Happy Thursday' or 'Happy 6:00 pm' or 'Happy Nicey-nice', or 'Happy Nothing'. I truly hope it does not spread across the Pacific in our direction. Coastal Patrol alert!

[David Rosenthal]

Paul,

Look, I am just telling you how I experience it here where I live, and for that matter how I have always experienced it. The greeting is "Happy Holidays." Note the "s." You keep leaving it off, but that is how it is used here, and for the reasons I stated above -- most often, to acknowledge Christmas and New Year, sometimes the typical vacation days between, and sometimes also Thanksgiving, in a single wish. Also to acknowledge the variety of other holidays celebrated during this time of year. It acknowledges an entire season of festive holidays.

I have experienced it as a typical holiday greeting among strangers, slight acquaintances, and rarely-seen friends as far back as my memory goes. And, as I said above, it is almost always offered and received with great warmth, good will, and yes spirit. It is no "compromise," no "mini-truth," no "committee-created politically-correct euphemism" -- it is, in fact, a thoughtful and traditional greeting, reserved for this special time of year. It is not "vague, evasive, imprecise" -- it is intentionally inclusive.

And the context matters greatly. Many a retail clerk has given me a plastic, smiling, bullshit "Merry Christmas" as they handed me my receipt. That is "artificial, so deliberately abstract as to be meaningless," and worse, refers to tradition with not intention of being authentic. I'd much rather have someone wish me "Happy holidays," or "Happy Thursday" for that matter, and mean it, or at least sincerely intend some good will by it, than utter a phony "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" out of blind social convention, some sense of obligation, or because their boss told them to.

In any case, people just as often say "Merry Christmas," "Happy Hanukkah," "Happy New Year," etc. Even retail clerks. Which is to say the rumors of a "war on Christmas," or movement to rid the world of precise holiday greetings, are wildly exaggerated. The fact is the commercialization of the whole holiday season by advertisers, shop display designers, clerks (or their bosses) etc., does more to strip the spirit from any holiday greeting -- precise or vague -- than anything else.

I hope you can understand that to describe a phrase that many people have used for many years with the utmost sincerity and good will as "a compromise, vague, evasive, imprecise -- indeed fearful of precision -- artificial, so deliberately abstract as to be meaningless, tied to no particular reality or living tradition, devoid of association, barren, sterile, wimpish," and as "a committee-created politically-correct euphemism, bearing the stamp of MiniTruth all over it" is fairly insulting, whether or not you preface your remarks with "With respect."

If people had all their lives said "Merry Christmas" and suddenly now switched to "Happy Holidays" as a result of some social or political pressure to do so, you might have an argument (though I always have trouble understanding why attempting to consider other people's beliefs is wimpy or evasive). Or if "Merry Christmas" was truly being chased out of existence by "Happy Holidays," you might have an argument (though not a particularly tactfully worded one). However, neither of those things is in fact the case. Both phrases are used often and well among people who wish to express real, nonevasive good will to one another during a special time of year; both are also frequently exploited for commercial purposes; both are also frequently uttered without sincerity or for the purpose of mere social conformity. One is not inherently worse than another.

Best,

David R.

Editing in to add -- By the way, the traditional greeting during the Jewish High Holy Days, and on other Jewish holidays, is "Gut Yuntiff," which is Yiddish for "Good Yom Tov," which means "Good Holiday." It is certainly not uttered as a compromise or evasion of any sort.

Also -- are Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire part of the Political Correctness committee that launched "Happy Holidays?" They sure sang the hell out of it (written by Irving Berlin, no less) in Holiday Inn. OK, that is a little snippy, but my point is that nobody seemed to object too much to the phrase sixty years ago.



[This message has been edited by David Rosenthal (edited November 26, 2008).]

[Julie Steiner]

Paul,

Perhaps I like "Happy Holidays" because my social circle is more multicultural than most.

My husband's Chinese uncles live nearby and are (at least nominally) Confucianist. One of my brothers-in-law is a Muslim from Iran and another is a Hindu from India. Two of my dad's siblings married Jews and have converted to Judaism. My mom's side of the family is atheist. My mom and dad and most of my sisters are practicing Catholics. We're all family, and we all exchange cards at holiday time, even though we'll probably be getting together to celebrate...well, togetherness, if nothing else...in person sometime during the season, too.

My husband is an engineer, and almost all of his co-workers are first-generation immigrants from India, China, and the Middle East. The neighbors on our cul-de-sac include families from India, Senegal, Sweden, China, and Korea. Few of them are Christian, but we have the best holiday cookie exchange in the WORLD each December.

In short, the majority of the "Christmas" cards I send will be received by people who don't celebrate Christmas, and my husband (did I mention he's an engineer?) is Mr. Pragmatic Efficiency. So, we purchase cards pre-printed with "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" or some such cheery one-size-fits-all slogan, followed by a handwritten message tailored to the particular addressee and always mentioning good wishes for the coming year.

Conversationally, I've never gone wrong with "How will you spend the holidays?" followed by an expression of interest in the other person's travel plans, preparations for family celebrations, the difficulty in shopping for teenagers, etc.

Julie Stoner



[This message has been edited by Julie Stoner (edited November 26, 2008).]

[Janet Kenny]

We make our own cards when we remember to and since we are almost always late it looks OK to say Happy New Year.
Janet

[Chris Hanson]

In my youth I was told to say "Happy Christmas" instead of "Merry Christmas". "Merry" suggests over-consumption of alcohol (drunkenness, if you like) and other immoderate behaviour.

Or so the Sisters of Mercy said.

[Peter Chipman]

If Bing Crosby is on the Political Correctness Committee, he'd better launch an investigation of his own blackface performance in Holiday Inn. You know the one--where he dresses up as a blackface Abraham Lincoln for Lincoln's birthday. That one always makes me cringe.

I do love the movie, though.

[Laura Heidy-Halberstein]

I'me never sure of the difference between "political correctness" and plain old common sense and the awareness that language, used carelessly, sometimes has the possiblity to cause someone pain or grief. Seems there should be some difference, seems that there is some difference but it also seems that people sometimes know the difference but ignore it whenever it suits their purpose to do so.

It's much easier to rail against the "PC Police" than it is to rail against the concept of being polite and/or argue against taking the responsibility of using one's own ability to think before speaking and sometimes remembering to adjust one's speech accordingly in order to preseve not only their own intergrity but to allow others to retain their dignity as well.


edited to add Now there's a run-on sentence if I ever wrote one!!


[This message has been edited by Laura Heidy-Halberstein (edited November 26, 2008).]

[Kevin Andrew Murphy]

Editorials like this are the reason why I wonder why anyone still respects the Wall Street Journal. For all the rot about "good reporting," if your "good reporting" is published alongside crackpot conspiracy theories like this, how is the Wall Street Journal better than the Weekly World News? At least the WWN pretty much that it's made up Bat Boy for entertainment value and to sell copies. I think the WSJ actually believes this crap, or at least thinks some portion of their readership does.

If the Wall Street Journal were at all sensible about capitalism, they'd admit that the all-encompassing inoffensive "Happy Holidays" came about via obvious market pressures: America is more cosmopolitan than it used to be, and it's tough selling boxes of cardstock with pictures of a kid in a manger on them to a bunch of non-Christians. But a snowscape with the motto "Joys of the Season"? Hell, you can peddle that to atheists, and some of them will even buy it.

[Robert Meyer]

Personally, I prefer "Feliz Navidad" just to piss off the "English-only" crackers.

Robert Meyer

[Laura Heidy-Halberstein]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- You better watch out. There is a new combatant in the Christmas wars.

Nothing says Christmas like a wreath -- or the now perennial Christmas wars.

Ads proclaiming, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness' sake," will appear on Washington buses starting next week and running through December.

The American Humanist Association unveiled the provocative $40,000 holiday ad campaign Tuesday.

In lifting lyrics from "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," the Washington-based group is wading into what has become a perennial debate over commercialism, religion in the public square and the meaning of Christmas.

"We are trying to reach our audience, and sometimes in order to reach an audience, everybody has to hear you," said Fred Edwords, spokesman for the humanist group.

"Our reason for doing it during the holidays is there are an awful lot of agnostics, atheists and other types of nontheists who feel a little alone during the holidays because of its association with traditional religion."

To that end, the ads and posters will include a link to a Web site that will seek to connect and organize like-minded thinkers in the D.C. area, Edwords said.

Edwords said the purpose isn't to argue that God doesn't exist or change minds about a deity, although "we are trying to plant a seed of rational thought and critical thinking and questioning in people's minds."

The group defines humanism as "a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism, affirms our responsibility to lead ethical lives of value to self and humanity."

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/12/godless.holiday.ap/