As someone who would normally defend political correctness as something that generally does more good than harm, I still don't really understand the modern stigma surrounding "Merry Christmas" either. It's not like the 25th was an expressly Christian event to begin with. And even if it somehow were, it's changed so much at this point that it certainly isn't exclusively Christian now, being celebrated by people of all kinds of creeds, races, and nationalities around the world. I'd wager that an enormous chunk of the people saying "Merry Christmas" these days aren't making any reference to the alleged birth of Christ, and a not at all insignificant percentage of them probably aren't even Christian, so I don't really think the phrase should be considered to be inherently secular at this point.
Besides which, like... is it really so bad to be offered good wishes by another person for a coming calendar event, simply because you don't observe it yourself? My circle of friends is quite international, so my Facebook timeline is full of well wishes for events like Ramadan and Diwali at their respective times of year too, and I can't say it ever bothers me simply because I'm not Muslim or Hindu. Rather, I'm happy to see my friends of those religions happy, and happy for their good wishes, whatever they might be in relation to. There's nothing wrong with "happy holidays", and it makes sense from the perspective of a business producing greeting cards and suchlike. But on an individual level, it always seemed to me like such a weird and unnecessary thing to draw lines in the sand over.
Originally Posted by Elin
