(no subject)

[badstar]

So fricken sick of the "Happy Holidays" debate. Wasn't it bad enough last year?

Let's face it, the "Christmas Season" takes up roughly a third of the year, if not more. It starts before Halloween and goes all the way up through New Years.

In the meantime you've got Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Chirstmas, Solstice/Yule and about fify bajillion other holidays that I'm missing.

If you're so worried about the "Reason for the season", why in the effing h-e-double-hockey-sticks are you out getting into fist fights over a PS3 or whatever gadget of obscenely inflated cost your kid wants?

Believe it or not, "Happy Holidays" and "Seasons Greetings" were meant to include you too.

And now, I bid you Merry Solstichristmakwanzakkuh.

Comments

[nofate301.livejournal.com]

happy festivus

[fuego.livejournal.com]

hehehe right back at ya hon

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

And I hope you have a good Solstice. But I would thank you to leave me with the right to find this season insignificant, and to feel excluded rather than included when congratulated on someone else's celebrations.

Ah, but there's that Chanukah thing - that fact makes things that much more insulting and exclusionary. True, it's one of mine, but it's such a minor and insignificant one that nobody would know about it if it hadn't fallen right upon "the season".

Don't pass belonging to the majority for tolerance. Ten Commandments on the walls of schools are meant to include you too, whether you like it or not. It doesn't mean that the shoe fits, or that it's apropriate.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

If you don't want to be included, I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm not ranting at you, I'm ranting at the people who get all pissy because someone may decide not to assume that everyone celebrates the same holiday and instead give a greeting that is perfectly appropriate to all.


Don't pass belonging to the majority for tolerance.

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by this.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

f you don't want to be included, I'm perfectly fine with that. I'm not ranting at you, I'm ranting at the people who get all pissy because someone may decide not to assume that everyone celebrates the same holiday and instead give a greeting that is perfectly appropriate to all.

so that doesn't exactly address what you said...but I think you know what I mean? I guess unless one is going to go around asking folks if they celebrate a particular holiday and if so which one before saying anyhting else to tbem, then "seasons greetings" or "happy holidays" just seems like the most logical thing to me. It's just such a stupid issue. I don't know, I don't profess to have all the answers, someone's always a going to be pissed off. If someone wants to say "Merry Christmas", well great. Let 'em say it, but there's no reason to have all this backlash at people who choose an alternate expression.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

What it sounded like to me was you ranting at those of us who don't wish to be included in "seasons greetings" by any name at all. If your rant was intended at another demographic, that was awfully hard to tell from the original.

And the more I think about it, the more I come to the conclusion that at least "Merry Christmas" says what it means, and all the PC variants really stand for "Merry Christmas, and I'll pretend that I respect that you don't do Christmas by presuming that you do Christmas by some other name".

[fuego.livejournal.com]

meh, i type as i think on the fly from my office computer in between calls.

no, just bitching about those that bich about those that don't project a single particular holiday on the world.

i have no interest in being politically correct, and know well enough that other olidays are not "christmas by some other name". I don't know about anyone else though.

i don't know. maybe i'll just give up caring.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

It's like this.

I walked into the pre-K class the other day and saw all the Christmas decorations. The kids were doing C for cookies. So I thought they were also doing C for Christmas. I asked that and the teacher said "No, we can't say Christmas, because *some* people would get *offended*." Well, that was extremely offensive to me, especially her condescending tone. I was too flabbergasted to reply, and she probably wouldn't have listened anyway, because people in the dominant culture talk about other holidays grudgingly as some kind of "duty" and take any statement about how they aren't the only people in the world and Christmas isn't the default as being somehow a war on them.

And you know, I would rather they fully talked about Christmas one day, Chanukah the next, Kwanzaa the next, and called them what they were, than give a 30 second mention of Chanukah and Kwanzaa grudgingly, while portraying "generic holiday" with the Christmas trimmings. *That's* fucking offensive.

[ranger-hotsauce.livejournal.com]

while portraying "generic holiday" with the Christmas trimmings. *That's* fucking offensive.
Not addressing your point in the slightest, but it reminds me of when I was in Malaysia. I was there during Ramadan, which took place in June that year, and all the stores had signs saying things like "seasons greetings!" along with colorful displays of lights, tinsel, garland, and the like. I found it interesting.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

See, here's the thing. You say: "Happy Hanukah"

I say... what? "Thanks. Actually, it was over a week ago, and it's really a minor unimportant occasion that isn't even a day off. I don't do anything for it except light candles in the evening and then go on with my life like it's an ordinary day, which it is, so as much as I appreciate you mentioning it, it's really not worth mentioning."

And nobody would know about it if it didn't happen to fall on Christmas. I don't _want_ Channukah lumped into the same bucket as Christmas. If you're going to educate people about my religion, tell'em that we celebrate our New Year's in September, or something. Tell them about the occasions that matter. Mentioning Hanukkah just because it happens to be around the same time of the year as Christmas, to me that is every bit as offensive as the rest of the pseudo-pc "holiday" policies.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Precisely!

I do, in fact, happen to celebrate Passover, and appreciate those who know that I do making notice of it. For that reason I wish those who do Christmas "Merry Christmas" when appropriate. And I really appreciate it when the more clueful ones respond with a "thank you" instead of the same.

And, of course, the semi-clued (who give me a "Happy Hanukah" with no regard as to when exactly it might be this year) are frustrating on their own - I know they are trying to be thoughtful, but most of them wouldn't think to be for any holiday that actually mattered to me. I never know whether to just smile and nod and be grateful that at least the difference is being recognised, or try to educate them about the actual holiday.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

That may be all fine and good. Except to those of us who don't want to celebrate _anything_.

For instance: "Hey I'm celebrating Easter this weekend because I'm happy that my Lord Jesus rose from the dead" "That's cool. And I don't have any religious holidays coming up, because I don't believe in god".

Yeah, that'll go over real well.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Kinda telling, how that question is framed. And, for that matter, the second part of how you answered.

(As far as I'm concerned, they are no more wrong than the rest of us.)

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Yay! SOmeone who gets it.

I want zero greetings except for Happy New Year.

Anything else is cultural imperialism.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

wouldn't "happy new year" be too? I mean...there are so many other new years besides the one on January first.

[sunneyone.livejournal.com]

right on.

[ranger-hotsauce.livejournal.com]

Like I said during last years war on Christmas, "John Gibson's book The War on Christmas should be subtitled How to feel persecuted when you're in the fucking majority!"