If you are one of the people who post something akin to “If you say ‘Happy Holidays’ go back to your own country!” Then I have some news for you:
While I understand your reasoning (and passion) regarding your religion it should be stated that knowing someone’s religion isn’t as simple as discerning someones ethnicity; and the assumption that someone is Christian can really tick the wrong person off. In retail – or business in general – where professionals must first focus on satisfying the customer, it is entirely reasonable that an employee be required to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”. The reason for this being: Angry or offended customers equal lost profits, and lost profits equate to lost jobs, which I would assume (given the amount of people out of work) should be an employee’s biggest fear.
Granted, I’ve never had a employer who stated that they would fire me if I slipped and said “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays“, and I have had a few ne’er-do-wells cause a bit of a scene because I said “Happy Holidays” instead of showing reverence to their god, which only in turn made the customer look like a fool, and cause the person they were yelling at become less interested in their religious preference.
America is a country were people are free to pursue their own religion, we have Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Samaritanism, Hinduism, Taoism, as well as those who practice Mysticism and the Occult, as well as Neopaganists and Atheists. All of these people are American citizens and pay taxes to the United States Government, and your average “Baaaah it’s Christmas and if you don’t say ‘Merry Christmas’ you need to go back to your own country!!” are quite ignorantly stating that those who do not practice Christianity are less American because they do not follow their choice of God.
My suggestion to those who would rather let their narrow-mindedness rule their better judgement would be thus: Before you open your trap and allow your short sightedness to alienate people from your faith, take a minute and think about how you would be offended if someone you said “Merry Christmas” to, turned out to be an Atheist and proceeded to scream at you to get out of THEIR country as there is supposed to be a separation between church and state in the USA. I assume you wouldn’t necessarily feel filled with holiday spirit would you?
Happy Holidays everyone. I hope that your holiday season – no matter what your faith may be – is filled with peace, joy, and understanding.
I agree completely. Not all of us US citizens want to say Merry Christmas, especially in retail.
Yep. I find it annoying when I’m on the phone at work and people get irritated over ‘Happy Holidays’ luckily when I explain that I work for Hewlett Packard and that I call all over the country people are a bit more sympathetic. If it were up to me I wouldn’t even mention holidays over the phone.
One guy at work said you can usually tell a person’s religion by their last name and judge accordingly, but just because someone’s last name is “Nemirovsky” does not mean the person you are calling is indeed a practitioner of Judaism. :/
I honestly don’t remember the last time I said “Merry Christmas” to someone other than family. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always only said “Merry Christmas” on the actual day, and on the actual day I’ve always been with family!
You don’t say “Happy Birthday” to someone a month before their birthday, do you? If you do, you probably say “Happy Early Birthday” or something to that effect. IDK, I’ve always just said “Happy Holidays” during the holiday season 
I like to keep Christmas itself within the family. I’m way to overly worried about offending people. XDDD
Happy Holidays to you too. I usually say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.
I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful.
It was! And crazy busy… but relaxed at the same time. XD
Seasons Greetings to you! A nice variation, and just as fair-minded as Happy Holidays.
I like it a lot.
Nice variation for sure!
I see where you are coming from and I agree. It can be very hard to figure out what greeting to say in general. I think people should not over analyze it but what are we going to do. Some people are just super stubborn.
YupYup. What drives me crazy is that in Georgia, you can offend almost ANYONE by not saying Merry Christmas. :/
You could always reply with what my Aunt used to tell me, Happy Holidays means to have a holy day during this season.
I like it! Keeps the crazies from getting too offended.
I think given that Christmas is actually founded upon a Pagen winter festival and Christ was born around Easter. Worrying about what people think of you is wasted energy. Happy HOLIDAYS.
Happy Holidays to you as well! I hope you had a safe winter solstice!!
I work in retail now – Wal-Mart, actually – and it’s really frustrating when people get mad at me for saying, “Merry Christmas!” or “Happy Holidays!” or something like that. I just don’t even say anything like that. And then I have customers who’ll challenge me with something religious and holiday-related.
Happy holidays to you, though. :}
That is most certainly something that rubs me the wrong way. Sometimes a store associate does not have any say in what they are allowed to say while at work. I remember one job where we could ONLY SAY Happy Holidays. Luckily the manager said that if anyone gave you any trouble regarding what you said that you could just call one of them over and they took care of the situation.