Happy Holidays

I'm white. I have blue eyes. And when I was young, my hair was red. I was working retail, and this old lady said "Merry Christmas."
Me: "Happy Holidays!"
Her: "It's Merry Christmas. I know your boss doesn't like it, but you should say it to me. So Merry Christmas."
Me: "Are you Christian?"
Her: "Yes."
Me: "Well, I'm not. So Happy Holidays."
She got so stunned, like I'd slapped her. I was quite ready to get called in for being some kind of way with a customer but I guess she was too afraid of dealing with a heathen. Still, if you've ever worked retail, you'd know why this felt like a victory.
- Hopefully you're young enough that you didn't have to deal with the christmas cd on repeat
  
  Young enough? You realise that's still what they play in stores where people work retail?
  
  I worked in a video arcade in the 90s and we had a 1-hour VHS tape on repeat showing on TVs all over the arcade featuring recent music videos, cartoons, etc. That Christmas, 'All I Want For Christmas Is You' came out and it was on that tape. I heard that song every day of December, 8 times a day, 40 times a week, 160 times that month in total.
  I hate that song so much more than everyone else does.
- I currently work in retail and OH MY GODS I FELT THE
  T R I U M P H
  THROUGH MY PHONE.
- Wish them a joyous Yuletide. A cheerful solstice. A felicitous December.
- Still, if you've ever worked retail, you'd know why this felt like a victory.
  No idea mate, worked in retail for decades and no idea what you're on about. But then I never lived in a country full of mentally ill people 😂
  
  Yeah, I don't think "mentally ill people" only exist in specific places or that specific areas are "full" of them. I mean, I know for sure at least one deranged person lives in your area.
  Also I highly doubt you truly worked in retail if you never experienced a customer like this. If you did, you must have been lucky and in an extremely high end store.
  People are the same everywhere in the world, no better or worse than anywhere else. Which is kinda great IMO.

People that say this are so silly.
You're not being oppressed. It's just that saying merry Christmas to a crowd of diverse backgrounds is like wishing your mum a happy fathers day. She won't be mad or offended, she'll just think she should have breastfed you.
- No you don't understand, if I can't force everyone to be exactly like me that means I'm being oppressed!
- Yeah, I say Happy Holidays to someone I know who obviously doesn't celebrate Christmas.
  Also, it is weird for conservative Americans to be offended not greeting "Happy Christmas", when the migrant ancestors of modern Americans did not celebrate it as a holiday until more recently. Protestants thought celebrating Christmas is a Catholic abomination. Look how tables have turned and acting hypocritical as always...
  
  Most "traditions", including holiday traditions, food culture, etc, are incredibly recent things. But people cling to it like they are the totality of their identify.
- Or telling someone “happy birthday “ when they’re in a group of people who aren’t having birthdays themselves. Only a three year old would get upset that they’re not included.
- Maybe it's different in the US and other cultures, but as an atheist I've never seen the phrase as a very religious thing. I say "merry Christmas" and "happy holidays" indistinctly and I've never seen anyone offended by the use of either, independtly of their faith (or lack thereof).
  I say "merry Christmas" on the actual Christmas day though.
  
  No one is offended besides the hardcore Christians. No muslim or orthodox Christian or whatever would be mad if you wish them merry Christmas if that's the thing where you both live. As always, it's fake fabricated outrage.

I have a neighbor just like this who INSISTS this is a Christian country and it's Christmas break not WiNtEr break. Satan's greetings from ya main witch! ✨🥰
- I always like the "Put Saturn back in Saturday" retort
  
  I'm stealing this, I hope you know.
  
  Same! Love this!!
- First time I've heard someone upset over calling it "winter break." People are wild
  
  People are wild, they forget that sometimes. And some of those wild people really do love being victims, even if it is self made drama lol
- Happy summer solstice! / ☀️🌊🎄🇦🇺
  
  Oh, I like that a lot >:D Jab 'em in both the 'Murica and the Christianity devious cackling ensues
  
  I love it, wishing you all a bright solstice! ✨🤩

True story...
At work in my department they told us we can put decorations in our (at home!) office but to try and stay religiously neutral. Meanwhile in my friend's department (same employer) they got an email to wish employees a happy Easter back in April, happy Mawlid (celebration of Muhammad's birth) back in September and happy Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in October...
I'm an atheist so I don't celebrate any of these things and to me holidays should just be spread equally to give people long weekends, but I can't help but laugh at the hypocrisy when it comes to Christmas compared to all other holidays through the year...
- That's honestly refreshing to hear that your friends department encouraged them to celebrate multiple different religious holidays. There shouldn't be any problem celebrating religious holidays as long as they are all given equal considerations and the company doesnt play favorites.
  
  To me anything religious should be treated as such, something private that has nothing to do with your workplace and only secular holidays should exist considering holidays are imposed by the government and there's supposed to be a separation of religion and State (in my country anyway), but I know my opinion on this subject is pretty extreme.

Merry Christmas!
- Happy Hondadays.
- Prison. Immediately.
  
  Christmas is a prison. – Foucault supposedly
- Merry Chrysler!

Enemies of Christmas! To battle! Choose your weapon:
- Obviously the Menorah.
  It is made of metal unlike the card and the cup, and it does extra fire damage.
  
  the coffee has splash damage and high DoT though
  
  It also has a hole in the middle to stick your finger in so you can rotate it like a Kunai or Sai and look badass
- Can't I just wield an entire holiday tree? That's what my biofamily hate most.

I prefer to use the real term, not the christian knockoff. Happy Saturnalia everyone!
- I think that is is important to note that there is very little real evidence for Christmas being taken from saturnalia. You can google christmas and saturnalia and come up with plenty of web articles, but looking at the actual history of it makes it pretty clear. Christmas takes place around the same time of saturnalia, sure, but that does not make it a Christian stab at replacing it. Saturnalia was traditionally observed between the 17th and 23rd of December, not the 25th. It was a 5-7 day festival, not a one day festival. Additionally, the church is said to have gotten the 25th by taking the day John's father was told he would have a son (shortly after the day of attonement), the new testiment statement that Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant when Jesus was conceived, and adding 40 weeks to the end for the average pregnancy. This would put Jesus born in late December. This general time line was documented as being calculated as early as CE 200s.
- They chose it to mess with the pagan Yule celebrations tho, and what the fuck is Saturnalia?

I work with people in three different time zones. There is always someone having a flower festival, religious day or national holiday. Nobody gets offended for forgetting a holiday or if they did they don't last long.

like I am gonna say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. The guy in the $4,000 suit. COME ON!
- The man on the TV said people would get angry at me for saying merry Christmas - the guy in the $6,000 suit - COME ON

God jul!

Merry Chrysler!
- Blasphemy, we celebrate Hondadays in this houshold!!!!
  
  Absolutely not. Those commercials should die and be erased from history. Let them fall into the inky black chasm of oblivion.
  (I really hate those commercials.)
  Merry Chrysler! :D
- Merry Crisis!

Yo! saturnalia!

Merry War on Christmas
- fuck yeah!

Happy Christmas and Merry New Year and Merry Hanukkah !!
- Seems fine to me!

Maybe that's actually why they support fascism-lite?
- They only support fascism-lite because it's the next step on the way to pure-fascism.

Season gettings 🤮

This has been going on for at least 15 years and it has got to stop

Merry Christmas!

These days if you say you're English you'll be thrown in jail!
- As it should.

Merry Ymas!

This meme is pushing it because, well, meme. And that's all fine.
As a non-native atheist speaker, though, I have to say "happy holidays" just doesn't roll off the tongue the way "merry christmas" does.
It's not a big deal at all, but I do find it annoying at the minimal level.

Well, to be fair, I've had people get annoyed with me for saying Merry Christmas in the past (I'm not particularly religious, but I was raised to say it and it's a habit to break)
It's all subjective. Just because you haven't had something said to you, or even haven't seen or heard of someone saying it, doesn't mean it doesn't happen.

It's projection. They're offended by "happy holidays" so they assume everyone else is equally offended by "merry Christmas".

- But do you support transholidays?
- Good to know