to have never heard anyone ever object to someone wishing the a "Merry Christmas"?

[DrSeuss]

Has anyone, ever, heard anyone of any faith or none object to this? Even Richard Dawkins says it! My Muslim friends wish me Merry Christmas, Mayim Bialik of Big Bang fame wishes her FB followers Merry Christmas despite being an Orthodox Jew!
Surely anyone with half a brain accepts that someone is offering you their good wishes and just returns them? Or, if someone says, "Well actually, I'm Jewish/Muslim/whatever and don't do Christmas.", surely you just say, "Sorry, I didn't realise, have a good holiday."

So why the big deal about the fact that we should/shouldn't say it?

It's just that well known American minority namely Evangelical Christians making a fuss about their "persecution", isn't it?

You can come to my 'Arse End of the year merriment to you' party @lass

I have only ever heard this sort of thing once. And I have more friends that are Jewish or Muslim than Christian. The person wh I said this was American and was spending Christmas Day in England with my friend whose family all love Christmas and celebrate in a huge way.
I spent Christmas Eve with the American and when I went to say goodbye to him I said "have a merry Christmas" he responded grumpily with "erm, well I'm Jewish". I responded back with "well have a merry day tomorrow... on Christmas Day". It was a strange exchange because he was celebrating Christmas, he had bought and wrapped presents etc but for some reason the words offended him.

I'm in the US and I've never found anyone who is offended by the term Merry Christmas.

Lots of Brits appear to be offended by the term Happy Holidays though.

Yes we are offended by Happy Holidays because it's Christmas!! We really can't see what is wrong with calling it Christmas when it is Christmas. I wouldn't wish anyone Merry/Happy Christmas until Christmas eve or when we leave for Christmas holidays from work/school and we won't see them until after Christmas. We have the holiday and the celebrations and the decorations and the present giving and the nativity plays in the UK because it is Christmas!! All my friends give each other Christmas cards/presents no matter what religion they are any excuse I say.

I think Christmas is a much more significant cultural holiday in the UK than it is in the US and more secular. So perhaps references to Christmas do not have the same religious resonance that they do in the US.

When I was a student the college decide to tell us all not to do Christmas cards etc in college because it might offend adherents of other faiths, particularly Muslims.

They got their arses handed to them by a furious delegation of Muslims and Sikhs, who made very clear that they expected to be asked whether something was a problem for them rather than have others make assumptions and leave them to face the backlash.

The whole "offence at Christmas" thing has been vastly, vastly blown out of all proportions. Our council celebrates "winter festival" but it starts with bonfire night, and ends with New years celebrations, encompassing a range of different festivals of which Christmas is the most prominent. But if a daily ail type wanted to, they could probably spin that into "council bans Christmas I guess".

Apparantly, Trump wants us all to "start saying Merry Christmas again".....
In bloody October! As if there wasn't enough evidence that he is a twat.

Lass Keep your schedule clear in late December, ghosts are coming!

I don't celebrate this or any other religious festival.

But Christmas has evolved far beyond being a religious festival, don't you think? I'm a devout atheist but I love Christmas, and the spirit of friendship and generosity it tends to bring. For some people it's might be about celebrating the alleged birth of Jesus, but for many more it's about presents, joy, and brightening up the dullest part of the year.

I don't interpret "Merry Christmas" as a exhortation to have a meaningful religious celebration, I take it to mean, "I hope you have a fun day with your family and friends, that you gets some nice presents and the turkey's not too dry". And I usually do.

Not that simple though is it? As you can see from the responses on here. Not caring about Christmas seems to offend people.
Not caring about it doesn't offend people.

Someone acting stuck up and cold about it would.
E.g. Happy Eid. We brought cake (to me at least) isn't 'you must live our religion'. It's 'today is a special day for us and we would like to share some happiness'.

So someone saying 'that's lovely. Hope you have a happu Eid' and then opting not to come and get cake would be polite and fine.
Someone rolling their eyes or making a comment like 'good for you but i don't really care' would offend.
I don't interpret "Merry Christmas" as a exhortation to have a meaningful religious celebration, I take it to mean, "I hope you have a fun day with your family and friends, that you gets some nice presents and the turkey's not too dry
Exactly.

Someone can not care less about a festival without needing to be grumpy and piss on other people's parade. Don't like festivals then be polite and just opt not to be involved. People may think it's odd but nobody will think someone is being an arse ubless they are being rude about it.

Please put this thread on fb so people can link it to those stupid right wing posts!

Someone can not care less about a festival without needing to be grumpy and piss on other people's parade. Don't like festivals then be polite and just opt not to be involved. People may think it's odd but nobody will think someone is being an arse ubless they are being rude about it

You really have no clue. Why assume I am being grumpy about it? Or roll my eyes?

Do you have any idea what the response is to the "what are you doing at Christmas/ done all your Christmas shopping " comments if you say - no, because I don't bother with Christmas. "A bit odd" doesn't begin to describe it. I do buy, at the last minute , presents for people who are close to me. I do not however want to spend the whole of December wittering on about Christmas.

Lass Keep your schedule clear in late December, ghosts are coming!

That is exactly the type of remark which not opting into the overblown festival of commercial tat elicits.

Would just back lass up slightly on this

We dont do presents for anyone but the children or a roast dinner

And the faces i get saying that!!

My house does however look like sants threw up in it so my friends know i love Christmas...just that i have a 'weird' way of showing it

Oh and i thought the hapoy hollidays thing was because two other major festivals are celebrated at the same time as Christmas in the USA

Hannukka and kwanza

And if i have spelt those wrong i am really sorry, it didn't occur to me to cut and paste til too late and my spelling is awful

I would have an issue with someone saying "Merry Christmas" on the 16TH OF OCTOBER. 16th of December onwards, fine.

I also say "Eid Mubarak" to friends who are Muslim or wish my Hindu friends a happy Divali.

It's about recognising that they're celebrating something important to them and acknowledging that festival.

Grew up in the US and say "Happy Holidays" as standard because I grew up in an area with a lot of Jewish and Hindu people who didn't celebrate Christmas. And it's correct anyway as Christmas and New Years are a week apart so there is more than one holiday taking place at that time.

Christmas is much larger and more culturally significant in the UK, whereas in the US some of that - mainly the getting full family together and eating a massive meal - is done on Thanksgiving, which is a non-religious holiday celebrated by everyone. If you're not Christian on Christmas day in the US you probably don't do anyway, whereas in the UK everyone seems to celebrate it somehow even if it's not their religion. US also doesn't have things like a "Christmas #1" single or standalone Christmas television specials in the same way.

It's not that saying merry christmas is offensive it's more that it's just annoying that everybody assumes that you celebrate it.
I mean Hanukkah is literally on top of the Christmas countdown and yet if someone wishes you a happy Hanukkah in a shop while you were buying your coffee, it would sound odd.
I celebrate Christmas, I actually loooooove Christmas but I know plenty of people who don't.
People aren't getting their knickers in a twist or saying you're not allowed to say 'merry christmas' just that it's perfectly reasonable to also extend it to 'happy holidays' or whatever.

But Christmas is a bank holiday in the U.K. But Hanukkah is not. I wouldn't be surprised if I was wished a happy Hanukkah in Golders Green thought.

Please, please, forename not given name.

Someone once posted that surname means sire-name so last name is preferable. I doubt that. I think it is from French surnom - does the hive mind know which theory is right?

Yes the thing about Happy Holidays is that in any given day in December when you’re giving someone a Christmas greeting it’s very likely that it actually is Hannukah that day so it’s better to be inclusive and cover all bases. But it never caught on in the UK.

It’s wrong to say that nobody really objects to being wished Happy Christmas - obviously Jehovah’s Witnesses take serious exception to the whole festival, and some Jewish people aren’t keen on the greeting as per this thread. On the whole however Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs are quite happy with it. My Hindu mate used to put his fairy lights up for Diwali, then leave them up for Christmas, because fairy lights are the great unifier.

As for Merry Christmas anyone taking offence needs an urgent trip to the grip shop.

I live in the states and get the Royal piss taken out of me because I say 'happy Christmas'. They all think it's hysterical and I've even had 'merry birthday' written in my birthday cards.

But no. All daft. My Muslim friends actually send me merry Christmas cards (from uk, it's ALL happy fucking holidays here. I make my own cards which firmly say HAPPY CHRISTMAS!)

As someone who's regularly had to work through Christmas I'd find "Happy Holidays" more offensive..

It is a silly right wing tactic. We are Hindu, but I wish everyone merry Christmas. (We also make mince pies and put up a tree and send out cards, but I love any excuse to celebrate).

I also thought the reason for saying "happy holidays" in the US was to be inclusive re Hanukkah.

Um no. I wouldn't find it 'weird if someone said happy Hanukkah '. I'd think they were Jewish or they thought I was Jewish and it was a nice sentiment.

That right there is the problem.