To wish people happy Christmas not happy holidays

[Cafecontribution]

I’m In the U.K. if that makes any difference

To most people I say happy holidays but that's because I don't really care about christmas and I figure people are just happy to have time off. To children : merry christmas, hanukah or l'Aid if I know they celebrate these holidays. To my uncle who hates christmas I'll just say see you after the shitshow:).

So, so happy to read all the lovely replies to this OP, pinpointing exactly how silly, spurious and problem-seeking her alleged concerns are. I have never heard a UK person say "Happy holidays" and I feel completely confident that all the non-Christian people I know would enjoy hearing "Happy Christmas" in exactly the spirit in which it is spoken. It is a lovely expression of goodwill, to be heard in a faith-based or trans-faith or secular way depending on how you rock.

I worked for a company the other year and because we had a lot of people from different religions we were told to use Happy Holidays on any marketing messages etc.

Yes generally we say Merry or Happy Christmas in the U.K., but seeing as lots of people are on leave over Xmas for a few extra days off and kids are on their school holidays I think it’s ok to say enjoy the holidays too. I really couldn’t give a stuff. And if people really get upset about it I wonder how they get through the bigger stresses of Xmas!

At my work it is all happy holidays to be “inclusive”. Really annoys me

I can't tell if you are being facetious, but on the off chance that you are not, why on earth would you want to be exclusive when being inclusive harms precisely no-one ?

I think if anyone gives a single shit about which one anyone uses, they’re probably an absolute arsehole.

My workplace has done away with any notion of Christmas and now has an "End of Year Party". Pisses me off no end. Thankfully there has been a bit of backlash over the term.

Happy Festivus OP

Merry Christmas is the message from my large employer. All employees were wishing each other a happy Christmas upon leaving, not a happy holidays to be seen anywhere.

and a happy christmas😀

Happy Solstice, it’s tomorrow, let the winter begin.

We celebrate other religious occasions (Eid, Diwali etc) and rightly so but it is inappropriate to say Christmas. I would much prefer just embracing all occasions including Christmas.

happy holidays just sounds meaningless.

holidays and holiday period doesn’t really seem right to me, that seems to be more the summer.

Merry holidays

Our workplace this year has been all about ‘happy holidays’, ‘end of year drinks’ etc. Absolutely no mention of Christmas. American global firm.

I say 'happy christmas', 'happy easter' etc.. Why the hell not!?

I'm not religious but I enjoy celebrating the Christian traditions of Christmas and Easter. In fact I love Christmas!! I don't get offended by people saying 'happy christmas'! We do Santa and turkey and have a tree! Why not! I'm always up for a bit of festive fun!

I say Happy Holidays because I personally find Xmas a very difficult time of year but want all my colleagues and the families we work with to have a good break and enjoy the times we have away from work.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone English say "happy holidays". We tend to say something like "have a really nice break" at work. I am a practising Christian, and I don't mind saying or having that said to me at all.

I have actually been told to say Happy Holidays at work to be inclusive of all and not offend.

Well Happy Holidays is also nonsensical here because holiday usually implies going away somewhere for a number of days, it makes sense in the US because holidays means a public day and vacation means going away.

I cannot fathom how some companies think it's more inclusive to exclude Christmas. What they are actually doing is trying to erase the dominant culture, how on earth is that inclusive?

I will say “Happy Christmas” when referencing Christmas … but “happy holidays” or “have a nice holiday”, when including New Year

This is a well-known xenophobic/racist dog whistle.

I’ve never heard anyone say happy holidays.

This is very naive towards the way a lot of workplaces are in the UK.

Have a nice holiday makes it sound like someone is going away on holiday though.
if they’re staying at home, something like have a nice break/enjoy the Christmas period/time off etc sounds more natural to me

Too da loo! Hope you have a Happy Holiday!