Happy holidays vs. Merry Christmas?

All I know is that everytime I open this thread, I start hearing Bing Crosby singing Happy Holidays from Holiday Inn

Think slow down. Its not only economic but cultural too IMO

That put a smile on my face!

LOL!  Andee, I somehow just got a vision of the stereotypical Jewish mother you see in movies saying "That Jesus is a nice Jewish boy, why don't you go to the dance with him?"  LOL!!!!!  

Ha ha!  That stereotypical Jewish mother exists in real life as well as the movies!  I should know...

Re: wishing someone a Happy Chinese New Year.  My Chinese American friend does that and I always like to mark the holiday as well--just another reason to be festive and celebrate a new beginning!

I don't know about it being politically correct though. To me it just always referred to the multiple holidays celebrated around this time (Christmas, New Year, Hanukkah, Kwanza). So all inclusive. I don't call that politically correct, I call that polite!

Exactly, which is why you'll hear Americans say both Happy Holidays and specifically Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, etc. "Happy Holidays" is simply the catch-all; not a PC replacement.

(My favourite is Merry Christmas. *Happy* Christmas--now *that's* British!)

All I know is that everytime I open this thread, I start hearing Bing Crosby singing Happy Holidays from Holiday Inn

Or Andy Williams singing "Happy Holidaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazzzzzee to yooooouu!

Brits may not say "Happy Holidays", but they do mention "the festive season" which is just another way of not singling out any particular religion.

This year I bought cards which say "Season's Greetings" and have a photo of our town here in the Cotswolds on a snowy day.  So is "Season's Greetings" an American import?  A sad nod to PC?  Or just another happy greeting? 

I generally buy my cards based on how well I like the picture or graphics.  I use several different expressions depending on who I'm talking/writing to, because I have friends of different religions and cultural traditions.  I don't worry about the world becoming a monoculture.  Could we ever really get along that well?

So is "Season's Greetings" an American import?  A sad nod to PC?  Or just another happy greeting? 

It was around in my UK childhood 50 years ago. My guess is that it economically covers the New Year as well as Christmas.

It was around in my UK childhood 50 years ago. My guess is that it economically covers the New Year as well as Christmas.

Same in the US. It simply covers the entire celebratory season from Hanukkah to New Years and everything in between. I especially say it if I'm not sure I'm going to see someone before (or shortly after) New Years.

I always thought "Season's Greetings" sounded sort of somber.

As a non-Christian, being told to have a "Merry Christmas" in the States bothered me, but it doesn't bothered me here.

This is because "Christmas" seems to be much less religious here in the UK than in the US, at least in my experience.

In the US, lots of Christian religious imagery - manger scenes in front of people's homes, and so forth.

In the UK, it is more about spending lots of money on gifts, eating lots of food, and drinking lots of alcohol, which isn't specific to Christianity.  Haven't noticed anything particularly religious (i.e. specifically relating to the birth of Jesus) about Christmas in the UK so far in the three years I've been here, other than TV specials about the life of Jesus which I can ignore. I don't count Christmas trees and Christmas lights as Christian symbols; they have more to do with the solstice than with Jesus, and we Jews suffer from SAD as much as anyone else.

It doesn't bother me to receive a Christmas card with a pretty lit-up tree on it as much as it does to receive a card with the Virgin Mary holding the Baby Jesus, with the Star of Bethlehem overhead.

That is probably just my personal experience, based on where I come from in the US and where I am living now in the UK.

Although, in general, I find that the UK tends to be more secular than the US, or at least in the UK religion is more private while in the US it is more public.

following on from sweetpeach's post, I will hold my hand up and say I celebrate "Christmas" as a completely secular holiday.  It's probably more accurate to say I'm celebrating the solstice (because I'm super excited for the days to start getting longer again and that is part of the reason why I enjoy the celebrations this time of year) but I like cheesy christmas songs about santa, reindeer and the rest and even religious carols will get me into the spirit even if I don't celebrate the religious holiday myself. 

There seem to be a lot of people in the UK who feel the same way, so "Merry Christmas" doesn't actually scream of religosity to me.  I completely understand why non-Christians would object to it, but as the holiday does seem to be more cultural than religious here I don't worry about it much and usually just say "Merry Christmas."

I'm an atheist and I say Happy Christmas here. I agree that the UK is a lot more secular in general, and Christmas seems to be celebrated by nearly everybody with very little, if any, recognition of the religious aspect. In my partner's family, only his mum goes to church on Christmas day. In America I'm more likely to say happy holidays, mostly because I find that people are more easily offended there if you pick the wrong one to say. Mind you, with the whole 'war on Christmas' nonsense that a lot of super-religious people are going on about these days, they're probably just as likely to be offended if you don't say merry Christmas

following on from sweetpeach's post, I will hold my hand up and say I celebrate "Christmas" as a completely secular holiday.  It's probably more accurate to say I'm celebrating the solstice (because I'm super excited for the days to start getting longer again and that is part of the reason why I enjoy the celebrations this time of year) but I like cheesy christmas songs about santa, reindeer and the rest and even religious carols will get me into the spirit even if I don't celebrate the religious holiday myself. 

I'm exactly the same way! I'm an atheist, but I adore Christmas songs, Father Christmas, etc. The whole thing makes me happy! 

My observation of Christmas in the UK was that it was every bit as commercial as the States, but it seems to be a less ostentatious outward celebration -- although I know that has changed somewhat since I first was in England.  There isn't as much of the lighting up the exterior of the house, setting up the inflatables in the front garden, very few Christmas wreaths on doors, etc. etc.  But it seemed like people decorated a lot more inside -- like a child's birthday party (hmmm ...) with balloons, streamers, people in party hats and so on.  Struck me as very odd at first.