H is for Happy Holidays

I'm trying pretty hard, but I'm having trouble seeing the problem with a more inclusive holiday greeting.

It's not that I mind people wishing me a merry Christmas. I appreciate the sentiment; I might even wish it to someone else unprompted. I just don't understand why people get so het up about wishing someone happy holidays instead. It's as though we don't have more important things to be worried about.

First of all, it seems reasonable, if you know what holidays a person celebrates, to greet the person accordingly. I'm not going to greet my Jewish friends with a Merry Christmas, unless I just forget. (Then again, part of me thinks that they're so used to being outnumbered during the holiday season that they probably don't bat an eye anymore.) But if you don't know, you have a few options:

• you can make a guess, I suppose, but how does that work? "You look like the Kwanzaa sort to me..."


• You can use an inclusive greeting like "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays"


• or you can just use your own holiday of choice to greet the person.

In my mind, though, a "Happy Holidays" greeting has nothing to do with the so-called War on Christmas. For me, the holiday season begins at Thanksgiving (that's American Thanksgiving, at the end of November, which very conveniently coincides with my birthday) and lasts until New Years Day. That's two holidays right there, even if you don't celebrate any of the December ones. So to me, "Happy Holidays" is less a watered down politically correct greeting and more a wish for a happy holiday season -- the whole season, not just one day of it.

And I'll continue to greet people as the whim strikes me.