"Holiday" vs "Christmas"
Offline So in my business we have made a few changes in marketing within our store to reflect a theme to the upcoming holidays: Thanksgiving, Christmas, Winter....
I had 2 guests yesterday come up to me and say "it sure looks great in here!" I replied that yes, the Holidays are approaching and we are ready for all the shoppers. Both of those customers asked me a variation of: "You mean Christmas, not Holiday...you guys can't say Christmas anymore?"
The first guest that said this I smiled and I said, well you know corporate 
The second guest I simply stated: "well, there is Thanksgiving AND Hanukkah and Wintertime right alongside Christmas"
I want to say something smart and witty back to these types without coming off as a jackass ( I am in customer service you know) Does anyone have any suggestions? It has to seem pleasant at first, but perhaps as they are in their car driving away they will realize they were pwned.
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"But its the holiday season for everybody."
You've just got a figure out a clever way to say. . .
Festivus for the rest of us BIATCH
Boo hoo, poor Christians finally facing the fact that they are not the only one's who exist in this country. A private company can do what it wants and they are welcome not to shop there. They are welcome to appeal to the company as well. But they cannot force them either way.
It is nice to see big companies finally recognize more than just Christianity in America. Kudos to them for not pandering to self serving Jesus freaks.
It is not a matter of pollitical correctness. It is a matter of society understanding that "America" is comprized of more than just Christians and Christians do not have a monopoly on what it means to be an American and do not have the right to monopolize how an individual citizen or private company celibrates a holiday.
"Holiday" takes nothing away from the Christian when used by a company. They need to get over themselves and stop being so self centered as if Jesus is the only deity claim on the face of the planet, much less America.
I have more respect for Jews because they dont make their holidays a marketing tool, at least to the obnoxious scale Christianity exploits Christmas. I can remember growing up that advertisements for Christimas didnt start untill mid November. In many TV markets today, they start advertising as early as the first week in October. IT IS ONLY ONE FRIGGEN DAY!
You dont see Jews advertising 3 months in advance and their holiday is 8 days.
My point is, people celibrate everything from New Years, to July 4th to December 25 and Thanksgiving in different ways, and no one religion owns a monopoly on how that day should be celibrated.
"Holiday" is a neutral word and no one should be offended by neutrality.
It is not a matter of political correctness, it is a matter of common sense. Christians dont own our government, the citizens do and there are more than christians in America. They need to stop being self centered as if they are the only ones allowed to ride at the front of the bus.
We are not demanding that you dont celibrate the "birth" of you alleged deity. We are merely saying that you have no right to demand via force that a company comply with your self centeredness.
"Holiday vs Christmas" a private company can say what it wants and you the consumer can appeal to them if you wish, but THEY DONT HAVE TO BOW TO YOU.
I do apreciate though, that some of these companies are finally waking up to the fact that there is more than one way to celibrate and not everyone believes in Jesus. THANK YOU TO THESE THOUGHTFULL COMPANIES (although I think they are simply going where they think the money is).
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Screw the question! Lets all just start ranting!
edit: hey why is my quote broken?
Hey, I know!
How about "Merry Kissmyass" Say it fast enough and it sure sounds like merry christmas
Slowly building a blog at ~
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If you say it real fast with a giant smile on your face nobody is the wiser. I once did this to a very obnoxious relative that ranted to me for over an hour about how nobody says "merry christmas" anymore.
That was a fun christmas.
If humanity were a sitcom we'd be canceled!
Yeah, I hate that shit. When I worked part-time at this hardware store and would wish people a "happy holiday" just because that's what I wanted to say, customers would look at me all suspiciously and ask me if they made me say that. I was always like "Uhh, no. I just like to say it that way..." Other times, like when I was working on Christmas Eve and wishing them a nice Christmas Eve, people would congratulate me on not being so P.C. What the hell is this fixation with having Christmas penetrate every aspect of their lives for two months? Why do they have to turn my friendly farewell into an opportunity to go on a rant about our culture? I was just a cashier; I don't need to listen to people's fucking views on theology and politics.
Ugh, I hated that job.
"Wait, when did Christmas stop being a holiday?"
Also point out that there's a very popular holiday one week after Christmas that involves alcohol and balls dropping and such, and that it's likely that if you talk to someone before Christmas you won't see them again until after New Year's, meaning you have to do two holidays' worth of greetings.
Götter sind für Arten, die sich selbst verraten -- in den Glauben flüchten um sich hinzurichten. Menschen brauchen Götter um sich zu verletzen, um sich zu vernichten -- das sind wir.
Lol, i think people worry too much about this issue.
Crap, I was talking to my mother last week and she both ranted that it is dead wrong for them to remove prayer from school but teaching kids in school about the muslim faith was bullshit.
I responded, "Why don't we keep all religion out of school and then you don't have to worry about that shit."
Christianity makes hypocrits of people. "My religion in school good, other religion in school bad. Remove their religion but keep my religion in."
Works the same for holidays. "My religious holiday good, other religion holidays bad."
Religion is like rooting for your favorite football team. Only the rivalry becomes consumingly important...more important than life itself.
Wait until the christians start flying airplanes into skyscrapers. And the fucktards won't see a bit of hypocracy.
"I am an atheist, thank God." -Oriana Fallaci
It seems to me that people have been saying "Happy Holidays" instead of just "Merry Christmas" for ages now.
How old were these two people? 60?
Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.
Why Believe?
This year, I've made it my goal to refer to it as Xmas. Ever since my Aunt complained about me "Xing out christ" on my boxes of decorations, I've loved it.
As far as working with the public is concerned... exactly how many holidays fall in these few weeks? Just say yes, xmas, and the __ other holidays that are celebrated this month.
heike6
A single woman with no kids.
Are you a faithless realist who really doesn’t give a hoot about some long dead guy’s fictional birthdate some 2 millennium ago? Feeling persecuted by Christians this year as a ‘godless liberal’ [21st century PC term for ‘commie faggot pinko atheist’] for unknowingly ‘waging war’ on Christmas by saying ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘Seasons Greetings’?
Fear not! I’ve been saying ‘Merry Mythmas’ over and over to 1000s of shoppers as a Rep for a name brand Laptop manufacturer to retail electronic stores for years and no one has ever noticed.
In my experience, Christians are too self-involved to notice anyone saying “Merry Mythmas” or "Merry Kissmyass" instead of “Merry Christmas“. Being overly self-involved is a necessary requirement for believing you’ll be granted ‘life ever after’ by some imaginary skygod in some fictional Christian heaven. So make your personal statement out loud this way rather than expressing artificial enthusiasm around Christian friends and family. Celebrate the commercialization and paganization of Christmas without jeering at Christian relatives and friends.
Christians don’t use the correct, medieval pronunciation of ‘Christ-mass’. However the original reference and spelling of the Christian 'Mass' by Gnostics around 200 to 300AD was 'Mas' - which in old Latin means male sperm before Catholics changed the spelling to 'Mass'. If Gnostic Christian sects had not been eliminated by the early Catholics, Christ-mas today would laughably celebrate Christ sperm according to Gnostic and early Catholic spelling and intended meaning in old Latin;-].
Even the name Christ has mysteriously disappeared from the term evolving to the abreviation Xmas. It belongs to the unreligious now. At Xmas, lovable Santa Claus, from outside the Bible, is far more popular than that nasty, long dead hellfire-filled Jesus. Fictional Santa brings gifts and laughter; Imaginary Jesus brings you fear and loathing.
Jacob Walker, apparently the co-creator of the concept and term Krismas along with Will Shetterly emailed me a few days back to let me know he'd linked my blog article, "A Merry Mythmas Mssg" on his “Official” Krismas Homepage & FAQ at http://krismas.org hoping for a return link - he wants to get the word out.
Hence the reason I'm sharing this wonderful concept and terminology here with fellow atheists that he presents for Krismas as a secular holiday that celebrates the myth of Kris Kringle, commonly known as Santa Claus.
Although I do feel wishing Christians a Merry 'Kissmyass' would be much more enjoyable on a personal level....
If there was a God, Man wouldn't have had to invent him [reversing Voltaire's famous quote].
When someone says it to me, I just shout, "I like pizza! I like pizza!"
Do you think they hate the Muppets? I love the Muppets. I expecially like the A Muppety Christmas. I also love Will Vinton's A Claymation Christmas Celebration. Anyone who doesn't find these nostalgic obviously wasn't born near the climax of the 80's. Anyhow, I mean to say, these are filled with songs about anything other than Christmas being Christian, except in the most round about ways (for the most part), and have nothing to do with the birth of a god-baby (except the three wise men in the Claymation Christmas, but I always thought that was a parody). If secularist Christmas stuff was popular as many as 20 years ago, why is that Christmas has taken on this new uber-Christian meaning to Christians?
I say, 'Happy Present Getting Day!'. My excuse is that I'm too poor to actually give presents, but I do always get them and since getting presents is the main event of the entire 3 month build-up, well, that must be the point of the whole thing. Sure, I get dirty looks sometimes, but it's the holiday I celebrate. To keep up the mutual distaste when someone wishes me a, 'Merry Christmas!' I either ignore them, reply, 'No.' or reply, 'Happy Present Getting Day!' Any response other than, 'Merry Christmas!' has the same effect (unless you approximate it apparently) though, so perhaps you should just think, 'Screw it.' and say the first thing other than, 'Merry Christmas!' that comes to your head. I highly recommend Happy Present Getting Day, though. -It's what it's all about no matter what you're really celebrating.
BigUniverse wrote,
"Well the things that happen less often are more likely to be the result of the supper natural. A thing like loosing my keys in the morning is not likely supper natural, but finding a thousand dollars or meeting a celebrity might be."
Meh!
I will always be calling my secular holiday 'Christmas'!
You're damn funny for a misanthrope.
I never have to say happy anything, so I'm always at the receiving end of it. Whenever someone says, "Merry Christmas" to me, I just smile and say, "Oh, I'm not Christian." They usually just stutter for a second and then bugger off. Sometimes, they say, "Well, you can still celebrate Christmas, right? After all, it's about family and giving, blah, blah blah." If they do, I say, "My family's pretty much all dead."
I have a talent for ending conversations.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I've never really understood the whole War on Christmas™ thing. No one is denying the existence of Christmas. The holiday definitely exists. When they say something about Christmas, I would just say, "Christmas is a holiday." Very little of the celebration is Christian anyway. The traditions are all pagan.
I live with my grandma and she's always watching the Spin Zone or whatever O'RLY wants to call his show. I saw him ranting the other day about a Christmas tree being called something secular like "holiday tree". It seems to me the manufacturer was just trying to capture more of the market, though it was pretty stupid because none of the other holidays really involve trees. Anyway, he was ranting about it as part of the War on Christmas™ and I just wanted to punch him in the face for giving a shit. Who notices these things?
The great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
- Thomas H. Huxley
When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.
- Abraham Lincoln
I personally don't give a shit about the war on Christmas. I'd just as soon not have to ever hear about it again. However, I really don't celebrate Christmas.
1) I have no reason to celebrate the Christian aspects of it.
2) Fuck consumerism and fuck the advertising industry for instilling us with this stupid sense of guilt if we don't buy people extranous shit they don't need.
3) Most of my family really is dead, and I don't care for most of the ones who are left.
4) New Years is a lot more fun.
My response to Merry Christmas is genuine. I'm not Christian, and I don't celebrate it. I say it with a smile. It's a little confrontational, but Christmas is stupid, and I wish it would go away, and I wish the War on Christmas would go away. Actually, I'd just like it if December would go away. It's too cold.
[Grumpy Gus Powers, DEACTIVATE!]
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
I don't see why people through fits about "Happy holidays". As mentioned before there are several holidays in the month of december.
I was realy confused last year when a church by me had a sign that read "Jesus is the only reason for the season" I felt like walking in a slapping the pastor stupid. I can understand them believing that Jesus once lived as that is a somewhat debatable topic... But the story and origin of xmas isn't a debate at all. It is well documented that it was born out of several pagan holidays that celebrated the winter solstice. Some people I think are just beyond help.
In any event, I like to wish people either a "Happy generic winter solstice celebration" or a "Happy christma-hauni-kwanza-don"
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
I hate about 90% of christmas
If someone says, "Happy Holidays" to me, I smile, and say, "And Happy Holidays to you, too."
The lizard brain misanthrope within me only has so much authority, and I really do like for people to be happy.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
http://hambydammit.wordpress.com/
Books about atheism
As a Brit and atheist I don't have any hangup about it (apart from bloody Slade, 1970's band, and other crap tunes being played repetitively in shops etc, must drive the staff mad!) with regard to religion it means nothing to me.
I don't mind saying Merry Christmas because it just means "have a nice time and I'll be on my way" to me. What is weird is I dislike the whole materialistic side of the holiday which probably puts me in the camp of more traditionalist christians.
I don't think it should be banned or transformed to winterval etc because it is part of our (speaking as a brit again) cultural heritage.
We should acknowledge where we have come from and not be afraid of that and if that means we keep the spirit of christmas, which I take to be the goodwill and tidings to all men (and women) then so be it regardless of trees with fairies on, fruit cake with marzipan, turkey with all the trimmings and exchanging gifts.
And now that I have thought about what I have written perhaps there is something to be said of a festival whereby people come together, afterall there aren't many other excuses. I'd like to see some of my extended family but I hate the ritual of meaningless and awkward presents.
I frickin' LOVE calling Christmas, y'know, Christmas. Of course, I'm over here in England and there are more Jedi here than there are Jews (scary, eh?) but nonetheless, the materliastic side and the culinary side (Egads, man, christmas cake? Brandy butter? Mince pies? Christmas Pudding? That's HEAVEN to me) are what I love most about it. Y'know why? 'Cause Christmas is the biggest day of indulgence we have. It's a time for us all to be uber-selfish and give big, shit-eating grins as we open our christmas presents or tuck into some really hot, really yummy food.
Christmas is, in short, the most sacreligious, indulgent and outright Satanic day of the year.
So calling it the mass of Christ is just sweet, sweet, SWEET irony.
It seems to me he has already been slapped stupid.
The great tragedy of Science - the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.
- Thomas H. Huxley
When I do good, I feel good; when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion.
- Abraham Lincoln
Me too.
I think Jesus was a myth. I see absolutely no credible evidence that a god exists. I think the Bible is the most absurd piece of literature ever written. I think all religion is insanity.
But I LOVE Christmas. When I was a kid I believed in Santa Clause, Rudolph, and baby Jesus. Growing up, Christmastime was a very exciting time for me. It was indeed the most wonderful time of the year.
It still is.
It's not easy to forget those great times growing up. And all it takes is a Christmas carol to bring them all rushing back.
As an adult when December rolls around I still get into the Christmas spirit. I always buy a huge tree and string lights on the outside of my house. I send cards and buy presents and drink egg nog and whistle "Jingle Bells." I love it all.
A friend once asked, "How the hell can you celebrate Christmas when you're an atheist? Aren't you a hipocrite? "
I said, "Hell no."
I told him that I don't believe witches fly on broomsticks or that zombies walk the earth or that ghosts haunt houses. But I still celebrate Halloween. Baby Jesus in the manger is just as make-believe as Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman.
Fun is what it's all about. I don't get another life after this one. This is it. So I'm going to do what I love and have as much fun as I can while I'm here.
It's like what Buggs Bunny once said. "Don't take life too seriously. You'll never come out of it alive.
Happy Holidays.
Frosty's coming back someday. Will you be ready?
I thought it was Van Wilder that said that...
"It is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring." - Carl Sagan
Van Wilder may have said it first. But at the end of one of Warner Brothers' 1950s wacky cartoons where Buggs Bunny torments Elmer Fudd, Buggs looks into the camera and says....."Don't take life too seriously. You'll never come out of it alive."
Frosty's coming back someday. Will you be ready?
Matthew 42:14-16: "And, Jesus Christ, having ascended into the heavens, paused briefly, and took the earth, and moved it upon its axis, saying; Now the earth shall tilt, and the light from the sun shall fall at an inclined angle, and the temperature upon the world shall change accordingly. And all who saw it were amazed."
Götter sind für Arten, die sich selbst verraten -- in den Glauben flüchten um sich hinzurichten. Menschen brauchen Götter um sich zu verletzen, um sich zu vernichten -- das sind wir.
I usually just avoid acknowledging the holidays all together. When they try to say "Merry Christmas", I just say "have a nice day". I'll usually get some prying, asking if I'm going to do anything. I just say I have to work and it's just another day (even if I don't), and then they feel bad for bringing it up in the first place
So very little of the Christmas holiday has anything to do with Christianity, I don't have any problems with just stealing it for ourselves. :P Most of the traditions are from earlier traditions from pagans, harvest/equinox/season celebrations, the Coca Cola company, etc. It's really now just a consumerist tradition. Buying stuff for people, buying lights, buying peppermint mochas at Starbucks, buying cards, buying decorations, joining blood thirsty mobs at the mall on the day after Thanksgiving (to buy things), etc.
So it's really just buying stuff, dinner with family, trading gifts, churches finally deciding to get out and feed poor people and watching National Lampoon Christmas Vacation.
Welcome to Nothingsmas, where we buy and eat to celebrate the birth of the baby nothing.
Or attend Boxing Day sales if you're Canadian! (Thanksgiving is way smaller a holiday for us than it is for you... and we celebrate it a far better time.)
BigUniverse wrote,
"Well the things that happen less often are more likely to be the result of the supper natural. A thing like loosing my keys in the morning is not likely supper natural, but finding a thousand dollars or meeting a celebrity might be."
I'm still surprised we call it Thanksgiving in the states. Soon, it'll be Black Friday Eve.
I got to shout, "I love pizza," for the first time this season on Thanksgiving day. My father had a grad assistant over for dinner because the student is from Germany. So, as he was leaving, he wished me a merry christmas. So, I yelled my phrase, which startled the already nervous fellow.
Evidently, he called dad the next day and asked if that was the traditional response in his household. Here's the kicker, he said it was!
"Tis better to rule in Hell than to serve in Heaven." -Lucifer
Them: "it sure looks great in here!"
You: "yep, I guess it does"