Saturday, November 28, 2009

Somebody Please Say Merry Christmas!

I know I posted this one last year, but I figured it was the sort of thing that could be said every year.

We’ve become quite accustomed to the outcry against saying Merry Christmas by now. Such words might offend someone.
A few years ago I worked for a major department store in our area during the Christmas season. While we were not told to avoid saying Merry Christmas, it was pretty clear that a traditional Christmas was not on the marketing agenda. The slogan for the season was “Give” (aka, buy). Christmas trees were confined to the corner that sold ornaments. Other than that, decorations consisted only of snowflakes and fake presents.
Still, I just decided to say Merry Christmas to every person that came by my register. I am here to tell you that nobody was offended. Most people smiled and returned the greeting. Multiple people stopped, sighed, and said, “THANK YOU FOR NOT SAYING HAPPY HOLIDAYS.”
It is a sad, sad day indeed when the majority of the population fears offending the approximately one percent of people who get offended by everyone anyway.
So please, this Christmas season, do everyone a favor and say MERRY CHRISTMAS to as many people as you can.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I can confirm not offending anyone through the Christmas season by saying "Merry Christmas" while checking people out. But I didn't say that all month long either. ^_^

Diane said...

Amen! Thanks for sharing. :O)

Jules said...

I guess we're quite fortunate here, because even though some people get offended by references to Christmas, most shops would still have Christmas decorations, would mention the word "Christmas" and still play those same old carols over their speaker system (I like carols but not in shops). Hopefully we'll never get to the point where "Happy Christmas" is replaced with "Happy Holidays" but if it's happened in America it could very well happen here too. Perhaps it has in the larger cities and I'm just not aware of it. So, "Happy Christmas, Emily"!