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I think it's more productive to acknowledge all holidays and get 24% more audience, instead of going to extra effort to be sectarian in your good will. There a
by gduffy 19y ago
I think it's more productive to acknowledge all holidays and get 24% more audience, instead of going to extra effort to be sectarian in your good will.
There are plenty of people like me out there, for instance. My family celebrated christmas at this time of year when I was younger. I still feel like having a happy holiday right around now, but I don't connect with any of the Jesus stuff. Thanks to the original poster for wishing me a happy non-christmas-holiday-that-I-celebrate-around-the-same-time-as-christmas (on mine, I get to argue with people on the Internet!).
I feel your point has been thoroughly dismissed now. Happy holidays anyway!
- Jd 19y agoHappy Holidays to you too!
- Jd 19y agoActually, since I'm not celebrating the holiday in question either and am more to happy to argue on the Internet, here are my more extended thoughts. Even if some subset of the population is going to lose the Jesus bit doesn't it make more sense to keep the name of the holiday the same? For instance, if you are going to send out holiday well wishes (which I appreciate, I also upmodded the original poster) and going to send them out at a specific time (for example, Dec. 25) doesn't it make sense to refer to the holiday as 'Christmas' ? In my own limited personal campaign of holiday well-wishes, I usually end up only wishing Christmas greetings to people I know are Christians, sending more general holiday greetings to others at a time other than Christmas. In conclusion, my contention is that if you are going to send your greeting on Christmas, you might as well call it a Christmas greeting. If you send it Dec. 20, or 27, then maybe a holiday greeting.
- gduffy 19y agoIt's terribly more efficient to send out generic holiday wishes to everyone and stop associating with anyone who gets too offended that you didn't conform to their particular brand of holiday. I really don't want to keep a 6 billion row spreadsheet of holiday associations for everyone I might encounter and wish well of. Will mass confusion ensue if generic "happy holidays" cards are sent on the same day as christmas? Will people not know what day of the year it is? There is no utility to the nomenclature. No religion owns the day, and it's hardly a religious holiday to begin with. It doesn't offend me when people say merry christmas, it only offends me if they are attempting to correct somebody who says happy holidays. It's a superset. You're correcting someone who says "yes! it's the weekend!" with "no, but thank god it's Saturday!".
- iamelgringo 19y agoSigh... I thought long and hard about the Christmas vs Holiday wishes thing. I'm actually pretty devout in my Christianity, but I rather dislike people who are jerks about it. How about this: To my Christian friends Merry Christmas. To my Jewish friends Happy Hannukah. To my Atheist friends Happy Holidays. And to all a happy New Year. (Unless you're Chinese, then I'm a few weeks early.)
- Xichekolas 19y agoDon't you think it's a waste of time to pre-plan your holiday wishes to be so politically correct? You could wish me a Happy Kwanzaa and I'd get the idea that you wanted to wish me well for whatever holiday I choose to celebrate... I wouldn't immediately be offended because you didn't know which 'holiday reference' I preferred to hear. So uh... Happy Fourth of July!
- jsmcgd 19y agoI can think of few things that are more ridiculous than being offended by the phrase 'Merry Christmas'.
- DanielBMarkham 19y agoGosh no, guys! It's all about market differentiation. You should ideally wish each person a holiday wish based on their unique belief and practices. Lots more karma in that than blanket statements. It's the long tail of holiday-greeting-karma-whoring strategy. :) Merry Christmas, all!
- Xichekolas 19y agoI think you just found a new idea for a startup... you are guaranteed a Series A round with that kind of thinking! Seriously, you should contact my agent in Kenya for your $4,000,000 check. For a small fee of $10,000 you can have his phone number. </tongue_in_cheek>