Kina

I'll say whatever I want and if it happens to be 'Merry Christmas' then fuck everyone who thinks otherwise. I'm Christian, I celebrate Christmas, so I'll say Merry Christmas.

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Hiraku

I say if they dont like christmas then they should just remain quiet and not make such a big deal about it. The only holidays i follow are The day of the dead, christmas and the day of the three wise man.

If any one is offended i follow christian holidays and i follow an ancestral holiday of honoring the dead then big whoop. If some one dosent like what the majority likes then they should not force the majority to bend to the will of the minority.

Just becuase the minority feels left out and ignored does not give them the right to ruin other peoples religious holidays just becuase we dont celebrate what they like in the first place.

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Hiraku

The Look of Innocence

Inuzuka_Riyo

i do see where you come from, in that yes, christmas is the major holiday, and yes, because so, you (as in people in general), are most likely going to say the appropriate greeting. and yes, people do tend to overreact if it's not their own holiday - we can't expect everyone to know everyone else's religion and thus appropriate phrase.

however, calling it "forcing the majority to bend to the will of the minority" - no, it's called commom courtesy, which people seem to be severely lacking these days.

I'm Jewish, but I don't go around saying "Happy Hannukah" to anyone and everyone I see (even though I'm more likely to meet someone not Jewish deeming one to think saying "Merry Christmas" to be the correct greeting). Again, I like to be polite, and to keep from offending anyone, I just say happy holidays.

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"There is no better high than discovery."
-E. O. Wilson

Lightspeedlady

Well, logically, one might notice that most of the children attending school in post colonial America were -shocking this- Christian. It was only a natural progression for people to schedule holidays around those major times of the year. Not my fault that school policy didn't change as schools became more multi- cultural.

You should probably consider that we are posting on a Naruto fan board, a place generally used to kill time and chat about stuff that fans find entertaining, and if I want to give my two cents on a topic without sifting through every detail of information first, I can.


Or, cause they're afraid some fundamentalist will kill their entire family... whichever.

Thanks for eloquently expanding on my point. Unfortunately, you miss the crux of my argument again. I hate the sentiment behind X-mas, because the people using the term are trying to make things equal for everyone when they're not. Yes, it does come from people with a different political view than myself, well done for catching onto that so quickly.

Well if someone says it repeatedly to you in an ignorant fashion then you absolutely should say something to them. But if they're just casually say it in a kind way then there's no need to give them a bollocking, is there?

Also, I'd just like to point how how truly impractical it would be for schools to take a holiday off for every major religious festival. I say leave it to Mid term breaks and term breaks. If religious holidays happen to fall in during those times, then so be it.

I'm sorry but I just cannot see how that can be construed as offensive! Someone running off on a tangent about how idiotic they think your religion is is offensive. Someone well- wishing you is not. Besides, I don't think this is just an American issue.

That's true and it will effect what people say. Any average person saying "Merry Christmas" is NOT trying to offend someone.

Yeah, cue democracy and freedom of speech.

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Careful, I bite.

Inuzuka_Riyo

What I should have wrote was that technically, the person speaking is not speaking with the intent to offend, but it might be received that way. Which is why I feel it best that to avoid such confusion (for lack of a better word), it might be safer to stick to "happy holidays."
I also only mentioned America since that's the country I know best about. I didn't feel it right to talk about other places I have less knowledge about when it comes to that.


Yes, that's what I'm saying - for an average person, it isn't offensive, but the person on the receiving end might not think of it that way.

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"There is no better high than discovery."
-E. O. Wilson

Lightspeedlady

Well, if someone wished me a happy Hanukkah I certainly wouldn't be offended. I'd be grateful they bothered their ass to wish me well in the first place.

Fair enough ;o)


Wel,l there are a fair few mentalers and attention whores out there, yes.

;p

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Careful, I bite.

dirk667

hell, iv said merry christmas my whole life. if you got a problem with it, tell someone who cares. im not going to stop saying that because it annoys a few people. if no1 ever said anything to offend others, we'd walk around saying nothing.

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SasukeArt

Um... over here in Australia you basically never hear anyone saying 'Happy Holidays'. I'm Christian, and I don't know why people seem to be offended, or just plainly don't like my religion. Christmas should just be a happy time, so I guess saying 'Happy Holidays' isn't a bad thing, as long as your not just saying it to avoid saying 'Merry Christmas'. So I'll never dislike anyone who says 'Happy Holidays'... but... I personally think 'Merry Christmas' is just... well... better. :P

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SasukeArt - Owner of...


Part of...

LonelyNinja

It's more respectful to say "Happy holidays" in public places, like Wal-Mart or the mall, but when people get worked up over someone wishing them a merry Christmas or a happy Hanukkah then they need to pull their head out of their ass and move on. I say, "Merry Christmas" because pretty much everyone I know is either Christian or celebrates Christmas, but if someone says that they're Jewish and they mean it then I'll correct myself. So, there really shouldn't be a big deal over who says what, unless the Pope says, "Have a merry Christmas or BURN IN HELL IF YOU'RE NOT CATHOLIC!" Then there's a problem.

Tabris

some people believe that by saying merry christmas you are forcing yoru belief that christmas is a delebration of christ upon them.
People are offended by this because they know that christ woudl say what they are doing in some parts f thier days or lives is wrong,a dn so they get angry when some one mentions him in any type of powerful or celebrated view.
really it's just the guilty running when not accused (ever heard that frase?)
(only some one who feels guilty or Is guilty of somethign runs when authority is nearing, even before questions are asked)

so although some peopel may feel threatened by the word CHRISTmas, it's jsut them being sensative, and it's not wrong to say it.

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C&H FTW

official co-owner of the digimon fan club!

Yamato-sama

People are probably offended because Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with Santa Clause. *Santa Clause that we know today was invented by Coca Cola* Most people know this and are offended by the outright promotion.

LightDreamer

omg -_- I totally typed like a whole response deal and then I pressed post quick reply and it was all You must log in to post a reply. and then I put the wrong password. and the whole thing got erased. Now that's kinda annoying -_- and I was like man I'm not typing it up again. So I just started reading people's posts and this one surprised me.

If you were being sarcastic and I didn't catch it then I guess this post has no meaning. I was trying to read some of your other posts to feel out your point of view but then I just got more confused. So I'm responding to this as if this was actually your point of view.

Why must you say Merry Christmas to everyone. The whole thing is "Have a Merry Christmas." As in I'm trying to wish good will upon you on this day of Jesus christ's birthday. The whole thing is opposite if you're going to wish merry christmas to people to piss people off. It's actually ironic that you're trying to make people angry on this time of peace and love.

And of course a lot of people would say "Well I don't celebrate christmas." Because it's probably true. And you're going to say something about them being an alien? Christmas is dominantly a Christian religion and people who don't have religions often celebrate it as well if they were born or raised in a western society. That's only one part of the world. You'd probably have to live under a rock to not realize that. To call someone an alien because they don't share the same religion and beliefs as you is really offensive. Even to me, and I celebrate christmas [though I'm not christian.]

And yes people keep going well PSSHAA freedom of religion, freedom of speech. But come on man. Nobody should abuse their freedoms. If you want people to respect your freedom of religion and freedom of speech you should probably respect theirs. I mean your entire arguement was Well I have freedom of speech so there I can say whatever I want. But that's just you saying well me having my freedoms is more important than you having your freedoms. So you better respect mine while I trample all over yours.

I mean come on people. The whole point of whether you say Merry Christmas or Happy holidays is the idea of wishing someone a peaceful enjoyable happiness in their time off from school, from work, etc. Why would you turn that around and make it something unpleasant? So say Merry Christmas to people who you know celebrate christmas and say Happy Holidays to the people you're not sure of.

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GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHH (now imagine that 100 billion decibels louder than your average fire truck alarm and you will get the summation of my feelings towards your childish bickering)

--
If you gave me the letters hrt you could give me [ea] to get h[ea]rt or [u] to get h[u]rt, but I'd rather have hurt than a heart without [u]
- GOD I love that. You could give me a hundred thousand million years and I wouldn't have thought of that.

--
All this time I've spent trying to change into someone you would love, I didn't notice you changed into someone I can't love anymore. Goodbye My King .

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The adulation of strangers.

Mashed Potato

Oh come on, if you're offended by the words "Merry Christmas" then you need to get your puritannical finger out your arse. The greeting is so clichéd it's has lost all religious backing anyway.

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♥

[.tsunade.1331.andrea.]

Merry Christimas is better for me.
I celebrate it with my all relatives.

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