Discussion Season's greetings?

Idk, I say Merry Christmas on Christmas and Happy Holidays the rest of December.

I see the opposite a lot too. "Merry Christmas" said to me in a spiteful way as if I'm being dared to challenge them even though we live somewhere that's like 90% Christian and literally no one is going to say anything.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone actually say "Season's Greetings" out loud. I see it written on signs frequently, but never spoken.

"Happy Holidays" feels completely neutral to me. I interpret "holidays" to mean "the days many of us have off work", unconnected to however people choose to spend them. It's the December equivalent of "Have a nice day."

I’m Jewish and never presume to know someone else’s faith unless they are wearing religious clothing or jewelry. So for the twenty something years I spent in retail, I responded to people’s Merry Xmas with either “you too,” or “enjoy your holiday.” Never met with a complaint.

I say "happy holiday" so i dont have to pay attention to which holiday is going on.

I haven't seen that particular bit of hypocrisy. Personally, I say Happy Hanukkah to Jews, Eid Mubarak to Muslims, and Merry Christmas to people who I know to be celebrating Christmas. I try to avoid saying "Merry Christmas!" to complete strangers. And when I send out cards, I'm increasingly making them New Year's cards, because that's more of a mass multicultural celebration than Christmas.

This is partly because it's just not logical to tell someone they should have a merry Christmas when their Christmas is going to consist of, say, working a busy shift in their family's Chinese restaurant. But it is partly because wishing people the wrong holiday can be grating on religious minorities. I try to avoid it because I think that's considerate. I am culturally Christian and do enjoy Christmas rituals, but I don't love it when people get very Christian on me. Like, "You have a blessed day!" I take it in the spirit of positivity in which it's intended, but there's a kind of unthinking Christian-as-default attitude behind it that I think my country (the US) needs to lose.

I say Merry Christmas because that’s what I celebrate.

But if I said Happy Holidays and someone responded with Happy Hanukkah or Happy Eid Mubarak, I’d say “and a Happy Hanukkah/Eid Mubarak to you too.”

I've never heard Season's Greetings spoken aloud. Usually people say Happy Holidays if they want to be inclusive, but I live in a very Christian area, so it's mostly just Merry Christmas.

"Season" makes me think of "Jesus is the reason for the season," which also gets a lot of traction here.

I don't say anything first. I respond to whatever the other person says with "thanks, you too!"

I literally don't care.... Yeah, it's virtue signaling, but at the end of the day it means the same thing as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah, or any other holiday wish. It's a nice thing to say, so I can't get bent out of shape over it.

I say Merry Christmas, for the record, though, as I agree it's a bit silly to go out of your way to virtue signal when it's the sentiment that matters. I celebrate Christmas, but if a Jewish person said Happy Hanukkah to me, I'd take it in the same spirit. I'm not even really that religious, I never go to church. But it's cultural as much as religious to have a holiday to celebrate in late December. The details are sort of irrelevant.

When I visited the uk I was shocked how casually everyone says "merry Christmas", because it's completely secularized. Here in the US I feel like everything is marketed as a "holiday tree" or "holiday gifts." We know what holiday the tree is for hello. I don't know anyone who puts up an Eid tree, or even a solstice tree - and we aren't calling the menorah the "holiday menorah"?