In Theory: When a greeting becomes grating

It’s perhaps no surprise that your age, political affiliation and religion say a lot about whether you prefer the greeting “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.”

The numbers haven’t changed much in recent years, according to a poll released this month by the Public Religion Research Institute. In 2010, 44% of people say they preferred businesses use the greeting “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings,” to accommodate for people of non-Christian faiths. Forty-nine percent said they should not. This year, those numbers were 47% and 46% respectively.

But there’s a nearly two-thirds chance or 58% chance you prefer “Merry Christmas” if you’re a white evangelical Protestant or Catholic, respectively. Non-white Protestants and the religiously unaffiliated preferred all-inclusive greetings, at 56% and 58%, respectively.

“Republicans were as likely to support ‘Merry Christmas’ (67%) as Democrats were to support ‘Happy Holidays’ (66%). And young adults ages 18 to 29 were more likely to support nonspecific greetings (67%), while adults aged 65 and older wanted to hear ‘Merry Christmas’ (54%),” the Religion News Service reports.

Q. What are your thoughts on the poll? Which greeting do you prefer and why?

The embracing of Judeo-Christian beliefs and values, and as a subset of that the public celebration of Christmas, has to this point been an important part of the broadly considered American cultural mindset. More than ever this general mindset has been changing during the last several decades, and it seems even more rapidly during the last one. Perhaps the question about publicly wishing someone “Merry Christmas” touches on the issue of who we think we should be as a nation, about what American culture is or should be.

Many Americans celebrate Christmas in a relatively nonreligious manner. They’re not necessarily anti-Christian, but they limit their celebration to the cultural traditions of gathering with friends and family, gift exchanges and the hopes of a more peaceful, kinder world. To them “Merry Christmas” is not at all offensive and I’d be happy to extend the greeting to them. Many Americans’ faith, however, is decidedly non-Christian. For them the wish of “Merry Christmas” is a contradiction to their deeply held beliefs, and I’d rather not communicate my faith in such a confrontational manner, even though I do believe that every single person alive should embrace faith in the child born to Mary in Bethlehem as the only Savior of all mankind. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” says John 3:16. Here we may place the emphasis on the worldwide, international, intercultural extent of God’s love. Perhaps we should keep in mind that though the Bible does command all to believe in Jesus Christ, we are never specifically commanded to celebrate Christmas or to tell someone “Merry Christmas.” We are definitely commanded to communicate the Gospel to the world, but maybe there’s a better way to do it than a quarrelsome seasonal greeting.

So to all of our dear readers I do wish a blessed holiday season. I wish you joy, peace and completeness of soul. My personal belief is that these are ultimately found in a relationship with Jesus Christ who died for our sins, was buried and rose again on the third day, and I urge you to find them in him.

Pastor Jon Barta
Burbank

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The words of greeting I receive this time of year from staff in stores and other businesses are barely on my radar, I must say. I know that employees are following their bosses’ instructions in interacting with customers, and I have no problem with inclusive language, or with Merry Christmas, or any other seasonal greeting.

Are there really people so deeply concerned with how a clerk greets them? Please explain to me how a small part of an impersonal commercial interaction could be vitally important to one’s equanimity.

If a greeting isn’t to your liking, for heaven’s sake say so, or vote with your feet and dollars and don’t patronize that business, or both. But the truth is that for the most part this issue has been generated and fomented by the right wing and is a made-up controversy in my opinion.

Roberta Medford
Atheist
Montrose

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Well, we might as well get the credentials out of the way, and admit that I am an older, white, Evangelical Protestant, and a Republican; guess how I’m going to respond to this? I’ll always prefer “Merry Christmas,” and that’s because the Christ of Christmas is the reason for the season. And there would be no Hanukkah emphasis were there not Christmastime, because the Jewish community simply intensified focus on their non-biblical (though culturally significant incident) to compete with the majority Christian fervor of their American neighbors. That’s OK. In fact, we both grant that Hanukkah could be a means of glorifying God (assuming the thing went down as promulgated) but were there not the Christian observance, there wouldn’t be the Jewish one of any public note, and so primacy goes to Christmas.

As for Kwanzaa, most black Americans do not observe this, since it was manufactured as a secular alternative to Christmas and not as a holy day by any means. Saying “Happy Holidays” would thus exclude Kwanzaa, and many Christian black Americans will still worship Christ rather than submit to this odd custom from the ‘60s that co-opts the menorah from Hanukkah and deliberately intrudes upon their Christmastime.

As a Christian, I am going to want to take advantage of this one giant “gimme” in December and greet every stranger, passerby or neighbor with “Merry Christmas,” and that’s because besides Christians, nearly 90% of everyone else celebrates on Dec. 25. Christ’s coming was for all who would receive him, and I want to encourage everyone to take a moment and contemplate the plausibility of the Gospel message. Christmas was here at the beginning, and it needs to continue with gusto lest we soon come to our end. Christmas is not merely about some ancient guy’s birthday, it commemorates God’s incarnation, and that is profoundly significant!

Is it really something to kvetch about, people greeting one another with one seasonal salute or another? Probably not. Just about any friendly, seasonally expected salute will suffice, and if some company thinks “Merry Christmas” alienates people and they want their employees to employ something more generic, that’s up to them. We can’t expect pagans to uphold Christ amidst the tide of secularism, but Christmas is about as American as our flag and apple pie, and believers and nonbelievers alike appear to be up for Christmas. If there are truly people offended by a nice “Merry/Happy Christmas” by a cheery person of goodwill, then perhaps such curmudgeons need offending. Nice people would simply chime back with whatever greeting suits their own holy day, and mean it for the others’ good. By the way, we are still in the Christmas season, as the Twelve Days of Christmas are currently on, culminating in Epiphany (Three Kings Day) on Jan. 6. On the Eastern calendar, that day is their Christmas, so “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night …”

Rev. Bryan A. Griem
Tujunga