Can They Wish You a Merry Christmas?
As you may have noticed, store employees are more likely to wish you “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” Even Salvation Army bell ringers are following the trend.
This is a topic at my wife’s place of employment. I’ve heard it discussed on the radio. And, I’ve seen it discussed on various blogs. In all this discussion, I’ve noticed some common themes:
- People say Happy Holidays in an attempt to be more inclusive of other holidays. For example, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
- People say Happy Holidays because they hear it instead of Merry Christmas so often they’ve unconsciously switched to Happy Holidays.
- It is now policy at some stores that employees may not say Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays is an acceptable alternative.
I really don’t see a problem with including everyone in your holiday cheer, provided you want to do it.
The unconscious switch is where we start hitting some gray area. Somehow Christmas seems even further diminished, beyond what gross commercialization has done.
And new (to me) this year is a disturbing, though not completely unexpected shift: corporate policy prohibiting employees from saying Merry Christmas.
What? No way!
Oh, yes way, and one well-known major discount chain has such a policy in place right now. Incidentally, it’s also chain-wide policy not to carry Bibles; someone might feel excluded because their preferred Bible translation or other foundational religious book isn’t available.
Maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised. Somehow it’s OK to have aisle after aisle of “holiday” trees, ornaments, etc., even though no other holiday traditionally celebrates the season with evergreen trees, ornaments, etc.
Perhaps we Christian customers need to skip the “Happy Holidays” and wish store employees a “Merry Christmas.”
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Today I heard someone had contacted the chain’s corporate offices, and the representative said they do not have a chain-wide policy prohibiting employees from saying “Merry Christmas.” So, I’ll chuck the report up to overzealous management at a particular store.
I understand a number of people in my area are checking out various stores to determine which have the prohibition in place. Employees at one nearby store are gleefully wishing customers a Merry Christmas, while employees at another related store may not. No comments reported yet from the parent company of the two chains.
— Lee Nov 30, 10:03 PM #