Thanks for the link! I blogrolled ya. Maybe you should get one (blogrolling.com -- it is free -- I am not spam)
 

It makes sense to me that it would offend people. Not everyone is Christian, and not everyone celebrates Christmas. People say that everyone is more sensitive these days, but really, I just think that Christians are becoming less of a majority than they were. I mean, yeah they are still the majority, but I dunno. I figure if we are going to have other groups of people in the country, we can't just ignore them. But then I can see the argument that the country was based on Christian morals blah blah blah but we are trying to be more accepting of other cultures, aren't we? I guess I don't think it would really offend me if someone said "Merry Christmas" to me, but I appreciate the fact that some people are putting forth the effort to realize that not everyone is a Christian. While I don't particularly enjoy Christmas or believe in the Christian bit, I still celebrate it with my family and all. I suppose if I were of a different religion, I wouldn't really enjoy having the whole... Christian thing shoved down my throat. And about the link that you provided, I was unaware that snowmen were a part of Christmas? I just thought it was a seasonal thing... But then what do I know?
 

It's mandatory as a melting pot of world wide cultures to accept the fact the white man's burden isn't the only thing in the world that is worthy of celebratory events. If you said something along the lines of Christmas and Christianity being superior to the celbrations of say Kwanza to a partaker in the holiday, you would be just as angry if a member of the Hebrew religon said Hanukka was superior to Christmas, you would be vexxed to say the least. I guess what I mean is, America is a puzzle made of up a bajillion pieces from all around the world, and being Americans, we should be proud to celebrate in all bajillion of those christmases or lack there of.
 

Celebrating Christmas is not some how putting down another religion. Since when has saying merry Christmas meant my religion is better than yours? We don't ignore other religions. In school we learn about Kwanza and Hanukkah. In communities with big enough populations that celebrate those holidays those holidays are celebrated. People should be more tolerant of Christians and Atheists, and lets face it people of other religions still celebrate Christmas, that celebrate Christmas. I know a Jew, three Hindus, and couple of Buddhists that celebrate Christmas.
 

Santa is a pagan figure. I'm surprised the Christians are willing to claim ownerships of him.
Yes, "just one thought", I agree. Americans SHOULD be more tolerant of atheists... by not shoving Christianity down their throats.
And Zunke, it does offend me when people say Happy Valentine's Day because regardless of its origin, it has turned into a purely Hallmark holiday. Here, everyone take the same day and make your significant other feel "special." How is it special if everyone does it on the same day?
"Just one", we don't ignore other religions, but we don't promote them either. If we say Merry Christmas more than Happy Hanukkah of Kwanzaa, it seems to me just like parents showing favoritism to a child. You're not necessarily putting down your other kids, but you could be neglecting them.
Zunke, I don't think it's the actual holiday that offends people, it's the fact that there are plenty of other holidays that are ignored. Plenty of which also endorse peace and kindness. Please don't twist the issue around to make those that object to the phrase seem heartless and cruel. That's just not very nice, now is it? And what's wrong with taking God out of America? If we're going to put the Christian God in, why not also include Nature, Allah (Islam), Yahweh (Judaism), Ahura Mazda (Zoroastrianism), Buddha (Buddhism), Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesh (All three Hinduism), Tirthankars (Jainism), etc. etc. Just because these groups are the minority doesn't make their holidays or whatever celebrations they may have any less important or worthy of recognition. And furthermore, Zunke, wouldn't you happily take off work or accept free stuff if it was given to you? Honestly, if they gave us time off for Hanukkah, would you say "oops... no thanks, I'm Christian." I'm not saying we should take every holiday off for other religions, since minority religions are free to take off those days due to observance of a religious holiday. If things stayed open on Christmas, so many people would take off to observe it that it wouldn't be practical to keep things open anyway. But I'm simply saying you can't base your argument on the fact that people don't demand that they go to work or turn away free stuff. There are plenty of things that we could all agree on to celebrate that don't involve religion. Happy Holidays just encompasses a few of the celebrations that occur in a few major religions around the world, what's wrong with replacing Merry Christmas with it. AND incorporates New Years, too. So I say what's the problem... just let Merry Christmas be phased out of corporations and places where people of other major religions frequent. At least when people hear "Happy Holidays" they can automatically think of their own holiday, and not the Christian one.
 

It is only fare to celebrate holidays in proportion to how many people celebrate it. More people in the US celebrate Christmas than any other holiday, so it is the most celebrated. There are more Jews than people worship African gods, so Hanukah is celebrated more than Kwanza. It is only fair. This is how a democracy works. A group gets a share of the power based on mainly its size. The UAW has more power than a small one-plant union. The Christian Coalition has more power than the church I go to.
 

I'd like to add a comment to CoolZunkster's second post. Thomas Jefferson coined the term "separation of church and state". When he was president, he attended a Baptist church service held in the United States Capital building. What was his reaction to that event which now would cause all kinds of protests? He was unhappy with the music, so he ordered the United States Marine Band to play at future services.

Jefferson and our founding fathers wanted a country where we have freedom of religion and religious expression, not freedom from religion.
 

In response to your comment, Matt, first let me request that although you may be familiar with me, you do not, by any means, "know" me. Please do not claim to know what I think or how I feel.
The Santa Claus that we associated with Christmas in America has been influenced by many many figures, and although there was a Saint Nicholas, it's not the same guy. I'm not sure a website dedicated to the actual man St. Nicholas is the best place to get accurate information. He may hvave been influenced by him, but the Santa Claus that we know is based mostly off legends and mythology and other non-Christian things and in that sense... Pagan. I could be wrong, but please do not underestimate my intelligence so much as to imply that I am not aware of the occasional lengthening of "Santa Claus" to "Saint Nicholas."

I do not deny the influence of Christianity on the founding or the running of our nation. At all. I'm quite aware that there is a lot of influence. However, in those times, people were much more religious, and the Christians were more so a majority in those days. The United States wasn't as diverse as it is today. As our population becomes more and more diverse, we have a responsibility to accomodate that diversity. It seems to me that "Holiday" is the best way to do that.

According to the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, who conducted an American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) in 2001 from December to April, only "76.5% of American adults are Christian. 14.1% do not follow any organized religion; they are Agnostics, Atheists, Humanists, Secularists, or have no religious affiliation. 1.3% are Jewish, 0.5% are Muslim, followers of Islam, 0.5% are Buddhist, 0.4% are Hindu, 0.3% are Unitarian Universalist, 0.1% are Neopagan (Druids, Pagans, Wiccans, etc), and there are many more small religions, each of whom are followed by fewer than 0.1% of American adults."

Random point, Michael Savage is an extremely biased source. Not that I'm saying his information is incorrect, because I'm not. He's just extremely biased. Kwanzaa may not be a religious holiday, or have been "invented" very long ago, but it's still a holiday and people celebrate it. All holidays had to be made up by someone. If you're going to go that route, Christmas isn't an actual holiday, it was just something some guy made up to give Christians something to celebrate for during December. I mean... were you at the birth of this Jesus guy? If so, you've aged quite well.

I'm not saying we should have freedom FROM religion. I fully respect peoples' right to practice whatever they want. I'm simply saying we should not single out one religion to glorify over the others.
 

"As our population becomes more and more diverse, we have a responsibility to accomodate that diversity. It seems to me that "Holiday" is the best way to do that."
Shouldn't Christians and there holiday be accommodated as well. If it were not for Christmas you would hardly ever hear about Hanukah and Kwanza.
 

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 

Abbie I would like to say that your command of statistics is quite impressive.
 

Christians and their holidays are accomodated. Since "holiday" is a neutral word, is encompasses everyone, not just a specific group.
 

"Since "holiday" is a neutral word, is encompasses everyone, not just a specific group."

No. Just the opposite. Since "holiday" *removes* meaning, it denigrates everyone. Diversity is *supposed* to mean that we accept and value mulitiple viewpoints and choose not to become offended when we see them. It does not mean that we suppress all viewpoints and choose to be offended when we hear any of them.

And, in fact, the secular left is using this as a bludgeon to try to make people of faith, and in particular Christians, ashamed of religious expression. It is stunning hypocrisy.
 

I disagree. That's the basis of my opinion and debate. However, I never claimed Christians weren't a majority.

And now I shall simply say... that I disagree. I have my beliefs and you have yours and we're allowed to have them and that's enough for me.
 

Christmas has always been called Christmas in this country, and it's only because of the politically correct police that it started changing. If we can't keep "Christ" in Christmas, then it's nothing more than a holiday that celebrates consumerism. Americans already shop 365 days a year, so why bother setting aside a special day to honor that?

Besides, this is a slippery slope our country is on. Pretty soon people will be offended by Easter, Ramadan, etc. Whatever happened to tolerance and respect?

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