Talk:Happy Holiday(s)

If only on this talk page, can someone explain to me why Christians find "Happy Holidays" offensive? I have no problem wishing my Christian friends a merry or joyous or spiritually meaningful Christmas; indeed, it is a pleasure for me to do so. But surely my Christian friends know that it would be inappropriate and offensive for them to extend the same wish to me. I sincerely want to figure out this "offended" thing. Should Jews be offended whenever someone fails to say "Shabbat Shalom" to them on Shabbat? Slrubenstein  |  Talk 19:07, 4 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Would you be offended if someone wished you "Happy Ritual Observance Day" on Shabbat? - Swag 03:59, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Nope. I would wonder why they are using such clunky phrasing, though.  If they do not want to say "Gut Shabbas" or "Shabbat Shalom" they can just say "Happy Holiday."  From one very technical point of view Shabbat is not a holiday, but I wouldn't mind if a non-Jew said this; I would appreciate the good spirit. Slrubenstein   |  Talk 18:01, 5 December 2005 (UTC)


 * Agreed that it would be interesting to have this idea expanded upon by the editor. Part of the problem may be the lack of common usage of any of these greetings (the article on Merry Christmas suggests that greeting is commonly replied to with the holiday greeting of the responder's choice, inducing the original greeter to reply in kind--something I as an American have never attempted, nor would I expect anything but bemused silence if I did). We are apparently in the process of jettisoning the neutral "Happy Holidays," but we can not rid ourselves of the awareness that as a diverse country, America contains many people who do not celebrate Christmas. Turning a pleasant exchange of greetings into a religious debate does not seem an attractive alternative. Lindmere 20:30, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

Other "Generic" Holiday Greetings?
It would be interesting to know whether there have ever been Christian equivalents to "Hag Sameach" or "Eid Mubarak"--that is, an all-purpose greeting that can be used for any holy day recognized by the faith. Lindmere 03:51, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Name Change
I am suggesting a name change of this article to Generic winter holiday greetings, and it will directly refer to both "Season's Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" rather than simply "Happy Holidays". If anyone disagrees post here, if not, I'll go ahead with the change. PatrickA 23:51, 18 December 2005 (UTC).


 * I'm not disagreeing with the choice, but I believe viewing these greetings as "generic" is fairly recent. Christmas and New Year's are close together, so a wish of "Happy Holidays" can intend both, but is simply shorter than saying "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." Likewise, though I haven't done any research on it, "Season's Greetings" is reminiscent of the Victorian Christmas wish "Compliments of the season." "Generic" seems to imply a bland indifference to the holiday being referenced that I do not think was part of the original usage. Would simply "Winter holiday greetings" be better? Lindmere 23:24, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

New Season's Greetings Section
In keeping with the more general new heading, I added a section for Season's Greetings, though I don't have much info past the fact that it was common on Christmas cards in the 1920s. I also generalized the intro to fit, and removed "in the past decade," as there's quite a bit of evidence that both phrases have been used for quite some time. Christmas cards are well-collected and easy to find, and seem to rebut the notion that either of these greetings are recently adopted P.C. alternatives to "Merry Christmas." Both have been common, along with a host of variants, and referred specifically to Christmas. What seems to have changed is the extension of both to other holidays. If you have evidence to the contrary, by all means include! Lindmere 23:50, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

I think that this is incorrect,


 * It is used as an inclusive greeting during the holiday season around Christmas to those who do not celebrate it, but instead other winter holidays like Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Many people say happy holidays to those who celebrate Christmas as well as the other holidays mentioned. Perhaps this should be changed to,


 * It is used as an inclusive greeting during the holiday season to those who celebrate winter holidays like Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Christmas.

Any thoughts? -b reformatting by ParkerHiggins ( talk contribs ) 07:38, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I concur. I do not believe it is used exclusively by non-Christmas celebrators. Moreoever, as noted in the list of possible uses, it can refer to the Thanksgiving/Christmas/New Year's period, and is often used to address people you don't expect to see again until the new year. Lindmere 17:33, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Proposal for Merger?
User CrazyInSane redirected this article to Holiday. The usual way to do so is to propose the article for merger or deletion according to Wikipedia's deletion policy, rather than summarily redirect it. While this is a seasonal topic that has produced more heat than light, I think the chances of it reappearing next Christmas are high. Lindmere 11:51, 16 April 2006 (UTC)


 * Yeah, this should at least have more input first (unless there was and I just didn't see it yet - I'm still trying to verify that). The main Holiday article links to it, which gave me some confusion when I clicked the link and WP redirected it back to itself for no apparent reason. Stratadrake 21:00, 16 April 2006 (UTC)


 * I think it would probably be the best if we simply merged this page with the holiday page and then put a redirect from here to the actual happy holiday subsection of holiday.