I’m white. I have blue eyes. And when I was young, my hair was red. I was working retail, and this old lady said “Merry Christmas.”
Me: “Happy Holidays!”
Her: “It’s Merry Christmas. I know your boss doesn’t like it, but you should say it to me. So Merry Christmas.”
Me: “Are you Christian?”
Her: “Yes.”
Me: “Well, I’m not. So Happy Holidays.”
She got so stunned, like I’d slapped her. I was quite ready to get called in for being some kind of way with a customer but I guess she was too afraid of dealing with a heathen. Still, if you’ve ever worked retail, you’d know why this felt like a victory.
Hopefully you’re young enough that you didn’t have to deal with the christmas cd on repeat
Young enough? You realise that’s still what they play in stores where people work retail?
Well they don’t have CDs anymore, so how would they repeat the music?
Good grief, did this really need a /s?
I worked in a video arcade in the 90s and we had a 1-hour VHS tape on repeat showing on TVs all over the arcade featuring recent music videos, cartoons, etc. That Christmas, ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ came out and it was on that tape. I heard that song every day of December, 8 times a day, 40 times a week, 160 times that month in total.
I hate that song so much more than everyone else does.
Still, if you’ve ever worked retail, you’d know why this felt like a victory.
No idea mate, worked in retail for decades and no idea what you’re on about. But then I never lived in a country full of mentally ill people 😂
Yeah, I don’t think “mentally ill people” only exist in specific places or that specific areas are “full” of them. I mean, I know for sure at least one deranged person lives in your area.
Also I highly doubt you truly worked in retail if you never experienced a customer like this. If you did, you must have been lucky and in an extremely high end store.
People are the same everywhere in the world, no better or worse than anywhere else. Which is kinda great IMO.
People that say this are so silly.
You’re not being oppressed. It’s just that saying merry Christmas to a crowd of diverse backgrounds is like wishing your mum a happy fathers day. She won’t be mad or offended, she’ll just think she should have breastfed you.
Yeah, I say Happy Holidays to someone I know who obviously doesn’t celebrate Christmas.
Also, it is weird for conservative Americans to be offended not greeting “Happy Christmas”, when the migrant ancestors of modern Americans did not celebrate it as a holiday until more recently. Protestants thought celebrating Christmas is a Catholic abomination. Look how tables have turned and acting hypocritical as always…
Or telling someone “happy birthday “ when they’re in a group of people who aren’t having birthdays themselves. Only a three year old would get upset that they’re not included.
Back in the day, Christians would build churches on ground that was holy to other religions, and invent Christian holidays on the same day. So imagine you’re a mediaeval pagan, it’s time to celebrate the solstice, and you go to the sacred grove where the local goddess likes to hang out. And the trees of the sacred grove have all been cut down and used to build a church in their place, and the Christians welcome you in and say “merry Christmas”. Well, it’s still the only way to pay respect to the goddess, so you go in, and you do your traditional ceremonies, and you bring your kids so they can learn the traditions. And ten years later your kids are celebrating Christmas and they’ve forgotten all about their own culture.
That’s why Christmas was invented. Christmas was invented so you could say Merry Christmas to other religions and steal their heritage.
Maybe it’s different in the US and other cultures, but as an atheist I’ve never seen the phrase as a very religious thing. I say “merry Christmas” and “happy holidays” indistinctly and I’ve never seen anyone offended by the use of either, independtly of their faith (or lack thereof).
I say “merry Christmas” on the actual Christmas day though.
I have a neighbor just like this who INSISTS this is a Christian country and it’s Christmas break not WiNtEr break. Satan’s greetings from ya main witch! ✨🥰
First time I’ve heard someone upset over calling it “winter break.” People are wild
True story…
At work in my department they told us we can put decorations in our (at home!) office but to try and stay religiously neutral. Meanwhile in my friend’s department (same employer) they got an email to wish employees a happy Easter back in April, happy Mawlid (celebration of Muhammad’s birth) back in September and happy Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in October…
I’m an atheist so I don’t celebrate any of these things and to me holidays should just be spread equally to give people long weekends, but I can’t help but laugh at the hypocrisy when it comes to Christmas compared to all other holidays through the year…
That’s honestly refreshing to hear that your friends department encouraged them to celebrate multiple different religious holidays. There shouldn’t be any problem celebrating religious holidays as long as they are all given equal considerations and the company doesnt play favorites.
To me anything religious should be treated as such, something private that has nothing to do with your workplace and only secular holidays should exist considering holidays are imposed by the government and there’s supposed to be a separation of religion and State (in my country anyway), but I know my opinion on this subject is pretty extreme.
The holidays we have are so commercialized they hardly feel religious to me. Christmas and Easter are just times to spend with family, nothing to do with Jesus.
Merry Christmas!
