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The grinch has stolen every greeting!


dubone

How often have you gotten a greeting specific to the season (even Happy Holidays)  

33 members have voted

  1. 1. How often have you gotten a greeting specific to the season (even Happy Holidays)

    • All of the time
      4
    • Most of the time
      11
    • Sometimes
      13
    • Rarely
      3
    • Never
      2
  2. 2. Do you prefer holiday greetings or not?

    • I like only Merry Christmas
      5
    • I welcome any seasonal greeting
      26
    • I don't like any seasonal greeting
      2


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Not only did the grinch steal Christmas, but he also stole Hannukah, the New Year, and every other holiday, and any variant of greeting specific to this season.

I did a lot of Christmas shopping today, and all month. I went to dozens of chain stores at the mall making purchases. Not a single store rep said anything other than 'bye' when the transaction was complete.

Now, I recognize that there are non-Christians shopping this season, and that there are other holidays. I'm not even expecting a 'Merry Christmas'. I would be quite happy if a jewish store rep said 'Happy Hannukah' to me. I'd be happy with 'Season's Best', 'Season's Greetings', 'Happy Holidays', 'Happy New Year', 'Happy Kwanzaa', 'Wonderful Winter', 'Feliz Navidad'. I'd be perplexed, but still happy with 'Vrolijk kerstfeest', 'Joyeux Noel', 'Nollaig chridheil', 'Sung Tan Chuk Ha', 'Pozdrevlyayu s prazdnikom Rozhdestva', 'Kala Christouyenna', 'Froehliche Weihnachten', 'Jai Ganapati' ...anything!

There is a reason that people are causing an exponential increase in sales this month. It would be nice if the representatives of these chain stores recognized that it isn't just some normal time. I believe it is yet another reason to support independent stores where some boring lawsuit-wary policy isn't passed down from some head office in Cleveland banning all greetings.

If the friendly greetings are going to be going away, then please just put away the tacky tree's with the color's of the company's clothing lines, and the uber-generic santa figure.

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:). You are granted a reprieve, Norm.

I would probably attribute it to personal choice in all of the cases if it were more randomly distributed (although I do accept that others might be having a different experience than me). I tend to believe it is simply store policy at all of these places to not say anything. At minimum, the people who might have given a greeting of personal choice are not feeling free to say it.

Well, this thread seems to be a non-starter because most of you guys seem to have gotten greetings. Out of curiosity, where have you shopped?

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Given that Christmas started as an event of Pagan worship that was shunned by Christians, into an event for mass consumerism created by US retailers using the excuse that we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, then Merry Christmas is a greeting of hypocracy at the highest levels. It's got false idols, - Santa Klaus, trees decorated with symbols, rituals - black friday shopping, excessive consumption and drunken behavior, and endless expectations that lead to resentments, depressions and even suicides. The unsuspecting is lost trying to re-create that Norman Rockwell painting that doesn't exist in real life. Christmas is the greatest event of mass hysteria ever seen by mankind.

Trapped in the system.

My advice is to use the greeting with those you think will appreciate it. :silly:

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When I managed a locally owned retail store in Charlotte, the standard saying we gave to customers who made a purchase was have a nice holidays. If I knew for certain someone was christian, I would say have a merry christmas. I don't know what other stores did, especially chains, as far as policy, but I agree that it's nice to have some seasonal cheer :) Of course, here in Boston, getting a "bye" is a minor miracle.

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Feliz Navidad will forever be one of my favorite sayings. Such a happy ring to it. What is that long Hawaiian holiday greeting?

I've heard Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas since before Thanksgiving I think. If I don't hear it I don't think I notice too much.

I wonder if the lack of interest in holiday greetings might be a result of being bombarded from mid-November on with decorations, sales, lights, shows, and everything else that has become excessive with the season? We watch news reports that give holiday sales numbers -- implying that good sales equate a good holiday season and low sales are bad indicators. I personally have been in a better holiday mood this year than in the past few...dunno the reason, maybe just the season! :)

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I am so offended :angry::lol: I am Jewish but I don't mind if people wish me Merry Christmas, I just smile and say Thank You. I think it would be more rude to correct them. That being said, during my shopping rounds this season I have not heard one salesperson say Merry Christmas. Call me overly PC if you must, but I also have no problems with hearing Happy Holidays.
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That's true that Christmas timing was chosen to be a Christian alternative to Roman Saturnalia. Yul is still used, even in English to refer to Christmastime, in reference to the pre-Christian winter soltice of pagan nordic tradition.

I'd even be happy with a Saturnalia or a Yule reference. I'm not the Inquisition, testing people's Christian orthodoxy. I just am concerned that in our culture's attempt to please everybody in a diverse society, we are reverting to simply doing nothing.

I think celebrating diversity is more about being okay with people saying stuff, even religious references. It annoys me slightly when people say 'I'll pray for you' in response to some tough subject, but it is still a genuine expression of their own faith. For the same reason, I believe people should say a greeting based on their own faith. Merry Christmas from Christians, Happy Hanukah from Jews, Jai Ganapati from Hindus, and so on (including the Hawaiian :) ). Saying nothing by 'bye' is fine from people who really don't believe in any of it, but I think that is generally a minory of people.

The media is stuck covering things like how Happy Holidays is bad (where, I think most mainstream Christians don't take offense to that, as it recognizes holiness of the days), that they they don't seem to mention that uniformity takes away from every one.

Anyway, apparently, I am the only one that seems to have not gotten a single Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas, or anything else, at the stores I've been.

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