[BC] Merry Christmas!!!!

[Donna Halper]

>Ernie wrote--
>
>I would consider it kind that they sincerely cared enough of me as a 
>person to extent heart felt kind wishes. Verses the watered down "Happy 
>Holidays".

Well, I guess it is all a matter of how you look at it.  Many of us believe 
it's wrong to ASSUME that everyone celebrates Christmas, and for us, being 
respectful and tolerant means saying Happy Holidays-- as my colleague John 
Carroll pointed out in the Boston Globe the other day, the word used to 
mean HOLY DAYS.  So, it is not a "watered down" greeting to me-- it's a 
sincere wish that whatever you celebrate, it should be both happy and 
holy.  That having been said, let's not have another bout of "language 
wars"-- there is way too much of that in the culture.  When I know for sure 
that a person is Christian, I wish them a Merry Christmas, but if I don't 
know, I wish them a happy holiday season.  And there is nothing intended in 
my greeting other than a sincere wish that everyone should be HAPPY at 
this, or any other time of the year!    (Hey maybe Seinfeld was right-- 
maybe we all need one common holiday... like Festivus!!!)