The War
A covert and deceptive war has been waged on Christmas to remove any mention of it from the public square during the Christmas season. During the past several years, and with great effectiveness, we have observed a consistent and relentless move to culturally pressure merchants, businessmen and individuals to remove the words “Merry Christmas” from their advertising, decorations and promotional materials.

The festive atmosphere of the past that surrounded the Christmas season in department stores which energized shoppers, supported their culture and tradition, and excited them to select just the right gift for friends and family for the Christmas celebration has been severely diminished. For many, the atmosphere has become offensive and devoid of any meaning.

Our Goal
The primary goal of the Committee to Save Merry Christmas is to preserve the culture and tradition of the vast majority of Americans that celebrate and honor Christmas. Christmas is a nationally declared federal holiday that has been observed from the inception of our nation.

In the past several years, the term “Merry Christmas” has been deliberately and intentionally excluded from major retailers like Federated Department Stores. The words “Merry Christmas” have been deliberately and intentionally removed from their decorations and advertising. Taking their place are non-celebratory phases like “Seasons Greetings” and “Happy Holidays.” When did it become offensive to display or say, “Merry Christmas”?

This intentional and deliberate exclusion of “Merry Christmas” in the Federated Department Stores advertising and decorations is extremely offensive to the culture and tradition of Americans who honor and celebrate Christmas.

Each Christmas season, every kind of decoration, advertising gimmick and sales promotion is hoisted upon the general public by Federated Department Stores directing the public to purchase their merchandise for the Christmas celebration...all the while never mentioning the word, "Christmas." This deliberate and intentional exclusion of “Merry Christmas” by Federated Department Stores with substitute un-celebratory phases is thoughtless, condescending and hurtful.

http://savemerrychristmas.org/index.html

They are upset because Federated uses the more universal "Happy Holidays" instead of the more specific "Happy Christmas". Because when you celebrate the birth of your saviour by buying tonnes of consumer items you want to know why you're doing it.

Instead of realising that xmas is little more than a reason to spend large quantities of money of stuff you don't need and any sort of religious nature of the holiday is gone, they get annoyed because they don't realise that "Happy Holidays" is a phrase devised not to minimize the importance of xmas, but to attract more customers to the xmas buying frenzy.

Also note that they're wrong- xmas has NOT been nationally observed from the inception of your nation, it wasn't a national holiday until after the Civil War.

Besides, Happy Holidays fits a greetings card better than Happy Thanksgivingchristmashannakahkwanzanewyearsday. the s at the end of holiday implies plural, as in multiple holidays.

Evo, on many points you are correct but I find your comment about Christmas having no religious conotations anymore to be, well, frankly, stupid.

For millions of folks, if not billions around the world, Christmas is indeed more than a shopping spree. Which is why our churches are filled to overflowing on Christmas eve midnight services with people praying in earnest as they realize the fruit of advent and are moved to faith by the reality of God incarnate.

I assure you that the religious nature of the holiday is far from gone except in the hearts of those who don't care about the holiday in the first place. Just because you don't believe in God don't assume that the rest of us have given up on God as well. I rewalize you are cynic and a skeptic and hold little hope for the purity of religious practice but that's your own baggage, don't unfoist it on the rest of us as if it was "gospel" truth across the board.

Now this case is just silly. They have completely mischaracterized common intentions behind the use of phrases like "Seasons Greetings" (which has been around for ages) and "Happy Holidays" (which is also not a new thing). What I see here is that victim complex that seems so pervasive among many in the right wing. They say it is a deliberate and calculated removal of "Christmas" from public mention calculated to foment a fundamental disrespect of Christianity and its role in American culture, but it is nothing of the sort. Rather than representing a disrespect of one specific religion, it rather represents a widening respect of multiple views on the various holidays of the winter season. I don't think there is anyone who does not envision Christmas as being part of the package when they hear "Happy Holidays." This really is nothing more than a few disgruntled folks who are peeved at Christianity losing its exclusive hold on the winter season, an exclusivity it never deserved to hold in the first place. Christmas (the Christian version, not the secular version, I mean) is one of many winter holidays celebrated by Americans from all walks of life, it is neither the oldest nor the youngest of those, and none of them deserves to be lauded to the exclusion of all the others. That is what phrases like "Seasons Greetings" and "Happy Holidays" are intended to convey, not to make followers of one religion feel unwelcome, but rather to make followers of several religions, worldviews and traditions feel welcome.

Consumerism has been defined as the new religion of Christmas by Dell deChant, chair of religious studies at the Univ. of South Florida, in his book The Sacred Santa. He makes a compelling case comparing religious archetypes to commercial merchants. For example, the shaman or ritual leader would be the salesperson, iirc, and similar meta narratives guide both typical religions and frantic shopping culture.

It's funny because the early Puritains had laws against the observation of Christmas because of the self-evident fact that it was a pagan holiday. Come one folks, mistletoe, evergreens, wreaths, a holiday so close to the winter solstice, etc, etc. (I don't really have to go into it do I?).

[honest- though tongue in cheek- moment]Sorry, Christians, that's what you get for stealing all the pagan party days for your depressing religion.[/honest- though tongue in cheek- moment

The reason had more to do with the Mass than the Christ. They were wary of any thing that smacked of papism.

Originally posted by EvoUK

It's funny because the early Puritains had laws against the observation of Christmas because of the self-evident fact that it was a pagan holiday. Come one folks, mistletoe, evergreens, wreaths, a holiday so close to the winter solstice, etc, etc. (I don't really have to go into it do I?).

That's true, the entire reason they put Christmas in the Winter Solstice was because while it was the new Official Roman Religion, that time was already a holiday for many pagans, and in order to take away their thunder, they said Jesus was born at the time, when the fact that the Bible spoke of shepereds checking their flocks at night would seem to mean it was in the spring.