They sometimes play it on my radio station during December.And NO ONE ever plays Snoopy and the Red Baron! Ever! That's my favorite Christmas song. Even more so than Weird Al's 2 classic holiday hits.
I thought the whole atmosphere was insane, so on my way out the door, I stood at the exit, and screamed at the top of my lungs, "MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYBODYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I almost got arrested for disturbing the peace.
So much for Wal-Mart and their Yuletide cheer.
When I was 11, I would say "Happy Christmas". I have no idea why, but I just did. This was the December of 2013 that was more about Mega Man to me than it was about the holidays. On the last day of school before winter break (this was 6th grade), my teacher told me that people say "Happy Christmas" in the UK. Later on, sixth grader me posted to Facebook an Elf Yourself video I made (we were watching a kid in gym class use the app on his phone), and guess what I said? Yup. "Happy Christmas." "From Danielle Otaka" -- the name I went by online back then. The first year of middle school was insane.Well... as far as someone actually saying to you, "Happy holidays" instead of, "Merry Christmas," I would at least give them the benefit of the doubt on that one man... I mean, how does that person know what holiday you celebrate? It probably cuts down on a lot of awkward little moments where we have exchanges like this:
"Merry Christmas!"
"Um, I celebrate Hanukkah, I'm Jewish."
"Oh, sorry."
So, yeah, as far as that's concerned, I think that's just cutting down on going through those little to-dos.
But yes, you're right, in some cases, the word "Christmas" (and yes, nativity scenes) can be offensive, and in this day and age, it's safe to keep one particular group of people happy as opposed to others. Apparently, it's better to remove religious references to avoid offending irreligious people than it is to keep religious references in to avoid offending religious people.