Great post, I think the whole "war on Christmas" is a joke. Just a way to get the base in a frenzy. I always wonder how to respond to the nice Indian people who own a convenience store that I visit. I guess I should just ask them.

Bravo!  I'm not Christian, but I don't really care if someone wishes me a Merry Christmas.  I just say Happy Holidays back to them. 

But I agree with your post in principle.  It's just not that important to me in every day life to argue with someone over some careless, not-thought-about words.  And I don't do Christmas Cards because I never remember to mail them *grin*.

Two points:

1.  You make some gross generalizations here.  Connecting pro-Christmas with power, discourteousness, excessive consumer spending, and homophobia ... please!

2.  In so doing, you are guilty of the exact travesty for which you blame them.

 

As sifa  says below ... there is no harm done either way if one simply & politely greets in their own fashion.  Tolerance is not the absence of beliefs, but respect for those of different beliefs.  As in most cases, knowledge, rather than silence,  breeds understanding.  Sterilization is not the answer, particularly in the classroom!

I am not advocating that in private conversation each person should be required to use non-specific holiday greetings. I think doing so when encountering someone whose personal beliefs are unknown to you is a polite gesture, but everyone is entitled to conduct themselves as they feel is proper.  However, in the case of a public school teacher sending out cards to her students, I don't think she should be ashamed of her beliefs nor have any undue restrictions on her expression of them in her personal life. But with those whose social relationship with the teacher is solely or predominately based upon the teacher-student relationship, the sending of greeting cards would be most appropriate if sent with a broad, generalized message of good will, rather than emphasizing the specific beliefs of the individual teacher.

You know, a simple litmus test might be to ask yourself the following.

If I send cards saying Merry Christmas am I sending a message inclusive for those who don't celebrate Christmas? No

If I send cards saying Happy Holidays am I sending a message inclusive for those wo do celebrate Christmas? Yes

The former excludes every non-christian and even some christians. The latter includes everyone during the holiday season regardless of traditional origins or cultural differences. If your goal is to truly reach out and send a message of happiness and cheer, why not choose the option that is most inclusive and if you want to promote a spirit of togetherness, why not choose the option that recognizes differences in cultural interpretation of the holiday season and illustrates a respect for those differences? Choosing the option to send the cards that specifically highlight your personal beliefs would seem to me to be sent less in a spirit of comraderie and more an assertive statement, or a spirit of defiance. After all, "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" includes those who do celebrate Christmas. So the only sacrifice you are making in choosing a more general greeting is that you are not allowing the imposition of your specific belief to overshadow an underlying genuine expression of love, togetherness, and hope.

In my post I was specifically addressing those who get extremely bent out of shape and the mention of a department store saying happy holidays or school choosing to keep its holiday activities more generally inclusive rather than limit them to a focus based on one particular religious group's tradition. 

Private citizens can infuse their lives with all the Christmas accouterments they choose and I support their right to do so.
If a private business chooses to put forth a broad message of "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" in recognition of the plurality of our culture, then I support their right also.  Those who want to boycott or make political bluster about such a choice are some of those I am referring to.  Complaining about a private business making a choice to recognize a diversity of beliefs during the holiday season is essentially saying, "I am right in what I believe and if you don't recognize that and only that, I will be angry and try to punish you." 

In the public forum, since we are all equal citizens, no individuals rights should trump another's.  If acknowledgement is made toward a particular group and their beliefs, then any other citizen with another belief should also be recognized, otherwise their beliefs are being treated as less valid.  Since it is impractical to represent every view, it is best to just abstain from involving public institutions in the promotion of particular beliefs, unless it can be done in a way that is clearly all-inclusive. 

Every other house can have all the decorations and nativity scenes and what-not they want (and in some places more than every other house does) and I would support their right to do so.  Every church yard can be filled with images of its mythology and religious symbols galore.  Many do and I also support their right to do so.  Everywhere one turns during this time of year there is religious symbolism and expression of belief.  I would say I support 95% of as appropriate and absolutely within the rights afforded to us.  The asshole factor comes in when it is obvious that expression of personal belief is widespread and usually absolutely acceptable to those who have different views on the holidays, but when one small portion of society is a bit controversial, whether a public school having a "winter break" instead of a "christmas break" or a private business choosing to say "happy holidays" instead of "merry christmas", a certain segment of the population wants to get up in arms and claim victimization and oppression.  Isn't it enough to have nativity scenes, christmas signs, trees, lights, etc.. up and down every block?  It seems that they won't be satisfied until they have blanketed every aspect of society and squashed any other expression or recognition of alternate interpretations of this time of year.