Do we all freak out when Andy Williams, Perry Como, or Bing Crosby sings "Happy Holidays"? A Christmas Tree is a Christmas Tree. A Menorah is a Menorah. Happy New Year is pretty obvious. Merry Christmas is a wish to someone who observes the holiday to have a Merry Christmas. And sometimes "Happy Holidays" is simply a wish from one to another for happiness throughout the stretch from Thanksgiving, through Christmas (or other holiday), as well as New Years and not a "War on Christmas".

PG correctly observes that Merry Christmas is a wish to those "who observe the holiday." Shouldn't people therefore reserve that particular wish for those they know actually observe Christmas as a holiday? For those people whose religious affiliation or practice you don't know, saying Happy Holidays would seem more polite, since we pretty much all observe one holiday or another this time of year at least in the Western world (the New Year if nothing else) even if we don't observe Christmas.

I prefer Merry Christmas, to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I am not offended by most other holiday celebrations.

I wish our Gov.Chafee,A Merry Christmas and hope he has many gifts
under his CHRISTMAS TREE.

Chafee merely continued to use state house wording that was already in place.
Personally, I use the term "Happy Holidays" because I know people who celebrate other types of non-Christian holidays during Nov-Dec. I have more important things to get annoyed by than the term "holiday tree". it is actually a perfectly valid description of that type of tree. Now let's worry about more important things like, peace on earth.

I say "Merry Christmas" to my Christian friends and "Happy Holidays" to friends/people who I know or suspect may not celebrate the holiday. I also say "Happy Holidays" to conservative republicans because it's fun to watch smoke come out of their ears.

Thank you, 5th Warder. That's the approach you should be taking. I also hope that if you don't know for sure if the person observes Christmas (e.g., you're in retail dealing with customers you don't know) you err on the side of inclusiveness by saying "Happy Holidays."

To the person who wrote we should say Merry Christmas simply because that holiday has been around for a long time (a jab at Kwanzaa, perhaps?), by your logic we should all be wishing each other a Happy Hanukkah, since the event celebrated by that holiday occurred 160 years or so before Jesus was born. (And I can only hope you know Jesus was not born on Dec 25; that date was picked arbitrarily in the 4th century for reasons that are readily found on-line.)

I say Merry Christmas to every one . There's nothing offensive about wishing some one a merry time on the holiday called Christmas. If people could get over the PC. rhetoric we might find peace .