If someone says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas", I think it's important to note that they are still extending a friendly greeting and they're being nice. To me, I value inclusion. I might tell someone Merry Christmas, or I might tell them Happy Holidays, or Best of Season .. whatever I decide to say at the moment.Again, all of it is a friendly greeting, and whatever the words are chosen by someone else to say to me, I recognize it as friendliness and appreciate the gesture. I will
never be offended by that.
I don't think there's a war on Christmas. I think some people react far too negatively to the concept of "politically correct." In fact, I think the irony here is that it's politically correct to complain about being politically correct.
Rather, I see the whole "Happy Holidays" effort as being about inclusion and respect. But on the flip side, I've never known anyone in my whole life who was ever offended by being told "Merry Christmas" even if they themselves were not exactly of the Christian faith or whatever. All my friends always just appreciated the gesture of goodwill and friendliness (see paragraph #1 above). If your experience has been different then maybe you just need to meet nicer people!!
Or you know what, make the choice to truly own the values you want to represent, and lead by example.
Just be nice to each other. It's really not that hard.
Peace out! And Happy Kwanzaa to all.