We’ve just completed another busy holiday season. From Thanksgiving in November to New Year’s Day in January, the time seems to fly by if you enjoy the family and festivities, or drag out unmercifully if you loathe them.

Which brings me to my latest topic: Is anyone really offended if they are wished a “Merry Christmas”?

Let’s establish at the outset that I consider myself a Christian. I was raised as a Baptist. We attended church at least three times a week. My brother is a Baptist minister. My great-grandfather was a “preacher” (as they called them then) in a Penecostal church. My brother-in-law is a church organist. I have a first cousin that is a missionary church planner. Religion was born and bred into me. But now, as much as the Christians of the world complain, Christmas has become less of a religious celebration and more about the secular holiday of gift giving and festive decorations and parties.

Which brings me back to my question: Is anyone really offended if they are wished a “Merry Christmas”?

If you consider yourself a practitioner of another religion or consider yourself an agnostic or a heretic, are you really offended if the clerk checking out your purchases at the mall says “I put your receipt in the bag, and Merry Christmas”? And if you are offended, does it make it any better if the clerk says “Happy Holidays” instead? After all, you are standing in a store festooned in green and red, with Santa Clauses and snowmen all around. To which happy holiday is the clerk referring, Independence Day?

How about “Season’s Greetings”? Just what season are we greeting, the winter solstice? Maybe I’d better get started addressing my vernal equinox cards.

Wishing someone a “Merry Christmas” has almost become like saying “have a nice day.” Now, some religions teach that if you indeed have a “nice day” it is because God gave that day to you. Does that mean we should no longer wish anyone a “nice day” because some people don’t believe in God-given nice days?

So, I will continue to wish the world a Merry Christmas. If, like some, you attach a religious significance to that wish, that is your choice. If you choose not to recognize the Christmas Day holiday in any significance, be it religious or secular, then “have a nice day”. That is, if you aren’t offended by that.

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