While working away at my desk this week I overheard the following conversation and couldn’t help but chime in:
Coworker 1: “You know, this political correctness has just gone too far! You will never guess what my daughter came home saying!”
Coworker 2: “What’s that?”
Coworker 1: “She came home telling me what day school will start back after ‘Holiday Break'”.
Coworker 2: “Oh, yeah?”
Coworker 1: “Holiday Break!?! Can you believe that? I told her, ‘Baby, don’t you ever let anybody take Christ out of Christmas. This is Christmas break and when you hear somebody call it Holiday Break, I don’t care if it’s a grown up, you need to correct them and let them know what this holiday is about!!'”
Coworker 2: “Yeah this War on Christmas is really getting out of hand.”
Coworker 1: “She said, ‘I’m sorry mama, I didn’t mean anything by that. I know it’s Christmas Break’. I just can’t believe they’re calling it that at school.”
Me: “Well, doesn’t the school break run through New Year’s day? I mean, they don’t go back to school until after New Year’s Day, right?”
Coworker 1: “Sure, they’re out of school for almost three full weeks.”
Me: “Wouldn’t that make it a Holiday Break since the break encompasses the holidays?”
Coworker 1: :/puzzled
Me, half smiling: “This has truly gone too far! Do you have some kind of jihad on New Year’s Day?”
Out From Under the Umbrella 
December 23, 2013 at 6:47 am
You go girl!
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December 23, 2013 at 8:10 am
Even when I was a Christian I never understood what the big deal was about wishing people “Happy Holidays”. Jeez…
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December 24, 2013 at 12:02 am
I second that emotion 🙂
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December 23, 2013 at 10:04 pm
Love it!
Really, some people just need to lighten up. I don’t get all bent out of shape when someone wishes me a Merry Christmas. Heck, I still wish people a Merry Christmas!
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December 30, 2013 at 9:36 am
Me too, TWF. That’s what it is, isn’t it? Christmas. I may be an unbeliever, but I’m not so thick as to not realize what is being celebrated by the majority of people around me. I do not have a holiday tree, either. I put up my Christmas tree just like everybody else.
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December 30, 2013 at 9:03 am
It doesn’t personally bother me as a conservative (politically and religiously) to hear Happy Holidays or Holiday season. The part about it that does bother me is when Happy Holidays is used “because we dont want to offend anyone”. Or schools fear litigation. That to me says “Christian holidays are offensive” and that seems more offensive than saying Merry Christmas — which in my experience has offended no one.
You can ask this next time: As a Christian, do you expect unbelievers to act and believe as believers?
Regardless, I try to take holiday greetings in the spirit with which they were offered. And while taking the word “Christmas” out of the public vernacular, there are things worse.
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December 30, 2013 at 9:32 am
Thanks for your comment, John. I just don’t see it as that big a deal either way. I wish people a Merry Christmas when I’m specifically talking about Christmas. Sometimes I wish people Happy Holidays when I’m talking about the season, which encompasses several holidays in one greeting. I don’t find Christmas or the spirit thereof offensive.
I plan to get over to your blog and read up a bit later so I don’t really know where you’re from or what stance you take on things other than what you’ve stated above. In my part of the world, which is the deep south, the school isn’t very afraid of litigation. They aren’t taking Christ out of Christmas. They’re calling it a holiday break because, well, that’s what it is. Down here there’s some kind of imaginary war on Christmas. The Christians here would have no idea, really, what that even looks like. In the public schools all over the children sing traditional Christmas hymns, and perform nativity plays. Those of us who are unbelievers are in the extreme minority and we don’t make a big to-do over these things.
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December 30, 2013 at 9:47 am
Well, there is a pushback on Christmas. I wouldnt call it a war. People describe it as a war because of policies such as banning the colors red and green because they are associated with Christmas, policies restricting the greeting, policies prohibiting use of items that make one think of “Christmas”.
its not everywhere but it happens in trickles. Organizations like FFRF and the ACLU file suits and threaten expensive litigation so schools, townships, and cities just remove the term Christmas because they just dont want to fight.
I would say “Holiday Break” would be accurate and should be socially acceptable when Hanukkah coincide. Otherwise it’s a stretch, since most people dont consider New Year’s Day a holiday in the same vain, But it’s nothing to get too ruffled about since there are other things one could put their energy into that’s more worthwhile.
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December 30, 2013 at 9:58 am
I would agree with you that there is some pushback, though not really in my locale. I think there is a distinguishable difference between seeking equality and waging a war. As an agnostic I find some of the FFRF and ACLU law suits actually detrimental to the cause of equality.
Mostly what I find is that non-religious people don’t want their children required to perform religious activities as part of their public education. Having their child treated as equal, although in the minority, isn’t a wrong thing.
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December 30, 2013 at 9:59 am
Agreed.
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