What's wrong with "Merry Christmas"?

[sistermagpie]

>   Steve said:
> > It seems to me that in a world that is not run amok with
> > political correctness, I, who does celebrate Christmas,
> > would uniformly say to others 'Merry Christmas', and they
> > would respond in accordance with their own holiday tradition.

Magpie:
That's odd. To me, at least. To me it's always been the other way 
around. I've never lived in a part of the US where I assumed everyone 
celebrated Christmas, so it was more natural to wish the correct 
holiday to the correct person. Like at the Jewish New Year I wish 
Jews Happy New Year, not the other way around. If one makes a mistake 
about the holiday somebody celebrates it's not a big deal, but the 
goal would naturally be to just wish somebody the holiday they're 
celebrating.

Sadly, we just had a local incident where people got on a train 
yellng "Merry Christmas" and when they were answered with "Happy 
Hannukah" they attacked! 

Happy holidays is a great, handy way to greet somebody if you don't 
know, imo. Though it far pre-dates the whole argument about it. It 
used to mean Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's--and still does as 
far as I know. Which is why I find it bizarre when people talk about 
it as being part of a "war" on Christmas, as if not being greeted 
with your specific holiday is some sort of insult to your holiday 
(unless you're a non-Christmas celebrator, in which case being 
greeted with somebody else's holiday should be just fine!).

-m