What's wrong with "Merry Christmas"?

[Carol]

Alla:
> 
> Where is the proof that americans are afraid to name it? I see quite 
> the contrary so far. If respecting other people holidays is being 
> equaled to being afraid to name Christmas?
> 
> Carol earlier:
>  Christmas trees have become holiday trees; Christmas stamps have
become holiday stamps (even though Hanukkah and other holidays have
their own stamps); Christmas cards have become holiday cards. It
started with the supposed separation of church and state preventing
kids from singing true Christmas carols (but not "Jingle Bells" or
"Santa Claus is Coming to Town") in schools. Now some schools are
afraid to put up Christmas trees for fear of offending the four to six
percent of children who don't celebrate Christmas.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Supposed separation of church and state?
> 
> But in any event I do not know what are you talking about. Super 
> intendent in my building and in many buildings in NY put up 
> Christmas tree, Chanukia, put up Merry Christmas, Happy New year 
> greetings, etc. What fear? What opression of Christians? As I said I 
> am very well aware of oppression of christians in other countries, 
> but in the USA? I would like to see some links.

>Carol earlier:
> <snip>
> Your [Susan's] right to your religious symbols is being threatened,
but so is the Christian majority's right to put up Nativity scenes,
which have long been banned in public places (since the 1970s, I
think?), but now are vandalized if they appear on someone's lawn.
> <SNIP>
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Links please about vandalizing nativity scenes? I mean, I am sure it 
> could have happened somewhere sometimes even in the US, but are you 
> saying it is happening on the regular basis? <snip>

Carol:
I'm speaking mostly from my own experience. When I was a school child,
we sang Christmas carols (the religious ones) along with "Jingle
Bells" and songs about Santa Claus. Now the kids can't do that, at
least not in the public schools where I've attended Christmas concerts
recently, because it supposedly violates the separation of church and
state. (At the most recent concert, Christmas was represented by a
skit on the Grinch and a song about Santa getting stuck in the
chimney. There was also an Aesop's fable about a peacock and a
Hanukkah song about dreidls (sp) even though Hanukkah was over with at
that point. No "Silent Night" or anything identifiably tied to the
Nativity story. Not even "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," which
mentions God.

In Flagstaff, Arizona, where I grew up, the city used to put up a
beautiful Nativity scene beside the train depot every year. It was
vandalized in the 1970s by people who objected to a religious display
and has not been put up since. And how long has it been since you've
seen a Nativity scene in a mall or store (other than the small ones
being sold to put up inside people's houses--I've very few in people's
yards in the last twenty years). 

Until about ten years ago, people, including store clerks, wished each
other Merry Christmas and thought nothing of it. The greeting was
warmly given and warmly received. No one had heard of a holiday tree,
holiday card, holiday stamp. Now store managers order their employees
to wish customers "happy holidays," a meaningless generic greeting.
I'm not going to wish you a happy holiday today, Alla. That, to me,
would insult the holiday you hold dear. I wish you a Happy New Year's
Eve tonight and a Happy New Year tomorrow and all year through. It's a
specific holiday you care about, and I'm sure you don't want it to get
lost in the mishmash that makes every day from Thanksgiving to New
Year's Day "the holidays" in the U.S. I haven't decided whether the
desire of merchants to make a profit or political correctness is more
to blame, but the loss of specific holidays, each with their own
identity and significance, is, to me, a sad loss.

Carol, who does not have time to search for links because she's
supposed to be working but for now will provide this link to an
article on a similar topic on Ben Stein's website:

http://www.benstein.com/121805xmas.html