Is it happy holidays, merry Christmas, best of the season…what are we supposed to say?

By Laura Bohnert

Merry Christmas—wait, Happy Hannuka? Happy holidays? A festive greeting to you during this season of many events? Happy commercialization of definitive religious moments? Happy Festivus?

We’ve all been there. Whether you are saying a farewell over the phone to a client or are passing a familiar face in the grocery store, it can be tricky to figure out which greeting to let roll off your tongue in that split-second encounter—and most of us probably feel like we’ve picked the wrong one at the wrong time—but is there a wrong way to spread that synthesized holiday cheer? Is there a generic greeting we should be saying during the holiday season, or are we destined to remain trapped in the limbo of seasonal awkwardness?

The reality of the debate comes down to an acknowledgement of the over-encompassing dominance of Christianity. Christmas, in its fundamental religious sense, celebrates the birth of Christianity, and the problem with only passing along greetings that acknowledge Christmas is that it serves to reinforce an extensive background of religious violence and oppression.

Saying “Merry Christmas” completely overwrites a variety of other cultural celebrations that take place during the same time, further endorsing the dominance and preference of Christianity.

And it isn’t just a quick slip that overlooks one or two other fundamental religious traditions; there are a number of other holidays taking place over the Christmas season that tend to get overlooked—by seasonal greetings as well as the designation of holidays that enable people to celebrate their faiths.

For instance, the Jewish Festival of Lights, or Hanukkah, takes place over 8 days of the Christmas season, beginning on the 25^th of the Hebrew month Kislev. Islam celebrates Ramadan, which sometimes also falls over the Christmas period, recognizing the month God revealed the Koran to the prophet Mohammed. African Americans celebrate Kwanzaa for seven days, beginning on December 26 and celebrating a heritage that is a product of a union between two worlds. December 25 is celebrated as the birthday of the Hindu god, Krishna, and the Greek god of light, Mithra. Wiccans celebrate the annual Tree Festival, which predates the Christian era.

There are even a few more obscure celebrations, including the Festival of the Ass, Madmen, and even Festivus.

Of course, unless we decided to take the ugly Christmas sweater trend to the next level by stitching onto it the faiths we each personally celebrate, it can be a little tricky to look at someone and decide that we should say Happy Krishna, Happy Kwanzaa, or Happy Hanukkah instead of Merry Christmas. Not to mention, for the majority of Canadians, as those who participated in a recent poll suggest, “Merry Christmas” more closely identifies complacence with a consumer culture than a religious ceremony anyway.

However, while many have decided that switching to “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings” over “Merry Christmas” is a bit extreme, it can’t hurt to be mindful of the fact that you might be overlooking an important piece of someone’s cultural identity, seating them in a pew they may just feel a little alienated by, with that innocent “Merry Christmas.”

But if switching to “Happy Holidays” isn’t the answer, then maybe the solution is as simple as asking people what they will be celebrating. Instead of lumping everyone into an anonymous, generic, and somewhat awkward greeting, maybe we could learn a little more about what our neighbours, colleagues, friends, and even bus-stop strangers are celebrating. It might help make the world feel a little more connected—and isn’t that what the holidays are really about anyway?