• flicker
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    902 years ago

    I’m white. I have blue eyes. And when I was young, my hair was red. I was working retail, and this old lady said “Merry Christmas.”

    Me: “Happy Holidays!”

    Her: “It’s Merry Christmas. I know your boss doesn’t like it, but you should say it to me. So Merry Christmas.

    Me: “Are you Christian?”

    Her: “Yes.”

    Me: “Well, I’m not. So Happy Holidays.

    She got so stunned, like I’d slapped her. I was quite ready to get called in for being some kind of way with a customer but I guess she was too afraid of dealing with a heathen. Still, if you’ve ever worked retail, you’d know why this felt like a victory.

    • @Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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      02 years ago

      Still, if you’ve ever worked retail, you’d know why this felt like a victory.

      No idea mate, worked in retail for decades and no idea what you’re on about. But then I never lived in a country full of mentally ill people 😂

      • @ChewTiger@lemmy.world
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        12 years ago

        Yeah, I don’t think “mentally ill people” only exist in specific places or that specific areas are “full” of them. I mean, I know for sure at least one deranged person lives in your area.

        Also I highly doubt you truly worked in retail if you never experienced a customer like this. If you did, you must have been lucky and in an extremely high end store.

        People are the same everywhere in the world, no better or worse than anywhere else. Which is kinda great IMO.

  • @jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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    512 years ago

    People that say this are so silly.

    You’re not being oppressed. It’s just that saying merry Christmas to a crowd of diverse backgrounds is like wishing your mum a happy fathers day. She won’t be mad or offended, she’ll just think she should have breastfed you.

    • @black_rain@lemmy.world
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      142 years ago

      Or telling someone “happy birthday “ when they’re in a group of people who aren’t having birthdays themselves. Only a three year old would get upset that they’re not included.

    • @Wrrzag@lemmy.ml
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      32 years ago

      Maybe it’s different in the US and other cultures, but as an atheist I’ve never seen the phrase as a very religious thing. I say “merry Christmas” and “happy holidays” indistinctly and I’ve never seen anyone offended by the use of either, independtly of their faith (or lack thereof).

      I say “merry Christmas” on the actual Christmas day though.

      • @jol@discuss.tchncs.de
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        22 years ago

        No one is offended besides the hardcore Christians. No muslim or orthodox Christian or whatever would be mad if you wish them merry Christmas if that’s the thing where you both live. As always, it’s fake fabricated outrage.

  • @Yamainwitch@lemmy.world
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    382 years ago

    I have a neighbor just like this who INSISTS this is a Christian country and it’s Christmas break not WiNtEr break. Satan’s greetings from ya main witch! ✨🥰

  • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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    2 years ago

    True story…

    At work in my department they told us we can put decorations in our (at home!) office but to try and stay religiously neutral. Meanwhile in my friend’s department (same employer) they got an email to wish employees a happy Easter back in April, happy Mawlid (celebration of Muhammad’s birth) back in September and happy Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah in October…

    I’m an atheist so I don’t celebrate any of these things and to me holidays should just be spread equally to give people long weekends, but I can’t help but laugh at the hypocrisy when it comes to Christmas compared to all other holidays through the year…

    • GrayoxOP
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      212 years ago

      That’s honestly refreshing to hear that your friends department encouraged them to celebrate multiple different religious holidays. There shouldn’t be any problem celebrating religious holidays as long as they are all given equal considerations and the company doesnt play favorites.

      • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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        102 years ago

        To me anything religious should be treated as such, something private that has nothing to do with your workplace and only secular holidays should exist considering holidays are imposed by the government and there’s supposed to be a separation of religion and State (in my country anyway), but I know my opinion on this subject is pretty extreme.

        • @can@sh.itjust.works
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          62 years ago

          The holidays we have are so commercialized they hardly feel religious to me. Christmas and Easter are just times to spend with family, nothing to do with Jesus.

          • Flying Squid
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            22 years ago

            What annoys me, and I’m Jewish ethnically but I’m an atheist, is the commercialization of Hanukkah. It wasn’t even a major Jewish holiday. People just decided, “well, it’s near Christmas and they used to give raisins. Good enough.” I mean just make up a new holiday or something.

          • @Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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            22 years ago

            Then people should have no issue with them being moved around so the holidays are equally divided throughout the year, right? There’s no importance to them happening on the specific dates they do at the moment, right?

  • Vincent Adultman
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    152 years ago

    like I am gonna say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas. The guy in the $4,000 suit. COME ON!

    • @WaxedWookie@lemmy.world
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      92 years ago

      The man on the TV said people would get angry at me for saying merry Christmas - the guy in the $6,000 suit - COME ON

  • Rosco
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    142 years ago

    I prefer to use the real term, not the christian knockoff. Happy Saturnalia everyone!

    • @ItDoBeHowItDoBe@lemmy.world
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      42 years ago

      I think that is is important to note that there is very little real evidence for Christmas being taken from saturnalia. You can google christmas and saturnalia and come up with plenty of web articles, but looking at the actual history of it makes it pretty clear. Christmas takes place around the same time of saturnalia, sure, but that does not make it a Christian stab at replacing it. Saturnalia was traditionally observed between the 17th and 23rd of December, not the 25th. It was a 5-7 day festival, not a one day festival. Additionally, the church is said to have gotten the 25th by taking the day John’s father was told he would have a son (shortly after the day of attonement), the new testiment statement that Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant when Jesus was conceived, and adding 40 weeks to the end for the average pregnancy. This would put Jesus born in late December. This general time line was documented as being calculated as early as CE 200s.

  • I work with people in three different time zones. There is always someone having a flower festival, religious day or national holiday. Nobody gets offended for forgetting a holiday or if they did they don’t last long.

    • GrayoxOP
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      102 years ago

      Blasphemy, we celebrate Hondadays in this houshold!!!

      • kase
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        62 years ago

        Absolutely not. Those commercials should die and be erased from history. Let them fall into the inky black chasm of oblivion.

        (I really hate those commercials.)

        Merry Chrysler! :D

        • GrayoxOP
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          82 years ago

          At the very least make it a Lexus December to Remember Sales Event!

          • kase
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            52 years ago

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