@irascible yes but those are not names for christmas. "whatever you celebrate" i would not have questioned, but "whatever you call it" means call christmas. you may certainly wish someone a merry saturnalia (and i will gladly wish it back upon you -- and there is nothing wrong with occasional appropriate cheekiness or even rudeness!) but you won't be using another name for christmas. i'm being tough on you, my friend! that's just how i am -- picky picky picky! but i can't help it. i'm a stickler for... something or other.

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Some people (many, particularly in the US, it seems to me), prefer the bland, meaningless word ‘holidays’, to the actual, culturally significant name of the day. Fair enough. It just doesn’t work for me. I was being subjective; I don’t actually care about what terms, if any, other people use. I was merely acknowledging that they do.

@KevinTwining "holidays" doesn't mean christmas. it means christmas, chanukah, kwaanza, solstice, new year's and whatever all else is celebrated in this general time frame. it may sound bland to you but it is inclusive and "christmas" is specific and excludes everything BUT christmas. the fact that people say it on cards that show red and green and santa and reindeer does erode that quality but it's still the intention. if it doesn't work for you, fine, but it isn't what you say it is.

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@genessa I didn’t say it was anything other than bland. Which, to me, it is. I’m referring only to christmas - if I was including anything else, I’d say so, and what it was.

@KevinTwining to clarify: you said happy holidays was meaningless and bland. you said people prefer it to naming the day (by which i assume you meant christmas). i explained that people don't necessarily use it for christmas, that it is NOT meaningless, it has a meaning and i explained the inclusive meaning. i don't think you understood what i said and i have a feeling you didn't quite understand what you yourself said either.

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@genessa I fully understand what I meant, and was clear about it. I have no personal, cultural knowledge or experience of any other contemporaneous ‘festivity’. I was referring solely to christmas as that is the only one that has any relevance to me. I was wishing happy christmas to those in the same mindset. Everyone else can take care of themselves - they’re not my concern, and can call it whatever they want. It’s irrelevant to me.

Anything else you want to have a dig at, in your own, inimitable and condescending way?

@KevinTwining i may be inimitable but i am not condescending, nor was i digging at anything or anyone. if you feel condescended to, or dug at, by someone's disagreeing with you, and expressing that (gosh, someone disagreeing and expressing it, in a forum, wow, how dare anyone!) then maybe you have a little self-esteem problem. that, though, isn't MY problem, since YOU are irrelevant to me, and yes, that's a dig. i don't need to be addressed as you are addressing me. when you make something personal that shouldn't be, you make yourself irrelevant to me. BYE.

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