Merry Christmas vs Happy Holidays

By Adam  |  9 Dec 2015 10:00:00

During December, some businesses say "Merry Christmas" and some businesses say "Happy Holidays" and to a lot of people, it doesn't really make much difference at all. They're just two slightly different phrases which essentially mean the same thing. But to other people there is a huge and significant difference, because there is actually a large ongoing political debate about which phrase is the best to use. If you're not really familiar with it, then I'm going to go over it in this blog post and hopefully that will help you to decide which is best for you to use.

On the "Happy Holidays" side of the debate, there are people who say that "Merry Christmas" ignores the beliefs and holidays of different religions and different cultures. The concern is that to wish somebody a "Merry Christmas" is to impose Christianity on them, since Christmas has strong ties to Christianity. They say that "Happy Holidays" not only includes Christmas in its sentiment, but all other winter holidays as well, meaning that it shouldn't really cause offense, because it is all-inclusive.

Meanwhile, on the "Merry Christmas" side of things, there are Christians who believe that it is important that their holiday be directly acknowledged, as well as people who think that Christmas has strayed so far from its Christian origins, that saying "Merry Christmas" does not impose Christianity at all. Some see "Happy Holidays" as being a case of needless political correctness, because many non-Christians celebrate Christmas anyway and so aren't going to be offended if they see a business acknowledging it.

Both sides of the argument have fair points and I hope that gives you a clear idea of the debate. If you're not convinced that anybody really cares that much about this kind of thing, just look at the controversy caused by Starbuck's festive red cups; they were just changed to red and seemingly harmless, but many viewed it as an attack on Christianity. Ultimately, it's possible that your customers won't mind one way or the other, but it is still something to be conscious of! Whatever you do, I hope your eCommerce website will enjoy a boom in business this December, and if you don't even have an eCommerce website yet, sign up to Sellr now and get started for no cost at all!