Monday, December 1, 2008

Felicitous Salutations for the Winter Celebration

It’s that time of year again, the hectic time between my favorite holiday (Thanksgiving) and the most over-commercialized event in any society at any time in history (Christmas). What started out as a religious celebration of the birth of Jesus, has become another way to make a buck. Now the holiday returns to its non-Christian origins, though not its pagan ones. No, now the religion is “PC-ism”. Want something entertaining to do this year? Keep track of how many store clerks greet you with the PC “Happy Holidays” or the religiously “unacceptable” phrase “Merry Christmas”. Some stores have policies telling the clerks which to use. However, I have never found one as bad as this one.

5 comments:

adrienne *+*(^_^) +*+ said...

Good post.. I work in retail so this hit home. We are supposed to thank our customers for shopping in our store.. the end.. I tell them to have a happy holiday also only because I know we have quite a few people that celebrate hanukkah. I did hear someone say Merry holidays..now that was strange.

Peter L said...

Greetings, Cousin!

It is sad that your employer will not let you use your first amendment right at the expense of offending a customer. Is this the USA or some atheistic dictatorship?

Anonymous said...

Strangely, I really don't care what a clerk at the store says to me, or doesn't say to me, at the end of the transaction. Absent rudeness, what I am most interested in is paying for what I have bought, leaving the store, and getting about my business as expeditiously as possible.

Peter L said...

Thank you, anonymous poster. Don’t feel like you must hide, as I will not bite.

I agree with you that it does not matter what the clerk says. My beef is the rampant PC-ism that makes this an issue in the first place. No one has the right not to be offended. We Americans are getting thinner skin so that soon, public conversations with strangers will be non-existent due to the threat of speech police hearing something deemed offensive.

(Are those black helicopters I hear?) [/sarcasm]

Hannah said...

LOL!! I'm glad the retail store I work at hasn't told me what/what not to say! Thank you for "provoking mirth." =)