Yep, the latest theory is that Jesus was born in September. Back in the day people speculated March, but now they're all saying it's September! They're probably all wrong - I expect he was born in June! ;D But hey, like the Queen, he has an 'official' birthday!

@Estella: I didn't think Jesus had an official birth record. When he was alive, he simply wasn't an important enough figure for government officials to keep records on. At least, that's coming from various college professors I've had. Evidence of his birth is shaky at best, and the stories in the New Testament attributed to Jesus could actually be the work of several different people, if they weren't stories just lifted from other religious texts.

@Lady Anon -- Exactly.. most of what is in the Bible about his birth comes years and years after he died, when the ones who wrote about his birth weren't actually around.. It's stories, at best. The only one that was written around the time of Jesus that may be some what truthful is Gospel of Mark, as he was alive during the period that Jesus was -- and his is no where near as 'magical' as the other Gospels. The Gospel of John talks about Jesus healing the sick, bringing the dead back to life, etc. In the Gospel of Mark, there is simply no talk of this, and it's generally just a "Be a good person, have faith, believe, treat others as you'd want to be treated, etc".. Sorry. On a tangent here. LOL

Lady Anon, no, he doesn't - by 'official birthday', I was being a bit silly, comparing him with the Queen. The Queen's official birthday, as you'll see if you click on the link, is a random day that has been chosen to celebrate her birthday, and is not the actual anniversary of her birth. She has two birthdays - her real one and her official one! Hence, 25th December, being the official day chosen to celebrate Jesus' birthday, could be seen as his official birthday.

Pretty much! Lol

I thought the phrase Happy Holidays was used to encompass not only the different December holidays, but also the time frame from Thanksgiving to New Years. It makes a lot of sense. And December is often when folks "go on holiday." They don't "go on Christmas." Christmas is one day, and on Christmas it would make sense to say, "Merry Christmas," but it seems a little preemptive to say it before. And what would you say on December 26th? "Merry Christmas" no longer seem applicable. So "Happy Holidays" seems the perfect thing to say!

I don't really care about Christmas trees being called Holiday trees either. Does it really matter? Is the nature of that tree intrinsically changed because it is called a Holiday tree? No. Move on. Worry about more important things.

Of course it doesn't really matter, but that's just it- If it doesn't *really* matter, why change it at all? It seems to matter a great deal to someone (or a whole group of someones), who then feel entitled to 'make changes' that effect the lives of everyone else, however minimally. If they can't 'just move on', why should anyone else?

I will admit that you address so many general groups of people that I don't know who you are referring.

To whom does it matter a great deal? What "changes" are made that affect the lives of everyone else?

And anyone else should not base their actions and decisions on the actions and decisions of others. Just because someone else isn't moving on doesn't mean you shouldn't move on. But then again, I'm not sure who isn't moving on in your example and who anyone else is.

And to bring it full circle, if it really doesn't matter, then the decision to change it (whatever "it" is) is either arbitrary or done to make more money. It's done for the benefit of whoever made the change.

Still talking about the same group, actually. The ones that feel that "Merry Christmas" and "Christmas trees" are offensive, so they changed the phrase and the name to "holiday tree" in public places so as not to offend anyone. And like I said before, that doesn't effect our normal daily lives. We're only forced to conform if we work in places like that (lest a customer complain and we lose our jobs).

Do you really think business owners find the terms "Merry Christmas" and "Christmas tree" to be offensive? It seems much more likely that they are trying to appeal to all people and make money. In the service industry, you are catering to the consumer. Being PC is all about making money. I'm not sure how not saying "Merry Christmas" in the work place is any different from not saying curse words. It's just the rules. Conforming in the work place is not a new concept.

You can be mad at your work place or your boss, but ultimately they are doing what is best monetarily. They are conforming to the wants of the customer. Customers prefer Happy Holidays and Holiday trees (as suggested by the HUGE success that is Target at Christmas time).

@WC: I agree with this.

It also allows me to segue into Christians trying to paint themselves as some sort of oppressed minority in this country simply because they're not allowed to harass people with their religious views anymore.

How's that for a religious discussion?

It is only a vocal minority that are painting themselves as oppressed, but to spread such negativity surrounding the holiday seasons seems downright retarded as a scheme to "spread the word." Such negativity only puts people on the defensive. A good ad campaign uses catharsis to bring in people. It's why all cancer kid ads show those cancer kids smiling.