plastic penguin said:
Ahem...
The only reason why I don't wish anyone Merry Xmas is because this forum is diverse, and some may not celebrate Xmas in the way I and others do.
I think everyone would understand that we've been (at the very least) nominally Christian here since around the 6th and 7th centuries onwards and that Christians and non-Christians alike have traditionally shared the customs (if not the underlying beliefs). Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, tree decorations, feasting, presents etc. all have disparate roots going back as far as characters like
Saint Boniface (from Crediton in Devon) and even Martin Luther amongst many others.
A lot of these traditions/customs arrived from Germany directly (courtesy of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria starting middle class fashions originating in their family's native countries) and indirectly like F.W. Woolworth
importing the blown glass baubles he was so impressed by (when travelling in Thuringia, Germany) to America and here in Britain.
You have the home-grown influence from Dickens and the Father Christmas/Santa Claus traditions (from virtually everywhere else in the world) and even the dinner is hardly fixed. (Right now the favourite bird originated in the Americas but it's also been goose for centuries. (It's always beef in this house.)
My point is that even us 'Anglo Saxon, vaguely Christian' brits do ... "not celebrate Xmas in the way I and others do" [sic] so I can't see it really causing any offence. It's a bit of a pick-and-mix (for all but the truly devout Christian believer) and people take whatever bit's of it suit them.
It's always been the way. Show me an era when the people of Northern Europe haven't had some kind of mid-winter festival tradition going on.
If somone is so totally grim, stone-faced opposed to my secular/religious inspired Christmas traditions (including wishing them well) because it offends their beliefs, then they can #### right off! To my mind it'll only be the IS and ultra-left-wing social workers from Tower Hamlets who will be getting in a froth about it.
Merry Christmas.*
* Not 'Xmas'.