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The War has Broken Out Again! War on Chrismas Trends in America

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Christmas shoppers pass a sale sign on Oxford Street in London, Monday, Dec. 22, 2014. Shopping streets in London were crowded during the buildup to Christmas day on Thursday.
Which one do you say; Happy Holiday or Merry Christmas?
Every year at the beginning of December some Americans engage in a ridiculous rhetorical ritual that recycles righteous arguments about whether people should say to one another Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas. This question is one skirmish in the broader cultural and political battle that come under the heavily ladened frame of the 'war on Christmas.'
Retailers large and small that had tossed “Christmas” and embraced the generic exhortation ‘Happy Holidays’ in advertising and in-store promotion are becoming Christmas-friendly again. The ability to tap into the massive increase in consumer spending during the pre-Christmas period can mean the difference between survival and bankruptcy for many retailers, so connecting with the Christmas gift-givers, or at least not alienating them, appears to have produced a shift in strategy.
The battle of “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays” is feistier than ever this year. Maryland schools recently changed their “Christmas Break” to “Winter Break.” Texas lawmakers signed a “Merry Christmas Law” that protects the phrases “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Haunukkah” in the state’s public schools. Even major retailers across the country are taking a side, Gap’s a “Merry Christmas” kind of store, whereas stores like Barnes & Noble, Family Dollar, and Pet Smart proclaim “Happy Holidays.”
On the surface, the debate seems irrational. Why would the choice schools, stores or people make to use “Merry Christmas” or the more politically correct “Happy Holidays” mean so much?  The answer lies, as always, in the power of words. When you choose to utter the words “Merry Christmas,” you are secretly endorsing the Christian agenda. A Pew research study conducted last year found that 46 percent of Americans don’t care what seasonal greeting they receive, with 42 percent preferring Merry Christmas but this is still a major issue.
Atheists would not take Merry Christmas from you. My Atheist friend was the first to email me saying, “Happy Holidays.” I replied, “Yeah, that is Christmas.” He did not write me again.
But if the "War on Christmas" was a real thing, Neil deGrasse Tyson just won it with an etymology knowledge-bomb.

Let's start with the fact that there are several holidays that fall during December including Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice and the newly minted secular HumanLight. They all would like, and deserve to be acknowledged and respected. So this brings us to the Merry Christmas vs Happy Holiday debate that is not complicated and is solved with basic etiquette. If you know someone is a Christian who is celebrating Christmas you should say to them 'Merry Christmas.' Likewise, say 'Happy Hanukkah' to a person you know is Jewish, etc.
Conversely, if everyone shifts to using “Happy Holidays,” how will we remember what holidays we are actually celebrating? Who’s to say that I am not simply lazy and am actually wishing you a Happy Easter, Hanukkah, Christmas and/or Fourth of July? Plus, consumers might begin to forget that Christmas is coming, despite department stores’ helpful displays of Christmas decorations that they put up immediately after Halloween. If the word Christmas becomes taboo, how will stores stay afloat?

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