Every year around this same time of December, when the weather has officially gotten cold and the days have grown shorter; people start preparing for the holiday season. For many of us the holidays can be a hectic time: preparing mounds and mounds of food, shopping for gifts, and arranging to spend time with family members and friends, but for many all of the stress and work is worth it to be able to celebrate however you’re accustomed to.

December is a month full of different holidays to celebrate all over the world like: St. Nicholas Day, Christmas, Hanukkah, Day of the Virgin Guadalupe, Winter Solstice, Boxing day and more. All around the world there are people celebrating their respective holidays with loved ones and friends. So why is there such a controversy over the phrases “Happy Holidays” and “Merry Christmas”?

For starters, the politically correct term to use, especially when speaking with people you are unfamiliar with, but interacting with, is “Happy Holidays”; it's all-inclusive! It allows you to address people of all races and ethnicities and wish them a happy and exciting holiday season. If you work in retail or in the restaurant industry then you are definitely familiar with quick small talk and goodbye messages as customers enter and leave. So why are there so many people that want to overthrow such an inclusive phrase with only saying “Merry Christmas”?

Having the phrase of “Happy Holidays” was never put in place to make people feel bad about wishing others a Merry Christmas, it was deemed as PC so that everyone could feel included in the celebrations of the holiday season. For those who follow president elect Trump and his promises know that he has deemed it okay for “Merry Christmas” to be the wide and solely used phrase during this time of year. But one big fact that I think people who support this message forget or are choosing to ignore is that “Happy Holidays” is not and will not be used to put down those who celebrate Christmas, but it is used to lift up those who do not, to show people of all religious backgrounds that we, the people of the United States are aware and tolerant of whatever holiday you choose to celebrate.

While the world around us is going through: global warming, wars, drought, limited resources it seems irrelevant to me to think that people are fighting against saying “Happy Holidays”. As the progressive world that we claim to be today I have hope that regardless of our new president and some supporters deem it okay to ignore the celebrations of others and only use Merry Christmas, that people are still able to use their good judgment and follow the conscious decision making process to address people as a whole, and enjoy the holiday season! If these comic book characters can do it I think that us humans can as well, SO HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE OUT THERE!