Given the season, I’d like to reflect on the “Merry Christmas-Happy Holidays” dispute, and about why people get so upset about the widespread use of either greeting. Sociologist of religion Peter Berger once said that the US is a “nation of Indians ruled by Swedes” where Sweden is the world’s least religious country and India is the most religious. The idea is that American social elites tend to be much less religious than just about everyone else in the country. If this is true, it helps explain the controversy (for now let’s define “elites” as the 100,000 most socially, financially, aesthetically and politically influential individuals in the country).

Supporters of “Merry Christmas” have the sense that the US is still by and large a Christian nation and that people know this and should deal with it even if they aren’t Christians. No one is forcing people to act in a Christian way; “Merry Christmas” just a kind way for Christians and non-Christians to wish one another well. But then why do so many people get upset at the use of “Happy Holidays”? I think it’s because Christians have a sense that they’re losing the culture because American elites often express open hostility not merely to public expressions of faith but to having faith at all (particularly academics and popular left-wing intellectuals). Christians don’t see themselves portrayed in popular culture, and when they are, they’re misrepresented as mean or stupid or crazy. So they feel left out, even persecuted at times, by our “Swedish” rulers. They often insist on “Merry Christmas” because it is a way of defending themselves against perceived exclusion and holding on to what they have lost.

Strong supporters of “Happy Holidays” however, see the vast “nation of Indians” and feel left out, even culturally oppressed. Christians are everywhere and in some cases they’re quite socially aggressive about their faith and sometimes cannot see their cultural “privilege.” “Happy Holidays” is a way of including non-Christians in our social practices and resisting what is regarded as Christian cultural hegemony.

So both the “Swedes” and the “Indians” hold to their norm because they feel marginalized and excluded by some powerful sector of their society. In this way, both “Merry Christmas” and “Happy Holidays” have become stand-in terms for a desire to feel respected and socially included.

Now, of course, most people don’t really care either way. They so just go along with whatever is least likely to upset others. But I think I have partly explained why some people care so much about whether you say “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays.”