[onetwo_threefour]

^^^ Absolutely. Frankly, if I wish you a Merry Christmas, I'm being somewhat fake, if you think that's what really mean. What I really mean is that I hope you have a good holiday with your loved ones some time in the next few weeks, since I don't believe in God and have no reason to celebrate the alleged birth of his Son. I am as likely to say Happy Holidays as Merry Christmas, but why should I presume to know what holiday tradition you celebrate when I give you a greeting? My view is that people should offer the greeting that refelcts his/her cultural or religious tradition and anyone who doesn't like it should get over him/herself. I don't really care whether schools and government offices use Merry Christmas as a greeting since I think the view is pretty widely held that Christmas has become more cultural than religious in this day and age, but I certainly don't object to a school attempting to be sensitive to the reality that many of its students will not relate to Christmas and removing it from the 'program' is quite justifiable in my opinion.

EDIT:

BBS, Not knocking you personally, but I hate the 'it's just semantics' copout. Wars have been fought over less and the meaninglessness of the difference in terminology to you does not necessarily translate to everyone else. Of course it's semantics. I'm a lawyer that deals with contracts all day long and 90% of my job would be dismissed as 'semantics' by a lot of people, but those meanings of words and phrases can have huge impacts on people's lives. The fact is that the efforts of a school board/administration to 'appear' culturally sensitive are relevant even if you see the distinction as meaningless. It says something about what our public system is supposed to be even if we still have a way to go to get there. As I said, I am with you in that I don't care about the terminology personally, but I don't object to the efforts to be inclusive as per your post below.