Holiday/Christmas card question

tdmklm

Ok, this is coming out of the epitome of overreaction that was an email I received from a friend this morning (about how there's a war on Christmas, etc). We always do Christmas cards and, now that we have a LOT to say (mainly because of J), we are considering doing a letter - though that second part is totally beside the point. Back on track: do you feel in any way offended, if you're in a tradition other than Christian, when you receive a card that says Merry Christmas? And for those in the Christian tradition: do you feel at all peeved if you receive a card that celebrates another tradition?

I figured I'd ask you all because you're a great sounding board (no pun intended - ha!). We receive Chanukah cards and Kwanzaa cards and Chinese New Year cards (we have a diverse bunch of friends, what can I say), and we're always happy to be remembered, not pissy about not sharing the tradition.

Thoughts?

2moms2twins

I kinda have a lil issue when people know that I am Jewish and still send super religiousy cards.... like over the top prayer and pictures... That being said I married a GOY ( non Jew term in yiddish )  so  xmas cards are fine ...

We had a issue similar- I want to send out Hannukka cards but felt that some of her fam may be upset by this  so we used to send both Hannukka cards and X mas cards ( this was PRE BABIES) we resolved it by sending out NEW YEARS CARDS...and honestly we put lots of time and effort in making designing and shooting our card that i was a lil annoyed that it gets placed in with a ton of other generic cards ( oh i sound like an ass- SLIGHTLY YES ) but we always write a pretty personal note on the card also ... so I think it gets the attention it deservs as a New Year card.  HOWEVER, POST BABIES no idea i wanna send all my fam a Hannukkah card with the Girls and also do a X mas card for all our xmas peeps LOTS OF WORK ... and lots of stamps...  we will prolly do what we did in the past and make it a LOVE card with a LOVE Saying and Happy Holidays .. exapmle pic of us and a caption like all you need is love ... or Seasons of love something like that ... or MERY HAPPY CHRISTMAKKAH is kinda funny .. Better start working on it .... (YELL DOWN HALL.... MELANIE>.......)

- J 

2brides

Well, I am probably not the best person to ask since 1) little offends me and 2) we celebrate (commercial) Christmas. But because a large portion of our card list is Jewish, we do choose not to send a card that specifically say "Merry Christmas."

This is timely since I have spent the day combing through card sites and it seems there are more MC cards this year than in years past and I am having a hard time finding holiday cards that fit our picture configuration (plus I like a lot of the MC cards better.) But L and I talked about it this morning and because of the demographics of our friends we're sticking with generic.

tdmklm

J, you NEVER sound like an ass. Your situation is exactly what I mean! I don't want to have to create multiple cards, but at the same time I want to be respectful. I would never ever ever send a super-religious card to someone in a different tradition, or at all for that matter. Not my style. Side note: I received a card in Hebrew once - errrrrrr, thanks? But even then, I thought it was friggin' hilarious! I wasn't mad at all. I LOVE the Merry Happy Christmakkah idea. If I steal it but send you one, would that be ok?

ctbride08

I'm not offended by anyone sending me any holiday's wishes. If someone wants to think of me and include me in their celebration - then yay.

But for my own cards (DW's fam is Jewish, mine is Christian), I will either send out both hanukkah and christmas cards, to the applicable families, or i will just go with a generic 'happy holidays' or similar greeting.

tdmklm

Thanks, 2brides! We're pretty religious (K a great deal more so than I am), so saying Merry Christmas feels natural and important in some ways (but not so important we would want to insult people). Hence the question about the offensiveness level since I'm with you - it's sort of hard to offend me, so I don't know if I'm being my usual shoulder-shrugging self or if there's a reason to be offended in there somewhere. (I can see what J said about being annoyed about a super-religious Christian card.)

tdmklm

ctbride08:

I'm not offended by anyone sending me any holiday's wishes. If someone wants to think of me and include me in their celebration - then yay.

Thanks, CT - my feelings exactly.

tdmklm

Thanks, tmm!

leapgirl8

I love getting cards in the mail around the holidays, and I don't give a fig what's on them. I'm agnostic and believe that Christmas is not quite "all things to all people," but at least "most things to most people." Yes, it's a religious holiday. No doubt about that. But we also have some undeniably important secular traditions around Christmas in this country, and I didn't feel the need (not even a little bit) to stop celebrating Christmas when I finally admitted to myself that I was agnostic. Christmas cards, Hanukkah cards, Kwanzaa cards, holiday cards, New Years cards - Yes, Please!

Meegs10.13.06

I just loved getting cards in the mail... so you can send me one that says, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannakah, Joyous Kwanzaa, or Fun Festivous for the Rest-of-us and I'll be happy!!

As far as what we send... I will sometimes do Happy Holidays and sometimes do both Christmas and Hannakah. This year we got our cards piecemeal because I won 25 free cards from a blog giveaway, and we both used a gift code to get 15 free cards from RiteAid, then I bought the last 15 (yes, we have a HUGE card list)... so we have 25 Christmas cards, 15 Hannakah cards, 15 Happy Holiday cards, and 15 of a different kind of Christmas card. LOL!

hlke

Like most others, I really just enjoy getting the cards.  But since our list is very multi-cultural and I am not religious, I usually try to send a "Peace on Earth" card with a winter theme.  My sister is Muslim and does get a little overwhelmed/annoyed with how much Christmas stuff is in your face during the holiday season, and she happily accepts cards from people, but is less gracious when people give christmas-related stuff to her daughter, unless they've also acknowledged Eid.  Her logic is she wants Eid to be a bigger deal in her daughter's life than Christmas, and that's hard with how much involuntary Christmasing seems to go on.

lethalmermaid

ctbride08:

I'm not offended by anyone sending me any holiday's wishes. If someone wants to think of me and include me in their celebration - then yay.

This exactly!

mandykatie

To be completely honest- we usually give a little eye-roll to the overtly religious (i.e. Christian) holiday cards we get because it feels preachy.  That being said, I'd rather get that card than no card!  We do "Happy Holiday" cards or "Peace on Earth" cards because they seem more inclusive (IMO). 

I guess I need to keep in mind that by sending "those" kinds of Christmas cards, people are just trying to include us in their holiday, not make us feel like heathens

ball.and.chain

Since we don't have kids and don't really feel like sending photos of ourselves to people, we send regular old cards from the store rather than anything custom -- which means I just pick two different sets of cards, one set that says Merry Christmas and one set that says Happy Holidays (or peace or whatever).  We have quite a few Jewish friends but I am not sure how many of them actually actively celebrate Hanukkah -- some are married/partnered with people who are not Jewish and I'm not sure whether the family celebrates both or one and which one it is, some are more religious than others, etc -- so I avoid buying Hanukkah cards.  We also know people who were raised Christian but who seem like they might lean more toward celebrating the solstice or some other non-Judeo-Christian celebration, and I prefer to send a generic "Happy Holidays" rather than tell them to enjoy something they don't celebrate.  The "Merry Christmas" cards go only to people I KNOW celebrate Christmas -- my family, her family, etc.  Honestly I would probably just get HH cards for everyone but I inevitably see a MC card I really like and then buy the HH cards to supplement as needed.  When we have kids I'd like to send photo cards, and I'll probably pick one-greeting-fits-all holiday cards so I don't have to do more than one.

Both of us were raised Christian (me Episcopal in a not-very-religious family, DW Catholic in a fairly religious family), but are not religious now (I would identify as an atheist now and DW would probably say she's agnostic).  However, we both love Christmas -- I hate to say the "commercial" version since I hate the over-commercialization (?) of it, but the secular, family-tradition parts of it.  That said, it doesn't bother me to hear "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" -- to me it means, "Enjoy celebrating the holiday(s) you celebrate" which for me translates to a Christmas tree and cookies and stockings.  I get lots of generic HH cards and lots of MC cards; I wouldn't mind a Hannukah card or Kwanzaa card though I celebrate neither.  I do sometimes get a little annoyed when I get super religious cards with Bible quotes from people who know I am very much not religious, but I try to remember they're picking a card that reflects their own beliefs and has nothing to do with me.

2moms2twins

tdmklm:

J, you NEVER sound like an ass. Your situation is exactly what I mean! I don't want to have to create multiple cards, but at the same time I want to be respectful. I would never ever ever send a super-religious card to someone in a different tradition, or at all for that matter. Not my style. Side note: I received a card in Hebrew once - errrrrrr, thanks? But even then, I thought it was friggin' hilarious! I wasn't mad at all. I LOVE the Merry Happy Christmakkah idea. If I steal it but send you one, would that be ok?

 

for sure on the Merry Happy Christmakkah ... We did not coin it i think it actually came from the show OC (GUILTY PLEASURE OF MINE) Steal away - It looks cool in crazy font and colors like red green and blue and white n purple !

Thanks for the  i'm not an ASS... hahah I am very opinionated but i think i have tamed it down since the girls came along they have softened me a bit ... 

- ENJOY and You canjust send me a E card its cheaper so make sure you scan a copy !!!!

- J

tdmklm

Thanks, everyone!

TaylorandMel

I believe ours have said Happy Holidays, but I have no problem sending one that says Merry Christmas.  I think people should send whatever they want.  We believe Christianity is the way, but it's not for us to say about what other people have chosen/believe, to each his own.

Just getting a card, no matter what background it comes from is nice.