Happy holidays? Women fight to preserve traditional greeting

They have received
enough donations
for four billboards.

By DON SHILLING

VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR

The Grinch couldn’t stop Christmas from coming, but some area woman worry that political correctness just might.

“Happy Holidays” is stealing the religious significance of the season, they fear.

“To say ‘Happy Holidays’ is taking Christ out of the season. This is the season of Christ — his birth,” said Joanne Brown of Poland.

For many stores, banks and restaurants, however, “Happy Holidays” has become a convenient way to express good wishes without taking sides on questions of faith.

But the greeting has irritated Brown and four friends for a long time. This year, they decided to let everyone know they prefer another holiday greeting.

They paid to put these messages on area billboards:

U“I miss hearing you say Merry Christmas. — Jesus,” says a board on U.S. Route 224 in Canfield.

U“Why have you stopped saying Merry Christmas? — Jesus,” asks a board on U.S. 422 in Niles.

“It’s Christmas,” said Brown, a member of St. Christine Church in Youngstown. “It’s been Christmas in the dictionary. It’s Christmas on the calendar. It’s Christmas. Just say it.”

Turns out, Brown and her friends — Pat See of Canfield, Linda Bennett of Niles, Judi Hanna of Boardman and Laurie Kramer of Youngstown — weren’t the only ones bothered by the generic greeting.

These women paid $1,750 to have their two messages up for a month and then started fundraising. After just a few weeks, they had raised enough money to pay for those two billboards plus two more.

Two Merry Christmas pleas are being put up on billboards on South Avenue in Boardman for two weeks for about $1,000.

Despite concerns such as these, retailers are in a tough spot, said George Hageman, a sales representative at Do-Cut True Value Hardware in Canfield.

“You have to be politically correct. You don’t want to offend anyone,” he said.

That means many Do-Cut customers will receive a generic greeting, he said. But if the customer is known to a clerk or initiates a “Merry Christmas” greeting, the clerks most likely will respond with a Christmas greeting of their own, Hageman said.

Sue Stricklin, a spokeswoman for Home Savings and Loan Co., said it’s clear that “Happy Holidays” has become the greeting for much of the business world.

“You have to be respectful that there are many different ways that the holidays are celebrated,” she said.

In corporate communications, the Youngstown-based savings and loan uses “Happy Holidays” or “Season’s Greetings.” Stricklin said tellers normally use the generic greetings as well, although they aren’t instructed on what to say.

Representatives for two national chain stores also said there is no scripted holiday greeting at their stores.

John Vallinger, manager at Circuit City in Boardman, said sales representatives typically don’t use any holiday greeting when someone enters the store or their department. Instead, they try to be helpful in finding out what the customer needs, he said.

At the check-out, clerks can say whatever they are comfortable with because there is no policy, he said.

“We don’t discourage anyone from saying ‘Merry Christmas,’” he said.

Wal-Mart lets its employees decide how to leave a parting holiday wish, said Kory Lundberg, a corporate spokesman.

“If it’s ‘Merry Christmas,’ that’s great, or ‘Happy Holidays’ or ‘Season’s Greetings.’ It’s up to them,” he said.

A year ago, Wal-Mart admitted that it made a mistake in previous years by eliminating the word “Christmas” from its marketing.

Starting a few years ago, religious groups and conservative talk show hosts criticized Wal-Mart and other national retailers for eliminating or de-emphasizing “Christmas” in their advertising and store displays.

Lundberg said Wal-Mart now features the word prominently in its stores. Garden centers, for example, have been temporarily renamed “Christmas shops.”

Although these companies say clerks have discretion in using seasonal greetings, Brown said she believes that isn’t the case everywhere.

She said the event that finally persuaded her to take action happened in a local bank a year ago. Brown said she wished a teller “Merry Christmas,” and the teller whispered the greeting back.

“I asked why she was whispering, and she looked around and then said, ‘We’re not allowed to say that,’” Brown said.

Brown said the only criticism that the women have heard is that the billboard money could have been better spent, such as buying food for the poor.

“We feel we are addressing the poor — the poor in spirit,” Brown said.

She added that the women intend to spend all of their donations this year and then start over next year. Donations are being accepted at Merry Christmas Billboards, P.O. Box 175, Niles, OH 44446.

“We’re happy, but we want this to be bigger and better next year,” Brown said.

shilling@vindy.com