Has “Merry Christmas” been banned in favor of “Happy Holidays”? Fact Check

Messages and rumours claim that the term “Merry Christmas” has been banned, in favour of a more generic and “religious friendly” alternative of “Happy Holidays”.

Many such rumours claim that the term has been banned or actively discouraged because of “political correctness” while others claim that the term has been banned because it “offends” either immigrants or Muslims.

Such messages represent one branch of the multi-faceted “War on Christmas”, which inevitably resurfaces during the latter part of every year, and which promotes the idea that the culture of Christmas, or sometimes specifically the Christian values surrounding Christmas, are being diluted or prohibited as a consequence of multiculturalism.

The issue with the “War on Christmas” argument, however, is that many of the claims that support this notion are vague, misconstrued, exaggerated, or simply made up. And the assertion that “Merry Christmas” has been banned would certainly fall into one of those categories.

For instance, the below message which has spread prolifically on social media for the best part of a decade –

WHAT A CROCK OF BULL….. We can’t say Merry Christmas now we have to say Happy Holidays. We can’t call it a Christmas tree, it’s now called a Holiday tree? Because it might offend someone. If you don’t like our “Customs” and it offends you so much then LEAVE. I will help you pack. They are called customs and we have our traditions If you … agree with this… please post this as your status!! IT’S MY FREEDOM TO SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! Do you have what it takes to repost this? I did, and I will continue to say “Merry Christmas”.

This breathless message simply makes the vague claim that “we can’t say Merry Christmas now”, yet fails to provide any context or sources to back up the assertion. Instead, the message relies on a much tried-and-tested template of simply claiming something has been banned or prohibited because it “offends” someone else, and asks the reader to blindly trust in that assertion.

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But is our recent history really littered with incidents of either immigrants or Muslims complaining about others using the term “Merry Christmas”? Are there ample cases of either immigrants or Muslims going on record to insist those in their vicinity use the term “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”? Are either immigrants or Muslims rising up to try and ban the term “Christmas Tree” in favour of “Holiday Tree”?

With all of the above, supporting evidence or specific incidents are notably lacking. So much so, that the claim that Merry Christmas is being banned or prohibited appears to be rendered to an absurd assertion; an assertion only used to rile up those who’d prefer to believe social media chain letters than research the truth for themselves.

Of course, none of this is to say that many businesses or brands may encourage their staff or representatives to use the more demographic-friendly term “Happy Holidays”; which surely would be an act of good business sense – appealing to a high a number of potential customers as possible – as opposed to “bending down” to political correctness or avoiding “offending” minorities.

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Specific claims rooted to this particular facet on the “War of Christmas” have also proved to be equally lacking in evidence. Each year, the claim that Facebook has banned the nativity scene also spreads from user to user, despite being demonstrably false.

Rumours from the Obama years also claimed the 43rd US President had “officially” labelled Christmas trees as “Holiday trees”, had banned the term “Merry Christmas” and had banned the nativity scene from the White House. All claims totally bogus.

Whatever way you try and spin these messages, the notion that Merry Christmas has been outlawed, prohibited, banned or whatever synonym you prefer, comes up lacking in evidence or reason. One need only frequent almost any store, or listen to almost any festive TV commercial, and one can quickly deduce that term Merry Christmas and its derivatives are very much alive and kicking along with many other traditional Christmas icons (Christmas Trees, decorations, Santa etc.) and you are free to use them as much as you always have been.

Though preferably not before November.