You know, I'm back, because the more I think about this, the more it bugs me.
You compare Christmas to Halloween and Thanksgiving, which are in the US secular holidays. The most common argument I've heard for wishing everyone "Merry Christmas" is that many people celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday. That's fine for anyone who does so, but it's not a correct assumption in general. I celebrate Christmas because it is one of a set of holidays that tells the story of Christ's birth, and it's an important part of the liturgical calendar. I do not want Christmas to be secularized. I know I do not share my approach to Christmas with random coworkers, and in particular with non-Christians, and I do not want to pretend I do. It's a religious holiday for me and it irks me to treat it otherwise.
So it seems like you're trying to cheapen or appropriate my religious observance to be a cultural marker instead, a marker of "being American". But the colonies were established in large part by religious dissenters, including in particular Puritans, who were highly critical of the secular Christmas. So you betray the roots of the American nation in forcing secular observance of Christmas on people.
Having abandoned both American ideals of religious liberty and Christian ideals of sincere and sober religious observance of the birth of Christ, what, exactly, are you left with?
I'm with you, as an agnostic with Christ-inspired morals. I know folks believe in it, I don't; so I don't even like to attend mass 'cause it feels disrespectful. And the capitalization is gross for reasons manifold.
You compare Christmas to Halloween and Thanksgiving, which are in the US secular holidays. The most common argument I've heard for wishing everyone "Merry Christmas" is that many people celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday. That's fine for anyone who does so, but it's not a correct assumption in general. I celebrate Christmas because it is one of a set of holidays that tells the story of Christ's birth, and it's an important part of the liturgical calendar. I do not want Christmas to be secularized. I know I do not share my approach to Christmas with random coworkers, and in particular with non-Christians, and I do not want to pretend I do. It's a religious holiday for me and it irks me to treat it otherwise.
So it seems like you're trying to cheapen or appropriate my religious observance to be a cultural marker instead, a marker of "being American". But the colonies were established in large part by religious dissenters, including in particular Puritans, who were highly critical of the secular Christmas. So you betray the roots of the American nation in forcing secular observance of Christmas on people.
Having abandoned both American ideals of religious liberty and Christian ideals of sincere and sober religious observance of the birth of Christ, what, exactly, are you left with?