i have been saying it all month. and people have all month been saying it to me. so far, if anyone is offended, no one has been punched in the face. maybe i live in heaven (that'd be cool.)
the folks i know and run into, which pretty much run the gamut from young, old, hipster, world war 2 era, ex-hippie, male, female, black, white, yellow and upside down have all said merry Christmas to me. and i have said it to them.
i said it this morning to the hispanic woman at the mcdonald's drive-thru who took my money which, ok, as a hispanic it was a fairly safe bet she she was a Christian but sidebar here, why do they charge me five dollars for a scrambled egg and one piece of bacon? because, seriously, that seems excessive. to me. i don't know what it costs if you get the big breakfast with eggs and bacon and hash browns and the ten other things that come with it but i don't think it's more than five dollars. i don't think anything at mcdonald's is more than five dollars. maybe something is. i don't pay that much attention. but, anyway, merry Christmas, lady.
i said it to the asian woman at kroger who asked me if i knew the difference between a regular artichoke and a jerusalem artichoke. i said it before she said jerusalem which, ok, for a second there, i thought i might have offended her but she just looked at me like, come on, i don't have all day - do you know the difference or don't you? (of course i do.)
and when i told her, she smiled. and said, merry Christmas to you, too.
i also said it to the guy behind me in line at trader joe's. the guy behind me in line at trader joe's - no matter who it happens to be and no matter which shopping trip it happens to be - always looks the same. he looks cool and hip and young and his beard is always that sexy kind of scruffy and he looks like, frankly, someone who might be offended if you told him merry Christmas. and maybe i just got lucky (not that kind of lucky) today. but he smiled and said, you, too.
i have said it to so many people this year that i can't count. and no one has been offended. in spite of the fact that everything i read tells me that people are offended. all the time. if you say merry Christmas to them. so you shouldn't. say merry Christmas. but i did. and they weren't.
and you shouldn't be, either.
