I noticed this from the article I posted earlier today:

In Washington, the humanists’ campaign comes as conservative Christian groups gear up their efforts to keep Christ in Christmas. In the past five years, groups such as the American Family Association and the Catholic League have criticized or threatened boycotts of retailers who use generic “holiday” greetings.
In mid-October, the American Family Association started selling buttons that say “It’s OK to say Merry Christmas.”

This war has been going on for a number of years and I’ve never understood it. The whole idea over intimidating the sales clerk into saying “Merry Christmas” seems rather bizarre. Yeah, I get that the retailers are making tons of money on our holiday but aren’t we the ones who are letting them do it?
If you really want to stick it to the retailers over their handling of Christmas, why not just make your own Christmas gifts or better yet, donate money to your church instead? Yeah, I know, that would go over big with the kids 🙂 You could do what we do, avoid shopping altogether with gift cards (you could even buy them now when no one is mentioning the holidays). My whole family exchanges them because it’s so much easier to give someone the gift of being able to get exactly what they want. And if they are just as bothered by the whole “Happy Holiday” thing as you, then you have the added bonus of giving them the gift of shopping after Christmas when “Happy Holiday” refers to New Year’s Day 🙂 Now, isn’t that so much better than getting ticked at the cashier for not obeying your button?