Every company has its own holiday season traditions, and right around Thanksgiving, Mustang hits its most volatile tradition head on: the battle between “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas.”
The debate always poses interesting discussions about being PC versus simply being honest when crafting our December e-blast. Everyone who works at Mustang Marketing celebrates Christmas—some embrace its religious foundation, others its commercial legacy. I fall into the latter group, and yet I’m also the one championing for the generic “Happy Holidays” messaging.
Every year it’s a fight. And this year, for the first time in three years, I have lost the fight.
I understand my coworkers’ pleads to use “Merry Christmas”—it’s what the office celebrates, it’s a minor company e-blast and one only meant to spread goodwill to our clients and friends, and we shouldn’t be obligated to try and meet the needs and beliefs of every potential reader. PC is boring and un-cool and if someone is going to be so offended by a “Merry Christmas” e-blast, they probably wouldn’t jell with our company personality in general. It’s our e-blast and it’s our holiday—and if even bigger and more corporate companies can say it, so can we.
So why do I propose “Happy Holidays” over the more specific “Merry Christmas”? Because, to me, none of those reasons are compelling enough not to. In so many aspects of life, I take the cynical, take-me-or-leave-me approach; but for some reason, I find myself empathetic to those who don’t celebrate Christmas and are forced to acknowledge and work around the vast majority who do. Christmas is the rare universally acknowledged holiday that isn’t universally celebrated, and it’s coal and closed businesses for those who don’t partake. Since it doesn’t harm or alienate those who celebrate Christmas to read “Happy Holidays,” why not go with that and avoid any exclusion? It certainly won’t dim our own personal faith or star atop our Christmas tree.
But, in the spirit of the holidays—whichever you celebrate—one must compromise and celebrate everyone for who they are. At Mustang, we celebrate Christmas. And this year, our corner of the world will know it.
-Danny Bracco, Director of Communications