Regarding the whole brouhaha over what to say to people during this time of year:

In a couple of weeks I'm going to be 39 for the first time. (You're getting down to the wire, but the wish list is here.)

All my life, people have said Happy Holidays. I always assumed that this was a generic way to be nice to people. Most everyone has two holidays this time of year, Christmas/Chanukah and New Years. So I've been saying Happy Holidays so as not to wish a Jewish person Merry Christmas and remind them that their holiday is not the big one. I've met some blond, blue-eyed members of the tribe in my life (Muslims as well), so I gave up trying to guess religion based on physical appearence.

So, it seems to me that people who want to insist that other people say Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas all need to lighten up. It's a time of year when it would be neat if everyone tried to be nice to each other. Call me crazy.

If you're curious, at the business, we don't tell the employees what to wish to people. We only want them to be nice and polite to folks. If anyone gets all bent out of shape because we didn't include Festivus in the list of holidays we acknowledge, there's probably no satisfying them.

I haven't mentioned Kwanzaa. I have never had a discussion with anyone I know who celebrates it. Maybe some of the black folks in my neighborhood do, but they've never mentioned it.