One year, lamenting that I (once again) had no idea what to get the wife because she buys her wants and needs all year long, she said “Just give me a gift card to Amazon.” I said “You already have an Amazon gift card; it’s called the credit card!”
I’m not Christian, and I know a bunch of other people, both IRL and online, who aren’t Christian. None of us are offended by the use of “Merry Christmas”, and most of us use it interchangeably with any number of other greetings. We don’t do it because it’s “safer”, we do it because it’s a perfectly crombulent term for the seasons. We recognize there are people around us of all faiths, or no faith at all, but again I’ve never met anyone who was offended by “Merry Christmas.” It’s only people like you who get offended and start demanding what greeting should be used.
I’m still trying to work out where Caulfield got the idea that saying “Happy Holidays” is about forced inclusivity. It’s a perfectly fine greeting for the holiday period, as is (for the most part) “Merry Christmas”, “Seasons’ Greetings”, etc.
It also disappears when things heat up.