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Good Chrismukkahnzaawalistice.

In between peace, goodwill, and miracles, it seems like ‘tis also the season for rancor coming from those (on all sides) who would have their view, and only their view, of the holiday season be acknowledged.

Unfortunately, this increasing level of nastiness puts those whose business livelihoods depend on fourth-quarter sales—whether sparked by Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice, or whatever—in a very uncomfortable spot. A retailer, especially, wants to greet customers with good cheer, but saying “Merry Christmas” offends some customers, while “Happy Holidays” offends others.

What’s next? “Happy Winter Solstice” seems benign enough, but aside from the strange looks you might get, won’t it make Brazilian, Australian, or South African customers feel utterly marginalized by all this emphasis on snowflakes and roasting chestnuts? After all, they’re used to having a barbecue on the beach in December.

Meanwhile, a business owner just wants be able to offer customers a friendly wish for peace, health, happiness, and good cheer. With all due apologies to the curmudgeons of the world, who could disagree with that?

Sometimes holiday rancor gets sensationalized, as it recently did when Fox News erroneously reported that Wells Fargo won’t allow Christmas trees in its retail bank stores. The report was factually wrong—Wells does allow Christmas trees and always has. Its decision to decorate with poinsettia plants instead was a practical one, not a moral one.  But the animosity generated by this kind of shouting can sour any feelings of goodwill and make one feel Scrooge had a point.

In my opinion, it’s time we all get over it.  Everyone.  Regardless of what one believes or doesn’t believe, celebrates or doesn’t celebrate, rather than grousing about the greeting let’s put that energy into fixing truly offensive things like hunger and poverty and brutality.  

If a customer takes offense by your holiday greeting, it’s not out of line to simply say you meant only to convey a genuine good wish for the customer’s continued happiness and well being, period. Hopefully that will smooth ruffled feathers—and only the most ungracious, ill-mannered customer could even think to argue that point.

Ironically, the jewelry industry itself probably deals with this issue better than anyone, particularly on the supplier side where Christians, Jews, Indians, Chinese, Thais, Africans, and many others have worked peacefully alongside one another for decades.

Our industry has more than enough contentious issues we can’t resolve, but at least what to say around December 25 isn’t one of them. We just wish one another “Happy New Year” and leave it at that. Everyone smiles and wishes an equally happy year in return. Nobody walks off in a huff, nobody feels excluded or pressured or even snow-deprived. Yes, different religions do mark time differently and observe different calendars, but at least for purposes of commerce, trade shows, and travel bookings, the business world has agreed that a calendar year runs from January 1 to December 31 and the one coming up shall be called 2011.

I’m Jewish but I don’t get offended if someone wishes me Merry Christmas. I’d be far more offended if someone didn’t wish me Merry Christmas because they thought I was unworthy of being given good wishes. One of the best things about being in this country is that you can learn from, and appreciate the beauty of, many holiday traditions, be it the birth of Jesus, the Hanukkah miracle of lights, the triumph of good over evil marked by the lights of Diwali, the heritage of African-Americans, the quiet of nature as winter settles in, or come February, the colorful celebration of the Chinese New Year (which, incidentally, coexists just fine with the globally-agreed-upon business calendar.)

Good Chrismukkahnzaawalistice to all, and to all a Happy New Year.