Frohe Weihnachten und ein schönes neues Jahr!

Hauskaa Joulua ja Onnellista Uutta Vuotta!

(grammatically incorrect, we don’t normally use capitals mid-sentence, but with a greeting it’s just about possible...)

Happy Holidays ( + Hebrew)

שנה טובה, חג שמח, חג חנוכה שמח

Kalla Christouyenna

ChrisL

¡Feliz Navidad!

Vrolijk Kerstfeest en een gelukkig Nieuwjaar!

happy holidays!

————-
nc

You are all treading on shaky ground here. Don’t you listen to Bill O’Reily? There is a liberal war on christmas here in the u.s.! Be forewarned!

Who is Bill O’Reilly and why should I listen to him?

ChrisL

Chris, you know how you had a procedure where you were pumped full of gas? O’Reilly is like that all of the time!

Don’t you listen to Bill O’Reily? There is a liberal war on christmas here in the u.s.!
Lame. Agreeing with Chris here.

“O’Reilly is like that all of the time!”

Thanks Steve, I am beginning to get the picture :-)

ChrisL

I just Googled “Bill O’Reilly, now I get it! Fox News Radio talk show.
James’s comment was severely tongue-in-cheek then.

ChrisL

frohe weihnachten und ein gutes neues jahr.

krismas aur nava varṣ maṅgalamaya ho.

I evoked the Christmas word intentionaly. People don’t have enough to do if they have to attack any holiday. So Merry Christmas

Happy holidays and wishes for a great new year, everyone!

Don’t let ratings-driven rabble rousers disturb your well-wishing this year, no matter what you celebrate. Good will is good will.

Whoa whoa.
You mean the blue collar millionaire in question isn’t the same guy who publishes the line of popular computer manuals with illustrations of slightly offbeat wildlife on their covers?

Merry Christmas, I should hope not. That would be Tim O’Reilly.

Craciun Fericit si La multi ani!
This is “Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year” in romanian. To all of you!!!

Mark is right—DIFFERENT guy. It seems the Bill O’Reilly dude is slightly to the right of Louis XVI.
Actually, the Information Architecture book is full of good info even if it is not a joy to read (I tend to like a bit more comedy in my reading:-).

ChrisL

How do I type foreign scripts (Greek) in html?

ChrisL

Just type them the same as in any app that lets you type/input Greek and hit “post comment.”

A simple way is to use the Character Palette in OS X (which I know you are using).

Καλά Χριστούγεννα

Hmmm, that worked!

ChrisL

May your heart be merry and bright…

and may your agenda of torture be legal and free from prosecution in international courts.

Night kids. Visions of sugar plums and all that.

Joyeux Noël et Bonne année à tous les membres de Typophile et à leur famille. Que la santé et le bonheur soit toujours là en 2006

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year for all Typophile’s members and their family. Hoping 2006 will bring health and happiness to all of you.

Actually, it might be better if I use Leporello:

ChrisL

Support our troops in Iraq—bring them all home safely to their families by Christmas.

ChrisL

Well, since we’re at it:
Nadolig Llawen!
(I have no Welsh blood at all, but with my name I ought to...)

And I second (for British troops) what Chris proposes for the American ones. (Not that either of us will have this granted, of course)

——————————————
Ever since I chose to block pop-ups, my toaster’s stopped working.

happy everything for those who loves the typography

Yes,

Merry Christmas

edit: The percieved War on Christmas is actually just a natural outgrowth of the War Against Chistianity. Which is very real.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah next week!

I actually had a conversation with a vendor last week that went like this...

Her: “Have a great new year, and... uh, that holiday that comes in between.”
Me: “What Christmas?”
Her: “Yeah, that.”
Me: “Yes, Merry Christmas.”
Her: Awkward pause. “Have a good one.”
Me: Okay. Um, bye.

What’s with the weirdness! I couldn’t understand it. It was like maybe her boss was listening and she’d get in trouble if she used the C word.

That’s bizarre. Especially since Christmas is all over the place. It’s like this debate over the ’War’ has gotten everyone to think that this is a bigger issue than it is.

On a related note, the House of Representatives passed a bill to “protect” Christmas. The ensuing debate is pretty funny and pretty indicative of how ludicrous it is for the U.S. government to pass bills to protect a specific religion.

Wish people a Merry Christmas! Who cares!? Focus on something that matters, like any of the laundry list of problems in this country, let alone the world. Christmas isn’t suffering because of “secular” activities, it’s suffering because its practitioners are missing the point. Heck, even megachurches are closing on Christmas because of anticipated low turnout due to Christmas falling on Sunday. Who would have guessed that churches themselves would be fighting the war against “the reason behind the season”? Even Fox had ’Happy Holidays’ ornaments for sale on its site before this B.S. crusade started.

As was pointed out by Rep. Gary Ackerman: “Is this another war we fight for reasons that do not exist?” This is not a war against Christmas, it’s the plurality of the United States expressing itself through the democracy of the governing institutions. Welcome to freedom, people. It’s not that you can’t celebrate Christmas, it’s that there are other celebrations going on and people want to acknowledge them. Christians are the overwhelming majority in the U.S. Self-centered individuals are trying to set up the majority as the minority to curry support and money from them. It’s a con, and an old one.

Chris Rugan is right. It is like the “Family Values” thing that gets dredged up every four years. Government has no business telling families what to value. It is just a major smoke screen to keep people from looking at the real problems the Administration has created. They would love to get everyone all up in arms about “saving Christmas” so that they forget about the war and the torture chambers and the unrepresented prisoners in Guantanamo. Religion is supposed to be a matter of personal choice in the “Land of the Free”, not smoke screen to hide the evils that we pursue in its name.

ChrisL

I agree about the plurality...

I don’t think there’s a “war on Christmas” (please can we stop the “war on...” rhetoric in the new year?) but there are definitely people in public institutions (schools, local municipalities) who have been duped by the ACLU into thinking that the C word will get them fired or at the wrong end of a lawsuit. The ACLU is mired in double-speak like every other political organization (and the news organizations)... They’re not out to make room for other religions in schools, they’re just trying to get Christianity out.

”...they’re just trying to get Christianity out.”

Actually, Joe, if I understand their position correctly, it’s just the inappropriate, state-sponsored practice of Christianity in schools that ACLU opposes. (With good reason, in my book.)

Apropos of your very cool avatar, Joe — are you sponsored by Nike? ;)
Or what is that little swoosh at the bottom?

Oh, and Merry Festivus to all!

Marc, I’m referring to how people (in schools mostly) are sanitizing Christmas out of their “holiday” activities by removing religous symbols and words from songs because they think it’s forbidden by the law. The law simply states that Christmas displays must have both a secular and a religous reference (an angel and a snow man or a santa, for example). And that programs involving singing should include multiple religions (hannukkah for example) and/or have secular songs in the mix (jingle bells).

Given the lawsuits about the pledge this year and over prayer in schools in past years it’s no wonder public officials at local levels are scared and may not understand their rights.

______

Oh, that’s a swoosh, but I’m waiting for a cease and desist letter before I take it off. =P

Joe,

Looks like instead of waiting, you “Just Did It!” :-)

ChrisL

VERY X-mas and a Happy New Year

Xρήστο, Χρόνια Πολλά για τη γιορτή σου!!!

The ACLU has their filthy fingers in more than church/state separation. They are all over individual citizens excercising free speech. ’Protecting’ other peoples rights. Telling 6 year olds they can’t use the word ’Jesus’ in ’holiday’ decorations. I think it’s funny we’re all about not offending people, but in the process are offending another large faction of the United States, but it doesn’t count, because we’re ’hipocrites’ and ’bigots’ using our evil to save babies and such. George W. Bush doesn’t speak for the Christian right. He may court it, but I’ve counted him out as a dangerous traitor, even more dangerous than John Kerry, because at least with Kerry we knew he’s a socialist, and with W, he just stinks like a weasel.

That’s my rant.

Ευχαριστώ Πολλή Μανος!

ChrisL

Interesting to note that the original holiday celebrated on/around December 25th was that of the Pagans otherwise known as Winter Solstice or the coming of the light. This because the sun starts to become stronger again. (Draw your own parallels.)

I find it fitting that we all share the season in our own way and celebrate in a way we deem appropriate. I hope we all have a wonderful time celebrating with our family and loved ones. I hope we all can keep those not near to us in our hearts, just as I keep you in mine.

I will celebrate Christmas, but I hope all of you have a wonderful holiday no matter the formal/religious title.

Well said Miss Tiffany.

ChrisL

How about: Happy Annual Gift-Giving!

Well this seems a good opportunity to see how Typophile handles some complex scripts...

اجمل التهاني بمناسبة الميلاد و حلول السنة الجديدة

क्रिसमस और नव वर्ष मंगलमय हो

ਕਰਿਸਮ ਤੇ ਨਵਾੰ ਸਾਲ ਖੁਸ਼ਿਯਾੰਵਾਲਾ ਹੋਵੇ

เมอรี่คริสต์มาส และสวัสดีปีใหม่

Hmm. Pretty good on my system except for the Punjabi, which seems to have some rendering issues. Possibly the font being used, possibly the version of Unscribe being used by Firefox.

How about: Happy Annual Gift-Giving!

Well said! Where would our economy be without an annual gift-giving day?

I heard a lawyer on the radio the other day say that it is within the prerogative of local governments to set up [insert-favorite-holiday-name-here] decoration in the public space, because it is permissible for local governments to encourage an increase in local consumer spending—which leads to higher tax revenues. [This, at least in theory, is good for everybody. Now how far apart from the true meaning of Christmas is that really ;-) ]

I will also be celebrating “Christmas” this year (well, Weihnachten, actually…), but my Christmas cards say “happy holidays” on them, too. I may believe in my beliefs, but I certainly don’t want to offend anyone with them. That’s my beef with the Christian Right, I guess… and probably most other “listen to us, we are ’right’s’,” too! How are you ever going to convince someone that you are right when you starting right off by offending them? That isn’t real conservatism. Real conservatism (and real Republican-ism, I thought) is minding your own business, and expecting everyone else to mind theirs as well.

Bon Nadal!

Well, we can all rest easy now because O’Reilly issued a retraction. I guess it was all in his head.

How startling.

Dan,

You hit the definition on the head for Republicanism. Not conservatism.

Republicans viewed as conservatives is what causes confusion. Being a republican and being conservative are two different things. I know quite a few Republicans the hate religion as much as the next guy, and share in very few of my beliefs. Politicians ( Dubya ) playing to the right doesn’t help anyone.

Because it’s about two different things. People that hold signs out that say ’God hates ****’ is not conservative, nor Christian, they are likely a republican that doesn’t know the distinction between the two, who grew up going to church, but doesn’t mean much to them, or hey, I’m white, I must be Christian. That is real bigotry.

There are many things about Republicanism that make me sick. Unfortunately there is more about liberal democracy that make me more ill.

I mean, I see American culture. I see the seperation of church and state distorted out of it’s meaning. This thing called founders intent clarifies the first amendment

” ...Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”

was intended to prevent the formation of a ’state church.’

If it was simply about preventing the formation of a ’state church’ and not eliminating Christianity from the public square, why is there such a fight now? The people of this country are having there ability to even see two different sides taken away.

In attending a public university, I witness the hostility towards Christianity nearly every day, in one form or another. The humanists OWN public education. What a convenient way of eliminating competition, than distorting an amendment to your own use? Take a look at the founding of public education in America. Educational Founding father John Dewey wrote lengthy texts on social engineering. The system in place is deviously brilliant.