It's a Tom Waits Kind of Christmas. Er, Holiday...

Completely unrelated to Tom Waits: I'd like to start referring to Christmas as "The Holiday". That way, we can avoid the awkward "merry... um, holiday" greeting. When used as a singular event in a salutation, such as "have a happy holiday", holiday always refers to Christmas. You the person wants to wish you a merry Christmas but refrains from fear that you'll get all Fred Phelps or Richard Dawkins on their ass, neither of whom are merry -- or bright, for that matter. So let's just call Christmas what it is, a cultural holiday at a time when we both most and least need it.