"happy holidays, you bastard"

A Thing About My Brain. I realised cycling through the town on Saturday just why I hate the American phrase "Happy Holidays" so much. It's because it's a shorthand for "Happy Christmas / Hannukah / Kwanzaa / Diwali / Solstice / Fill-in-the-blank". As in, "I don't know you well enough to know which particular festival you celebrate, so I'm going to wish you a happy all of them. Never mind that you celebrate perhaps a maximum of two of these events, have a happy Christmas and Hannukah and Kwanzaa and Diwali and Solstice and...".

I realised also that I don't have a problem with "Happy Holiday", singular. Because in that case it doesn't matter which of the religious or secular festivals the person is celebrating, nor are you trying to make any assumptions. Instead, you're wishing that the other person will have a peaceful rest from work and/or an enjoyable time with their family for a few days. Holiday in the sense of "public holiday" rather than the sense of "festival".

Yes, I am weird. This is not news.