Well, the Conventional Wisdom is that the term "Christmas" is offensive to at least some people nowadays, so it might be better for merchants to avoid the risk of offending a customer and use a secularized term like "holidays." In some circumstances, especially in stores and other businesses, I agree.

But I work as a volunteer at a women's center that is operated by two nuns (our volunteers and clients come from a wide variety of belief groups). When I took over operation of the Women's Center Website, I found a page that talked about our Christmas Store - except that the page very carefully used the word "holiday" and never once made mention of "Christmas." One of the first changes I made to the Website was to substitute the word "Christmas" for most of the times "holiday" was used. To me, it seemed silly to think that nuns shouldn't be allowed to be associated with the word "Christmas." Oh, and the nuns approved of the changes I made, even though I didn't ask for permission first.

-Joe-