Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays

I quit celebrating Christmas as a religious holiday two years ago.  I am Atheist but have celebrated the parts of Christmas that I love most of my life without giving it much thought.  Two years ago we had a family squabble over of all things religion, and in part, as a result of that I made my decision.  Being that I don't believe in god I really have no business celebrating a holiday that is supposed to be about god.  I will however always celebrate love, and it is something I do every day not just one day of the year. I will always celebrate trees, and colored lights simply because I love them.   In the last couple of years I have taken note of the squabbles happening on social networking sites such as Facebook where everyone is all up in arms over whether or not you say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.  First of all, if you are celebrating Christmas as the birth of Christ, who the hell cares what other people say to you about it.  If you truly believe in your god, then he is in your heart and it doesn't make a bit of difference whether someone says Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.  Maybe they don't believe in your god, but that should not have any effect on what you believe, or on the gratitude you should have that they chose to wish you anything at all!  We are a country of many different beliefs and non beliefs, and we should all try to get along.  I have always felt religion should be a private thing... celebrated and practiced in the home.  It has no business in politics or law or in secular public education.  Politics will always cater to majorities in order to win votes, but laws should be made to equally apply justice and liberties to all regardless of faith or non faith!  Public secular schooling is for educating all children about reading, writing, arithmetic, history and the world as it is. If you don't want your children to know what's really going on in the world around them and you would rather they be brainwashed with whatever religious dogma you choose then send them to a private school that teaches that, because in a public secular school you don't get to rewrite history so that it fits whatever religious beliefs you may have. IT IS WHAT IT IS!!! History happened, and you should not get to skew it. It should always include the truths about what really happened and who really contributed, winners and losers, gay, straight, believers, non believers,  purple, whatever.  IT IS WHAT IT IS!!! It has never been what we would all like it to be and most assuredly never will be since what we would all like it to be varies greatly.  I used to get offended when people wished me Merry Christmas... how dare they assume that I believe in their god, but it goes back to what I said earlier... gratitude. Today I am grateful that they chose to wish me anything at all.  So whatever you believe... or don't believe... I wish you all love and peace, not just today, but every day.