Abelian Sea
o_O
Already?
Jeez, it isn't even Halloween yet.
This shit starts flying earlier and earlier every year...
Anyway... I say "merry Christmas." I suppose that's disrespectful to Christianity, because I don't at all mean "merry aniversery of Jesus's birth" (not that I begrudge my Christian friends pretending that Jesus was born in the wintertime; I'm glad they're in on the festivities), but that's just the name I'm used to for the unspeakably old tradition of having a heartening party in the darkest part of winter, and frankly, I don't know what else to call it.
"Happy holidays" is too general and just sounds empty to me; it's hard for me to say with real conviction because it makes me feel tawdry. "Happy solstice" would be a little more on target but has connotations of specifically pagan traditions that I'm not actually referencing and in most cases wouldn't immediately get the response I'm trying to elicit (a warm smile and reciprocal well-wishing). "Merry Christmas" usually works; even if the person I'm saying it to could field objections they typically take it well anyway.