Dear RW

no they are not, and despite the news stories that always spread through facebook and the tabloids of "OMG MUSLIMS WANT TO TAKE AWAY CHRISTMAS CARDS" none have ever been true, tabloid and social network bollocks.

Marc.S wrote (see)

no they are not, and despite the news stories that always spread through facebook and the tabloids of "OMG MUSLIMS WANT TO TAKE AWAY CHRISTMAS CARDS" none have ever been true, tabloid and social network bollocks.

The only time I have muslims kick up about Christmas was years ago in Coventry where I worked... They all wanted some significant muslim celebration off at the start of December, Which the company allowed them to take, and then listed them all to work Christmas Day and Boxing Day... They were not happy bunnies

i love in coventry not sure i should be shouting that out lol

Ah But where do you live ?

actually its just outside the city (ansty) other side of the M6 but still coventry technically, 

edit: just saw my typo 

Teehee !!!

So which bit of Cov do you do your loving ? Hillfields or Wood End

hillfields was flattened, its a giant college now, the flats have gone and the housing is new, you have to go to canley for your £5 mclovin's, 

It's not Christmas or Yuletide or even "holidays" - it's a mad shopping frenzy!

I live in and work in an area with people of many different faiths and I've never heard of anyone being insulted by any other faith's celebration. Lets all just get on with it, have a great time and ignore the PC brigade who seemingly have nothing better to do!

Mad shopping frenzy indeed.  If Charles Dickens wrote "a Christmas Carol" today, Scrooge would either be the chairman of Tesco or the producer of "The X Factor".  Whatever "the Season" (whether it's Christmas, yuletide, Winter Solstice, a giant piss up or Mithras' birthday) was meant to be about, I'm sure it wasn't fanatically spending money on pointless tat.

Or more succinctly:  humbug!

I work for a very large American concern and all this PC stuff really gets up my nose, the Americans all talk about "the holidays", we had our "holiday party" last week, and we've been let off early tomorrow for "the holidays".

I used to live in Canley...

It is Christmas, and not Xmas.  That one really gets my goat.

i quite like all this PC stuff. if our big problem today is that we are overly polite and eager to avoid causing offence, and some language gets mangled, then it could be worse.

Happy Holidays

Womble wrote (see)

Personally, I am most concerned by Wilkie's reference to "practicing Christians".

I need someone to advice me on how to avoid these grammatical difficulties.  I tried one of those pocket crossword solver things, but for grammar, it's a useless devise.

"Practicing" is one of those funny words that looks wrong but isn't. 

Reminds me, though, of a silly thing an ex BF of mine used to say, "I'm an Atheist," and then, for emphasis, "non-practicing" 

Wilkie wrote (see)

 practicing Christians

Ah, an American spelling during a rant about the Americanisation (Americanization?) of our winter festival.  ("Proper" English: practice = noun, practise = verb)

Lovely!

trying to understand the difference above.....but do i take it that someone is challenging Wilkie on her use of English..........unheard of

If Wilkie has indeed got it wrong..... (I will not be convinced until she has had her retort)..........then is this the end of the world that has been foretold

I quadruple-Googled it just to make sure (and I'm still not 100%!!) but as I understand it, traditionally you use an 's' for the verb, e.g. I practise playing football, and a 'c' for the noun, e.g. a doctor's practice, but Americans use a 'c' for either.

It's one of these grey areas according to usage.  The same rule supposedly applies to license/licence, although it seems more acceptable to use either spelling interchangeably.  On your driving licence it's definitely spelt with a 'c' so I'll always spell it that way for the noun, but I wouldn't correct anyone using an 's'.