Happy Holiday !!!!

[sigma]

With America being a religious country, why do they refer to Christmas as "The Holiday"

[B00]

Maybe because its a religious country, the call it holidays rather than Christmas. That way they can cover entire faiths which celebrate it without offending any of them.

Possibly.

[jake-the-peg]

There is a large jewish population in America as Hunukkah is around the same time they catch two birds with one stone

[Prudie]

I don't know either but don't forget the word holiday originated from holy day

[sigma]

Boo, I thought the only faith that celebrates Christmas was Christians.

[jake-the-peg]

Goodness no!

Christmas was originally an old pagn festival

How Christian is Holly and Ivy?, Christmas trees? Mistletoe?

Mid winter feasting has always been celebrated in Europe we just call it Christmas.

Maureen Lipman used to do a great standup routine about all the Jewish women going into the Kosher Butchers in December and saying

"You know what we just thought we might have some Turkey this week - no reason - Oh hello rabbi - didn't see you there"

[squarebear]

There are many religions in the USA and not everyone will celebrate Christmas. However, they will most likely get a break (or holiday) from work.

[Clanad]

From here in the U.S., the perspective on this question is twofold. Firstly, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanza and New Years are all folded into a generic "Happy Holidays"... add to this the second aspect of Christmas having become the most commercialized "holiday" of the year and an attempt (at least seen by many) of de-Christianizing the season in the hope of prospering P.C.
The shopping season for Christmas actually begins the Friday following Thanksgiving (4th Thursday of November) known as "Black Friday" in that many businesses will either end the year in the red or in the black depending on sales. This aspect of Christmas reigns over nearly the entire month of December. (We don't, by the way, observe "Boxing Day as does the U.K. and our friends to the North).
To the point of Christmas having been a pagan festival... could be true, since it's relatively close to the Winter Solstice (December 21) but no where in the New Covenant of the Bible are we reminded to remember or celebrate the birth of the Savior... only His death, burial and resurrection.
"Despite its popularity today, this theory of Christmas’s origins has its problems. It is not found in any ancient Christian writings, for one thing. Christian authors of the time do note a connection between the solstice and Jesus’ birth: The church father Ambrose (c. 339–397), for example, described Christ as the true sun, who outshone the fallen gods of the old order. But early Christian writers never hint at any recent calendrical engineering; they clearly don’t think the date was chosen by the church. Rather they see the coincidence as a providential sign, as natural proof that God had selected Jesus over the false pagan gods" (Source: Biblical Archaeology Review).
It wasn't until the 12th century that the Roman Church set a calendar of "feasts" corresponding to pagan observance. The Eastern Church still observe

[Clanad]

... the advent on January 7...

[piggynose]

which america, north, south , latin or central?
or did you forget?