You cannot comprehend how irritating I find this.
Firstly, I'll just say that I still have yet to hear any kind of inclination that the British Government has enforced the term 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas'. I'm pretty sure it's perfectly fine to say Merry Christmas in the streets and not be arrested/shouted at for it.
Also I, as a British citizen who has lived here for 20 years have NEVER, EVER heard any person say 'the term Merry Christmas offends me'. Not once. Not from ANYONE.
Okay let's move onto the point at hand here. Let's just say, for arguments sake that this person on my Facebook HAS experienced some sort of use of the term 'Happy Holidays' or 'Seasons Greetings' instead of 'Merry Christmas'. What is the big problem? They're all nice terms, it's just that the first two can apply to EVERYONE (all races, religions and such). Meaning that even if someone does not celebrate Christmas, you can still wish them a nice holiday (as in this country, people generally are on holiday around this time and such) and be nice without comprehending any kind of problems (though I personally have said 'Merry Christmas' to people of different religions before -mainly by accident- and they haven't displayed any kind of hatred towards me for it.)
From what I can tell, the main problem is that we British people are "going against our traditional celebrations" in order to welcome other religions, cultures and customs into our country. Personally, I see no problem with this (what's the problem with a little bit of diversity?); but for certain people in my country, this is a BIG problem. I hear a lot of arguments about it but we'll stick to the one at hand. The problem this particular person seems to have is that strangers are coming into their country and changing things from the traditional values that we Brits once had.
Even if this were the case, I STILL don't see the problem; if you want to celebrate your own traditions in your own home then I don't see the harm at all. But this is not the case, not at all. The reason a lot of Christmas merchandise in the shops says 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas' is because that way it (technically) appeals to all people and not just the ones who celebrate Christmas and therefore sells more as it's for a diverse market. If anything, the problem here is Capitalism.
Also, can I add that Christmas in England is a predominantly a Christian holiday, and I of course have no problem with that; I do have a problem when half of the people who post these kinds of Facebook status' are not Christian. Or they are, but they don't attend Church or even give any kind of inclination that they do follow the religion.
If you want people to follow your traditions or 'get out of your country' perhaps you should practice what you preach.
I understand how annoying it might be if somebody physically came up to you and said 'I do not like the way you celebrate this time of year and I demand you change it.' But nobody here is doing this. Yes, there may be extremists out there who do; but extremists come in every race, religion, culture, etc. Every group out there has a small bunch of very stupid people that make the rest of them look bad.
Okay, this is getting very long-winded and I'm starting to repeat myself so long rant short:
My problem here is that once again people have created yet another reason to hate on Immigrants and people of other Cultures when in reality they have done nothing. To me, it seems like Racism is being disguised for Patriotism; and it's incredibly irritating and upsetting. The point is, nobody is stopping you from celebrating what you want to celebrate; just don't press it on anyone else. And that should go for EVERYONE.
