With one week left in the semester, winter break is right around the corner. With that, many students will be headed home to celebrate the holidays with their family and friends.

As the holiday season approaches, greetings and salutations tend to take a festive tone. In an effort to be inclusive, many people have opted to use “Happy Holidays” over “Merry Christmas” or some other specific celebration.

This use of broad, nondescript terms is intended to be politically correct and to avoid marginalizing other individuals and their beliefs. While a nice consideration, it’s certainly not a fool-proof method. Offense is taken, not given. No matter what you say, or don’t say, someone may still get offended.

This gives us all a great opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes and act like decent human beings. If someone offers you a greeting that isn’t specific to your celebration or lack thereof, pause for a second and remember a couple of things.

First, that person is offering you a friendly greeting. They aren’t trying to ruin your day with a mere two words. In fact, they trying to brighten with those words.

Second, recognize that it’s impossible for a random stranger to know what holiday you celebrate or if you even celebrate at all. To expect them to offer you your ideal greeting is unrealistic.

Be thankful that some stranger is in a cheery enough mood to wish you joy and use it as an educational opportunity, when possible, to share more about your holiday, religion or culture.

Shoes come in pairs though. So while it’s very important for the recipient of a greeting to be more thankful and less critical, it’s equally important to choose your words carefully.

So what’s the best greeting to give out to strangers? There probably isn’t one. Everyone is different and you might just want to stick with “Happy Holidays.”

What’s important is that you offer a greeting. Maybe it’s festive, maybe it isn’t. Whatever you choose, be sincere. A few warm words could be the difference someone needs in their day.

With that said, don’t stress about every interaction you have with a stranger. You can’t please everyone, which means you’ll probably offend a couple of people. If you are sincere in your words, the rest is on them.

So with that, have a great winter break and happy holidays,

The Iowa State Daily Editorial Board