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When will CIPD stop wishing me a Happy Christmas and start wishing me Happy Holidays?

Debbie Aarons

I have been a member of CIPD for over 20 years and every year the organization sends me an email to wish me a Merry Christmas.  For the past 5 years, I have sent a message directly to CIPD to ask that this message be changed to a more inclusive holiday greeting.  Clearly, this wish is not respected.

As an HR professional, I encourage employers to practice inclusive work practices.  Wishing people a Happy Holidays is inclusive as is Seasons Greetings.  Not all employees celebrate Christmas and I'm sure that this applies to CIPD members too.

I do not take offence each time someone wishes me a Merry Christmas as I appreciate that this is a message of goodwill.  However, this does apply to a professional body such as CIPD.  I see little value in writing about the value of inclusivity if you are not willing to practice this yourself.

Wishing all members of CIPD a peaceful and happy holiday season.

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  • I am very much an atheist, but still sang in my community choir in the cathedral at the weekend and sang in praise of god and baby Jesus. Just because I am not a Christian does not mean that I should refuse to take part. I may mutter under my breath at the lord's prayer and roll my eyes a bit at the nativity story, but I am part of the community and wish to celebrate with my fellow choristers.

    As I was a kid growing up in the Marches, I was English, living in England but attending school in Wales - I still celebrated St David's Day with gusto (more so than St George's Day actually) and I learnt to speak Welsh.

    I think organisations and people should embrace and reflect the cultures they are part of. Christianity is a part of British Culture and the CIPD is a UK organisation. We have a public holiday in the UK in celebration of Christmas - not for any other reason. Therefore, wishing people Happy Christmas at Christmastime is a perfectly valid greeting, reflecting the culture of many of its members. I hope they continue to do so.

    If you follow the CIPD on social media you will also notice they also regularly wish their members a Happy Hannukah, Divali and Eid Mubarak and acknowledge many other religious festivals too. This is the inclusive thing to do - recognising the festival and culture to be celebrated, not just sanitising it with "happy holidays" - which could be realistically said 8 times a year whenever we have a public holiday.
  • in reply to Lesley
    not to mention being sensitive to our Scottish and Northern Ireland colleagues who have different public holidays (in part)
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