Why do Pagans tell Christians Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, or Happy Yuletide if they feel that Christians?

You must have missed the last part. "enjoy your dinner... and I hope you choked to death"

"Stolen" implies something that we no longer have - and we still have our holidays, despite the efforts from certain people to claim exclusive ownership of the season. It's more accurate to claim that early Christians shamelessly copied a lot of stuff. Note the "early" part of early Christians. Folks long, long ago. Nobody that's alive has taken anything.

Most Pagans frankly don't care about where the Christians got their holiday from. They know where - it's just that it was so long ago that it's not worth getting worked up over - unless it gets brought up in conversation. Which is where this whole "War on Christmas" stink comes in. After getting bombarded with questions about why we celebrate at this time of year when it's the supposed exclusive province of Christianity, some folks get fed up and do the whole "we were here first" routine. If we were left alone, and Christians didn't make a big stink about it, most Pagans probably wouldn't say a lot about it either. It's only when we get snidely told that Jesus is *the* "reason for the season" that we start to get a bit annoyed.

And even for the folks who get riled up about it - it's still a polite thing to wish people happy holidays. As you pointed out, you didn't do any of the taking - so even if someone blames the early Christians for snagging everything that wasn't nailed down, it doesn't mean that they can't wish you a happy holiday.

I give the greeting appropriate to the person in question, so if I know ahead of time that someone celebrates Christmas, I'll wish them a Merry one. :) If I don't know the exact holiday someone celebrates, I simply say Happy Holidays.

The only time I ever get into the whole "origins of Christmas" spiel is when someone acts as though "Happy Holidays" is such a horrible insult to them, when someone gets an attitude and says their deity is the *only* reason for the season, when they tell me I can't use "Christmas" decorations and such because I'm not Christian, or when they spout off some other nonsense about Pagan religions being "dead," this country being a "Christian nation," etc.

I'm not anti-Christian or anti-Christmas, but the fact is that 99% of all things associated with Christmas came from earlier Pagan festivals, and modern Pagans still celebrate those festivals and know where it all came from. Just because Christians gave the celebrations a new name and changed the meanings of our symbols does not mean they "own" those symbols. As long as a Christian is not rude, arrogant or hostile to me during the holiday season, my greetings are out of politeness and are purely sincere.

Okay, stop. There's something wrong here. I think that maybe you're confusing the vehement neo-pagans with their actual practicing counterparts. Probably one of the most disrespectful things that has happened to this collection of beautiful religions, is that there have been a number of confused, outcast, teenagers that have adopted them as their own. This is good if they're honestly looking for a sense of direction in their life. However, a decent majority of them, use 'paganism' as a veil in order to spew hatred about their former beliefs. While the historical facts about the origin of Christmas are carved in stone, the use of the term 'stolen' is a subjective matter. In other words, I think the message you may have gotten, is coming from the wrong side of the argument.

Because we are kind, gentle, and nice people, of course.

Some say that the Judeo-Christians stole our holiday, but think again. They only borrowed it. They borrowed some of our observances, added some to it, and adopted into their culture. Folks, people have been adopting from their neighbours' cultures for 70,000 freakin' years! That is what we do.

We still have our traditions, our holidays, and we have made adjustments all along like anyone else.

Now I am hungry for some sweet and sour chicken lowmein and maybe a burrito.

I dont feel you stole anything from me.

I tell non-Asatruar Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Eid Mubarak, etc. because I want to be polite to others. I wasn't raised in a bloody barn, thank you!

You seem to be under the impression that pagans actually care...

It's a holiday.

I would say it is to be sociable and polite.

Really, when you think about it, most people mean "May you have the joy of the season.", and don't specifically refer to the religious aspects of the holiday.

No, we're being polite. Something u aren't acquainted with

Maybe they're just trying to be civil human beings.