“Merry Christmas” leads this week’s Times’ online poll question, Which holiday greeting do you prefer?

As of Monday afternoon, 199 voters, or 89 percent of those responding, voted for “Merry Christmas.” “Happy Holidays” placed second with 14 votes, or 6 percent. “Happy Hanukkah” garnered three votes, or 1 percent. Feliz Navidad, which means “Merry Christmas,” received two votes, or 1 percent. And the “Seinfeld”-based alternative celebration of “Happy Festivus” had garnered six votes, or 3 percent.

Let’s concentrate on the brewing disagreement of “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays.”

Until a relatively few years ago, no one seemed to have a problem with either greeting until some stores took the fairly ridiculous step of renaming Christmas trees as Holiday trees.

And other folks took the somewhat extreme view that such things meant there was an all-out war on Christmas.

A Christmas tree should be called a Christmas tree. But also people would well remember that “Happy Holidays” is a greeting of good will rather than a personal insult. “Happy Holidays” is nothing new. The greeting covers a lot of ground. It covers Christmas, and Hanukkah, which starts this evening, even New Year’s, Kwaanza and Festivus.

But “Happy Holidays” also covers several Christmas-related holidays. “Happy Holidays” covers Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and those 12 Days of Christmas which actually start Dec. 25 running through Jan. 5. The Sixth of January is the Epiphany celebrated as the day when the Three Wise Men arrived to see the baby Jesus; Jan. 6 is also known as Three Kings Day.

In our society, when several days, such as Labor Day, are referred to as holidays, we tend to forget the real meaning of this word, too. Holiday means “holy day.”

Happy Holy Days, though one wouldn’t know it from the scorn the greeting often receives. And that may be the most important thing to remember.

Whether it is “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays,” both are meant to wish someone well.

Treating a greeting and warm wishes as a threat does nothing to brighten the world. Responding to a greeting with an actual threat or even a sneer does nothing to put the Christ back into Christmas. Anger and scorn remove Christ from the equation no matter how many times one says Merry Christmas.

The Times’ online poll continues. Visit valdostadailytimes.com to vote.