It appears that Wal-Mart and some other chains have backslid this year, greeting visitors with "Merry Christmas" (as has been customary over the years) rather than "Happy Holidays" (as they did last year). The reversion to the old system seems to be blamed on a slight downturn in sales last year over the previous year. Either the people who run the stores find it more difficult to blame other reasons ("You didn't have exactly what I wanted in stock" or perhaps "I'm just being a little more careful about spending this year") or they are simply yielding to The War Against The War Against Christmas, which last year was personified by Fox News's Bill O'Reilly (who, I have heard, himself had all his private Christmas cards marked "Happy Holidays", as did the President).
Christmas is not the only holiday of the season, of course; even the most orthodox supporter of "real American culture" should recognize that Party Night, also known as New Year's Eve, comes within a week of Christmas (we shall ignore New Year's Day, when wiser heads are sleeping it off). As a religious holiday, it can be considered to take precedence over such neglectable same-season holidays as Hannukah, Kwanzaa and Yule/Solstice; but these days, it might be wise to pay attention to Three Kings' Day (which I think is the same as the Epiphany, which was once celebrated in Anglophone countries), which is very popular in Christian Latino culture — and, I might point out, if you too choose to celebrate it in lieu of Christmas, you can take advantage of all those nifty 40%-off after-Christmas sales and not have to pay full price for gifts for your kids.
A couple of side-notes on the season. The first is that a lady in Colorado chose to hang a Christmas wreath on her door formed in the shape of a traditional peace symbol. Her homeowners' association, encouraged by some fellow homeowners who had children serving in Iraq, as well as a few who had fallen for the old idea that the peace symbol is actually a Satanist emblem (1), threatened her with a $25 fine for every day she kept it up. Reaction from all over the country was strong, apparently not only from liberals but from genuine conservatives who believe in the quaint old idea of freedom of speech, and eventually the homeowners' association rescinded their threat and fine (and two of their officers quickly had their phones disconnected).
Second side-note. Roberta Stewart of Reno, Nevada, whose husband Patrick was killed in Afghanistan more than a year ago, finally got a religious emblem placed on her husband's grave yesterday, thanks to the Nevada Office of Veterans' Services, but apparently only under pressure from the state governor. Apparently Sgt. Patrick Stewart, like his wife, was a Wiccan. The U.S. Department of Veterans' Affairs has, for a number of years now, been fighting, with one excuse after another, to prevent the grave markers of Wiccan servicemen buried by the government from having a Wiccan symbol (usually the pentacle, a five-pointed star within a circle (2)) placed on them; as far as I know, this is a first, though almost two thousand service people give their religion as Wicca. Mrs. Stewart will, I hope, be satisfied, though, given the circumstances, probably not happy.
(1) The peace symbol may, if one is somewhat myopic, be described as an "upside-down broken-armed cross." It is not, however, actually "upside-down", since, unlike the traditional Christian cross, it is equal-armed, and so cannot be considered either upside-down or rightside-up. Incidentally, back during the Vietnam war I once saw this myth perpetrated on an official Air Force detachment bulletin board — not in an official Air Force posting, but nobody tried to take it down, either, so the local powers-that-be at least gave it their unofficial blessing.
(2) The VA Department recognizes more than 30 such symbols, including more than a dozen for different types of Christian, and even one for atheists (of which, I have been told — apparently wrongly — there are none in foxholes). Why they are so reluctant to authorize a symbol for Wiccans is hard to determine.