MERRY CORRECTNESS?

Byline: Jeff Wright The Register-Guard

Jordan Duke doesn't particularly see himself as a daredevil, and yet there he is on a public sidewalk outside the Fifth Street Public Market, shouting out the words that many assume are culturally taboo.

"Merry Christmas!" he declares to a passing shopper. "Merry Christmas to you!"

Dressed in black slacks, red blazer, gray scarf and a Santa's cap, Duke is in his second year as a "holiday helper" at the downtown Eugene market. He's also a one-man test case in the cultural dispute over how stores and store clerks should greet their customers.

"Last year, I went with `Happy Holidays' because I didn't want to offend anyone and because my boss was Jewish," says Duke, 22, a lifelong Eugene resident studying political science at the University of Oregon.

But the greeting seemed to offend some shoppers, who would offer a much-louder "Merry Christmas" in response.

So Duke this year has opted for "Merry Christmas." The reaction?

"I think most people like the idea that I'm not afraid to say it," he says. "They're comforted by it."

Duke says he's no dogmatist trying to hammer home a religious message. "It's not about the birth of Jesus Christ - it's about celebrating family, life and love," he says. "That's what the season is all about."

But the season has become entangled in the culture wars, with some religious conservatives and media pundits deploring the notion that "Merry Christmas" has been "banned" from the public lexicon.

Fox News commentator Bill O'Reilly, evangelist Jerry Falwell and others have even urged shoppers to boycott stores that refuse to use "Merry Christmas" in their advertising or greetings to customers.

Others contend that the so-called "War on Christmas" is mostly a manufactured one, and that saying "Happy Holidays" is merely the polite, sensible and generous thing to do in a country as religiously diverse as this one.

But people such as Jeff Carpenter of Eugene don't buy that argument. Carpenter, a retired computer systems analyst, says he was floored when he drove up to a bank drive-up window earlier this week and was greeted by a teller who wished him ``Merry Christmas.''

"It was a blast from the nostalgic past," he says. "It shocked me, it was so unusual. It really brightened my day."

From the perspective of salespeople and other greeters, it can be a dangerous world out there, no matter what they say. Janis Goding, a Salvation Army bell-ringer, says she goes by gut instinct when deciding how to greet passers-by.

`I tell them `Merry Christmas' - I think it brings more cheer - but I also say `Happy Holidays' sometimes,' she says. "There are different types of people, and I tell them what I think they want to hear. I go with what feels right at the moment."

If there's one store where it's probably safest to utter "Merry Christmas," it may be Testimonies Christian Bookstore and Espresso near North Eugene High School. Co-owner Heather Hicks says customers often tell her they view the store as a sort of "Merry Christmas" safe haven. `They say, `Where else can you say it?' '

Pam Peterson, sipping a candy cane mocha at the store this week, says most salespeople around town wish her a "Happy Holidays," and that she's been more deliberate this year in offering a "Merry Christmas" in return. `We wouldn't be saying `Happy Holidays' at all if not for Christmas,' she says.

Peterson hasn't gone so far as to boycott any store on the basis of its greetings; bargains are still the primary criterion "when you're living on a budget," she says.

But Hicks acknowledges that her shopping habits have been swayed by reports she heard last year that Macy's had banned "Merry Christmas" from its products and salespeoples' lips. "I pretty much don't shop there anymore and that's the main reason why," she says.

At the Macy's (formerly The Bon) at Valley River Center, a clerk named Jessica - she declined to give her last name - says she has worked there three years and never been told how to greet customers. ("Have an outstanding day," she told one shopper this week.)

Jim Sluzewski, a spokesman for Federated Department Stores in Cincinnati, says the chain, which includes Macy's, is still trying to recover from last year's unfounded rumors. He says salespeople have always been told to greet customers "with whatever feels right."

As for the "MC" words, they're right there on one of the store's gift certificate cards, and on posters touting the cards, he says.

Not that it's otherwise easy to find the actual words "Merry Christmas" anywhere, at least at Valley River. Among the alternative window greetings:

"Cool Yule" at Charlotte Russe.

"Peace & Merry Everything" at Pac Sun.

"Give Me Sexy" at Victoria's Secret.

Something a little closer can be spotted in the window at the 7-Eleven store on East Broadway: "Have a Mariah Christmas." They're selling Mariah Carey Christmas CDs for $6.99.

At least one business has "Merry Christmas" on all its doors: the Sears store at Springfield's Gateway Mall. But the simple wording - generic black script on white paper - appears to have been hastily added. Was it some kind of rush job?

"I really can't say," says Bekah Duncan, operations manager for the Gateway store. "We put them up after getting a directive from corporate offices. I'm not allowed to make any comment."

On the other end of Gateway Mall, Pete Happy says he and other employees at Target - like Sears, a chain that has appeared on some boycott lists - are allowed to greet customers in whatever manner they wish.

`Personally, I say `Merry Christmas' because that's my heritage and I'm comfortable with it,' says Happy, an assistant manager. But Happy knows the frustration of trying to convince people that `Merry Christmas' really is OK to utter or advertise at his place of work.

"I've got members of my own family - it doesn't matter what I say - they don't believe it," he says.

CAPTION(S):

Jordan Duke welcomes shoppers at the Fifth Street Public Market with a hearty "Merry Christmas." H o l i d a y s