Enter name of holiday or non-denominational event you wish to celebrate here… Ah yes, ‘tis almost time again for taking offense when someone who doesn’t know you wishes you a simple holiday hello.

So before we all get worked up into a tizzy over everything from “Happy Hanukkah” to “Merry Christmas,” the Herald is firing a preemptive strike at all those closet Scrooges out there who are already working on their pithy responses to such “terrible greetings.”

“We don’t celebrate Christmas,” “I’m not Jewish,” “Please respect the fact that I am an atheist,” and so on.

To such people we’re going to say lighten up a bit this year. The holiday season which officially is underway and digs into mounds of mashed potatoes next Thursday is all about friendship and family after all.

No one’s trying to shove his or her beliefs in your face by wishing you a “Happy Kwanza,” they’re just saying “hi” in their own way and not hiding behind the fail safe, yet robotic “Season’s Greetings” or “Happy Holidays.”

Why not share our varied backgrounds during this season of religious importance? Why worry about being 100 percent PC? Are we so concerned that we are going to upset someone that we no longer feel able to express our heritages and upbringing?

In a country that prides itself on freedom — religious and otherwise — we sure seem all too ready to bite our tongues at the holidays. It’s a shame because of all the times of year to be petty with one another, this seems like the worst of the bunch.