Canada is a multi-cultural, multi-lingual, multi-religion country and yet each year, when December rolls around, loads of people start wishing each-other a “Merry Christmas.” I have no complaints about the kind thoughts, but I do have a problem with the underlying assumptions.

There are many people in Canada who don’t celebrate Christmas. Only 60% of the country identify as Christians. The other 40% may not participate in the festivities each year, and yet more often than not, people assume that they do.

People make assumptions about each other based on stereotypical and superficial things. I recently watched a YouTube video of people trying to guess the sexual orientation of someone else. The majority of the ones guessing were wrong, regardless of whether the guessers were gay or straight.

The same goes for guessing another person’s religious affiliation. I remember watching the movie, Malcolm X, and noted the scene where he travels to Mecca. The Muslim people making their pilgrimage were of every ethnic group under the sun. It was clear to me then that you can’t assume who is or isn’t Muslim.

I remember in grade school that one of my classmates was a blonde, blue-eyed Jewish girl. Her last name was Cohen. I’ve also known Jewish people with names like Harris, Miller and Smith. Another Jewish girl I knew when I was in college had Irish first and middle names. It has become clear to me that you can’t assume who is or isn’t Jewish.

I work with someone of Goan descent. Goa is a part of India that was occupied by the Portuguese, so the people from this area are practicing Catholics. Just because someone is of Indian descent, you can’t assume that they’re not Christian.

Many people are born into one religion and then convert to another. Someone by the name of Rosenblum might be a Born-Again Christian. I know a French-Canadian woman who converted to Judaism for the purposes of marriage. I know a Chinese kid whose last name is Lilienthal.

There are Chinese Jews and Black Jews and Brown Jews. There are blonde, blue-eyed Muslims. We get into trouble when we pigeon-hole people by how they look or by how their last name sounds.

We make assumptions about other people all the time. We guess at their religion, their political affiliation and their sexual orientation. We make assumptions about their social and financial status.

I remember being at the airport one day and noticing a young man who was so scruffily attired and shabbily groomed that he could have been a homeless person. I knew he wasn’t homeless because he was about to board a plane, but I played a little game in my head that I called “hipster or homeless.”

The “deciding” factor for me was not whether there was dirt under the young man’s fingernails or grease in his uncombed hair, but the presence of three little bracelets on his left wrist. “Hipster,” I decided, chuckling to myself. Perhaps if I’d seen him walking down the street, it might not have been so easy for me to come to the conclusion that I did.

The point of this is that we jump to conclusions about people without even realizing that we do. We also don’t realize that we’re at risk of offending someone when we make these assumptions about them.

The holiday season is supposed to be about good-will and inclusiveness. So, when December rolls around, it might be prudent to switch our greetings from “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays.” This way, we get to spread the good cheer without inadvertently making anyone else feel uncomfortable.