Kris Wise - Daily Mail Capitol reporter - Friday December 09, 2005 - President Bush took a hit this week from conservative and religious groups because his December greeting card made no mention of Christmas. Neither did Gov. Joe Manchin's.

State and local government leaders say they're not getting in the midst of what has become a nationwide spat over the appropriate greetings during the last month of the year.

Merry Christmas? Happy holidays? Joyful celebration-of-your-choice?

"It seems to be something of interest throughout the country right now," Manchin spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg said. "But for West Virginia and for the governor's office, nothing has changed. People aren't thinking of it any differently."

Manchin's greeting card, sent out to about 15,000 people this week, featured a shot of the Manchin clan and talked of love, faith, peace, hope and family during the "holiday season." The word "Christmas" was nowhere on the card.

Manchin's December parties also are called "Holiday Receptions" this year.

"I think it's because we're celebrating the holiday season," Ramsburg said. "There's more than one holiday. We're celebrating through New Year's as well."

Conflict arose around the country this month over the appropriate greeting to be exchanged between politicians and the public and between businesses and their customers. It's even a matter of controversy what to label the shopping season.

Wal-Mart has, for the first time, instructed its employees across the country to say, "Happy holidays" when they're serving customers rather than "Merry Christmas."

Several conservative Christian groups also have begun a boycott of Target stores because they're advertising "holiday sales" instead of "Christmas sales."

Elected leaders in some states have issued directives for public employees about what they can and can't say when greeting taxpayers and voters during December.

That's not the case in Charleston.

State, city, county and school officials said it's up to each individual employee which greeting they use and how they choose to publicly commemorate the holidays.

"I don't think it's right for politicians to pass resolutions telling us what we have to call it," Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper said. "It's becoming an opportunity to pander by a lot of people. In America, you can call it whatever you want. A yuletide tree or a holiday tree. I call it a Christmas tree."

Manchin also referred to the Capitol Christmas tree during the state's tree-lighting celebration earlier this month.

So did Mayor Danny Jones during the city's tree-lighting ceremony. Charleston's annual December parade also is still called the Christmas Parade.

Kanawha County Schools takes a few further steps to ensure no one feels left out, Superintendent Ron Duerring said, but there's no hard and fast rule about what's appropriate.

Teachers can decorate Christmas trees, they can light menorahs, they can celebrate Kwanzaa or they can choose to ignore the season altogether. If they do decide to acknowledge the holidays, they are asked to celebrate the beliefs of all the students in their classes.

"In most cases we ask them to keep things to a minimum so basic instruction continues," Duerring said. "We do ask them to consider all religious viewpoints of the students. If there were students of other religions we would expect them to observe that, too."

Contact writer Kris Wise at 348-1244.