(Image source from: Valley bellringer assaulted for saying "Happy Holidays")

Beware of greeting people with "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". You might end up getting beaten up for saying so.

Kristina Vindiola, a bell ringer for the Salvation Army alleged that she was assaulted for greeting a woman she met outside Walmart 91st Avenue and Thomas Road with "Happy Holidays".

“The lady looked at me,” said Vindiola. “I thought she was going to put money in the kettle. She came up to me and said, 'Do you believe in God?' And she says, ‘You're supposed to say Merry Christmas,' and that's when she hit me."

Vindiola says the woman hit her in the arm and rushed inside the store. She later called the police, but due to lack of enough evidence, no arrests were made.

Said a shopper at the Walmart, "I've finally gotten used to 'Happy Holidays' and it's a ‘Happy Holiday' or a ‘Merry Christmas,' I'm good with either one.”

Another, who works for a public school district says, “I say ‘Merry Christmas' to most people. At work when I'm sending emails and to be politically correct it’s ‘Happy Holidays’ because we're supposed to."

A third shopper pointed to her faith as to why she says ‘Merry Christmas.'

"I'm a Christian, she says, “and that is what it means to me, you know it's a celebration of Christ's birth.”

Apparently, not everyone agrees with that and the bell ringer who said she was assaulted now plans to take legal action.

AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury