Store clerks and mall employees spend much of the holiday season wishing people “Happy Holidays,” but one Peninsula woman is on a personal campaign to encourage people to wish her “Merry Christmas” instead.

Ashley Tarter is taking her message across country, one button at a time, through the Wish Me a Merry Christmas Campaign. The first orders for the “It’s Okay to Wish Me a Merry Christmas” buttons started coming in before Halloween.

Since then, Tarter and her three helpers have shipped buttons across the country.

“Every couple of days we have another 10,000 coming in, and we distribute them and go from there,” she said.

Tarter came up with the idea for the buttons when she noticed, while shopping, store employees always greeted her with "Happy Holidays" and not “Merry Christmas.”

"And I thought, you know, if they're doing this to not offend people, they're actually offending some people because I'm celebrating Christmas,” she said.

Some people are reportedly making gifts of the buttons. Tarter said she's also getting orders from churches and the response from store associates and sales clerks, has been positive as far as they can take it.

"A lot of them would like to be saying Merry Christmas to people, but they're not allowed to,” said Tarter. “So, when you wear the button it gives them an opportunity to say, ‘Okay, Merry Christmas’ or, ‘I can say same to you, but I can't say Merry Christmas.’"

Depending on the results from the Wish Me a Merry Christmas Campaign, the campaign manager says next year she may ask some of the national retailers start playing Christmas music instead of just secular holiday music.