Is there a way to ONLY reply to the sender when you are the recipient of a group text?

[AC Question]

Many times I will receive a group text from someone that is sending out a holiday greeting. For example on Christmas day I will receive a text wishing me a merry Xmas. But this person may have sent a group text to wish all their friends and family the same greeting. If it was an email you could easily reply only to the sender (not reply to all). But when it is a text it seems as tho the standard is to reply all (and everyone receives my reply and I receive all of their replies) and I haven't found a way to turn it off. Is there a way to just reply to the sender and not to everyone who received the original text? Also is there a way to remove yourself so that when everyone else replies you don't receive all of their text. I am a user of Samsung S5. Also I use Handcent as my default messaging app.