The War on the War on Christmas

Jun 9th, 2007 by Editor

It is coming — just as it does every year. There is no stopping it. As surely as trees are decorated and stockings are hung by the chimney with care, we brace ourselves for it. It is just part of the routine. You could say it has become tradition.

It is Christmas — a season of acrimonious public debate.

Media warriors divide the ranks of those on two sides: those who gleefully view public Christmas observance as a right versus those who glumly view Christmas as a state-imposed endorsement of religious worship.

The buzz they create touches nearly every part of an otherwise festive season filled with light, color and music. There are heated arguments over the need for public funding for Christmas lights. Many nearly come to blows debating the mere use of the word “Christmas” in schools and at public events. Long-winded television commentators warn incessantly of “Christmas under attack” while politicians drone on about the separation of church and state. Retailers and their customers haggle over the use of the phrase “Merry Christmas”. Scholars debate over the pagan origins of modern Christmas celebrations while Christian “fundamentalists” denounce efforts to remove the mention of Christ from any holiday event. Every Christmas season seems to elevate the debate to a new level of absurdity.

Ironically, eleven months of the year Christmas is left alone. The passionate debate largely subsides right after Christmas until the season rolls around again. It is a war of the strangest sort. The central message of Christmas is peace. Yet just in time for the season of peace all other burning issues are set aside for this one: the dreaded conflict called Christmas. For the month of December they go to battle. There are never any winners or losers — and the war never ends.

We believe both sides of the debate are wrong. We believe the media is woefully irresponsible in fanning the flames of controversy. We believe in the 95% Sentiment: most of us like to keep Christmas and we don’t think there are many people offended by it.

We assert there is a war on Christmas. It is an old and unsettled debate. But it has nothing to do with television pundits, school grounds, city parks or Supreme Courts. The war on Christmas is fought in the home and in the heart.

This web site exists to separate the media hype from the truth about Christmas. We work to shift the debate away from who and where it is observed to how and why we observe it.

Our simple mission is to referee the passionate-though-misguided combatants in the War on Christmas. If we have to discuss these things — and evidently we do — then we will be a voice of reason for both sides of the debate and serve to provide simple reminders of “peace on Earth, goodwill to all men”.