Background information:

Biblical Evidence Shows Jesus Christ Wasn't Born on Dec. 25.  History convincingly shows that Dec. 25 was popularized as the date for Christmas, not because Christ was born on that day but because it was already popular in pagan religious celebrations as the birthday of the sun.

When Was Jesus Born? Was it really on December 25th?  As many Christians are aware, the modern Christmas celebration combines many strands of tradition including the ancient Roman pagan festival of Saturnalia (merrymaking, exchange of presents), the old Germanic midwinter customs (Yule log, decorating evergreen trees), the tradition of Francis of Assisi (displaying the crib, or crèche of Jesus), the medieval feast of St. Nicholas (Sinterklaas in Dutch, hence "Santa Claus"), and the British sending of greeting cards (1840s).  The Puritan pilgrims did not celebrate Christmas because of its many unbiblical associations.  The holiday was officially recognized in the United States in 1870.  The Dutch Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) is the origin of the North American Santa Claus.

On What Day Was Jesus Born?  [B]ased on the scriptural evidence, a case can apparently be made that Jesus Christ was born on the 15th day of the month of Tishri, on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which corresponds to the September — October timeframe of our present calendar!

Timely news and commentary:

China Cancels Christmas in Hong Kong — Leaving Churches Fearing for Their Future.  I thought it was just me, but it transpires there are fewer Christmas decorations in Hong Kong this year than in previous years.  A colleague confirmed, under orders from China, Hong Kong had been instructed to tone down the outward manifestations of the Christmas festivities this year.  I often find myself in Hong Kong in the run up to Christmas and in years gone past, the Christmas light show on both sides of the harbour, but especially on the island side has been dazzling.  All the major buildings in Hong Kong are festooned with lights which can be programmed to convey seasonal images such as on the Chinese New Year and at Christmas.

Tech giant under fire for 'woke' Christmas ad starring non-binary influencer.  Tech giant Google has been accused of going woke after their new Christmas advert featured a genderfluid beauty influencer.  The advertisement for Google Shopping features TikTok and Instagram personality Cyrus Veyssi, 30, searching for skincare products using the Google service.  Veyssi, who uses they/he pronouns, appears to be wearing women's clothing as he complains about having dry skin in the ad.  He said: 'This winter dryness is not it, especially when I have so many holiday looks to pull off, thankfully I know just the thing.'  Veyssi starts using Google shopping to look up face creams, before adding: 'Hydrated skin is a gift to everyone, no wrapping needed.  Happy Holidays to me.'

Neiman Marcus 'bans' the word Christmas from its almost century-old gift catalogue to the fury of workers.  A major department store has silently removed the word 'Christmas' from its iconic gift catalogue — and workers are blaming 'woke politics' for the change.  For the first time ever, Neiman Marcus has rebranded its 98-year-old 'Christmas Book' gift catalogue, which has now been called a 'Holiday Book'.  The retailer had previously stated, following the Covid-19 Pandemic, that the 'Christmas Book is tradition' and something for shoppers to look forward.

Here is the non-sequitur of the month:
Kamala Harris Scolded Americans for Celebrating Christmas While Illegal Aliens Were Denied Amnesty.  Video from December 2017 surfaced Thursday of then Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) berating Americans for celebrating Christmas while illegal aliens were being denied amnesty.  Harris is now the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee and her record is facing fresh scrutiny.  In the video first reported by Fox News, Harris is seen wagging her finger and scolding Americans, "And when we all sing happy tunes, and sing Merry Christmas, and wish each other Merry Christmas, these children are not going to have a Merry Christmas.  How dare we speak Merry Christmas.  How dare we?  They will not have a Merry Christmas."  [Tweet with video clip]

Kamala flies into a rage and demands Americans stop saying 'Merry Christmas' until illegals get amnesty.  When Joe Biden was deep into one of his dementia rages, he loved to yell at us Americans, bossing us around and screaming bloody murder about his "precious democracy."  Who can forget his "Hitler-like" speech?  There he was, on stage, veins popping, bathed in a sinister red glow, flanked by two military guards, ranting and raving as if he were commanding the new 4th Reich.  Well, it turns out this behavior isn't just limited to senile politicians; it's a rampant problem within the Dem Party.  Their latest candidate, who wasn't chosen by the people, also has a habit of screaming at Americans and ordering us around like we're unwashed peasants.  This time it was Kamala, channeling her inner "dementia rage" at a past press conference.  She went completely off the rails, demanding that Americans stop saying "Merry Christmas" until illegals have amnesty.  What on earth is going on with this insane woman?  [Tweet with video clip]

The Editor says...
What does Kamala Harris know about Christmas?

Somewhat related:
The War on Easter.  Almost as inevitably as Santa Claus arriving in department stores and town squares or the appearance of garland and ornaments beside Halloween costumes, there appears the annual debate over the "war on Christmas."  The question is whether Christmas is being obliterated from the public square, with "Merry Christmas" replaced by "Happy Holidays," the banishment of carols from school choruses, or the generic coffee cups at Starbucks.  I have two different questions:  Is there a war on Easter?  And has Easter lost?  Let's be honest.  Easter in America is increasingly culturally invisible.

Muslim Mob Terrorizes Christmas Shoppers in Small, Peaceful Tennessee City.  A Muslim mob of pro-Palestinian militants terrorized shoppers on Christmas Eve in the small city of Collierville, Tennessee.  "You should be ashamed!" the Muslim militants shouted at shoppers as others repeatedly honked their car horns.  One KWAM listener said the Muslim militants "clogged the streets to prevent shopper ingress/egress and unleashed individual terrorists out to run up and down the sidewalks with Palestinian flags."

The Left Brought Toy Guns to the 'War on Christmas' This Year.  Normally there is much coverage in early December about the "War on Christmas," whether it is what Starbucks is doing to their beverage containers, people blocking Nativity scenes, or canceling Christmas gatherings because there's too much religion in them. [...] However, in this year's war it seems the Left didn't bring their big guns; instead, they brandished toy guns.  The people wielding those toy guns are also not their best and brightest (hello, AOC).  What was most interesting about this year, aside from its anemic offerings of deconstructed and dead wrong messages, is that certain Christian institutions that used to uphold the Gospel seemed just as intent on ruining the meaning of Christmas for the reverent, and everyone else for that matter.

Pennsylvania School District Does Damage Control After Memo to Bus Drivers Goes Viral.  A Pennsylvania school is attempting to do damage control after issuing a memo instructing bus drivers to remove Christmas decorations from their vehicles, stop wearing anything related to the holiday, and avoid playing Christmas music.  "If you have decorated your bus with anything specific to the Christmas Holiday or any other decorations relating to a specific religion, please remove them immediately," read the Dec. 15 memo from the Transportation Supervisor at the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District.  "In addition, employees are instructed not to wear clothing related to Christmas or any other religious holiday."  District offices and bus drivers are also "to refrain from playing Christmas music" or any music connected to a particular religion.  Libs of TikTok pointed out the district took a different attitude toward "Pride Month."  [Tweet]

Wallingford-Swarthmore School District 'Bans' Christmas Decorations on Buses and Restricts Employees' from Wearing Christmas Attire.  In a recent memo addressed to all drivers and aides, Wallingford-Swarthmore School District in Pennsylvania outlined new guidelines regarding holiday decorations and attire.  The Gateway Pundit obtained the memo, issued on December 15, 2023, by Patti Diaferio, Transportation Supervisor at Wallingford-Swarthmore School District, cites concerns raised by parents about district employees displaying Christmas-themed decorations and clothing.  According to the memo, the directive follows complaints received by Dr. Marseille, a senior figure in the district.  Employees who have decorated their buses with Christmas or other religious-specific items are instructed to remove them immediately.  This policy extends to personal attire, prohibiting employees from wearing clothing related to Christmas or any other religious holiday.

Fire Station Removes Nativity After Atheist Complains.  A wooden Nativity scene that was built around 30 years ago and has been on display in front of the fire department in Toledo, Iowa, for the past 20 years was ordered to be removed after a bunch of atheists complained about the celebration of Jesus Christ's birthday.  On his show, Todd Starnes reported that neither the baby Jesus nor his foster father Joseph and biological mother Mary would be displayed this Christmas season because city leaders ordered the firefighters to remove the nativity after some person who doesn't even live in the community became very offended about the Nativity scene.  "Friday morning I went to the City Hall to see who had asked for that to be taken down, and I was given the letter and the name of the person.  It was found out that this person doesn't even live in our community.  This person is from another community not even connected to our county," Becky Faircloth, the daughter of the man who built the Nativity scene, said.

'Santa Claus' attacked by a gang of Muslim brutes in Germany.  Since when has orchestrating the saturation of destitute Muslims with Third World mentalities in a Western nation ever benefited the hosting population?  How could a group of people so conditioned to chaos and savagery, and who strive for conquest by violence, oppression, and fear ever assimilate to a society that values the protection of the vulnerable, and Judeo-Christian character and honor?  Should a successful society built by ethnic Germans cater to hateful foreigners that only want to tear it all down, rape German daughters, and kill German sons?  Seems like the answers to these questions would be no-brainers, but apparently not, because just a week or so ago, a gang of feral Muslim teenagers beat up Santa Claus in Germany, and there are still people who think "diversity" is a strength.

Climate Crazies Wage Coordinated Attacks on Christmas Trees in Seven Cities in Germany.  Radical climate activists launched a series of coordinated strikes against public Christmas trees throughout Germany on Wednesday morning in response to the supposed climate "catastrophe".  The so-called 'Last Generation' green activist group sprayed public Christmas trees with orange paint in Berlin and six other German cities on Wednesday morning, including festively adorned trees in Potsdam Square and the tree outside the nearby Federal Council building in Berlin.

The Editor says...
Many of us hope it really is the last generation of these eco-terrorists' families.  Misguided people of this sort abhor childbirth, so at least they won't pass their delusions on to a younger generation.

Also posted under eco-terrorism.

England's oldest Christmas market [has been] cancelled because it was 'so popular that it was a safety risk'.  One of the UK's longest-running Christmas markets has been cancelled.  Lincoln Christmas Market will not be going ahead after a last minute motion to save it was rejected.  The market, which was first held in 1982, was axed earlier this year by the Labour-led council due to concerns about overcrowding.  City of Lincoln Council has replaced the event with a series of smaller offerings throughout the year.

The Editor says...
I think I'll tell my wife that I have decided to replace her birthday with a series of smaller events throughout the year.  You think that will be okay?

Trudeau forced to admit 'Christmas is not racist' after gov't report suggesting it is.  Canadian MPs roundly condemned a report from the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) arguing that Christmas was racist.  On November 29, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet challenged the CHRC report which claimed that those who celebrate Christmas are exhibiting intolerance and perpetuating so-called "settler colonialism" and forced even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to admit that the holiday is not racist.  "Just because you laugh doesn't mean it's funny," Blanchet told the House of Commons.  "According to the Canadian Human Rights Commission the simple celebration of Christmas — the tree, the family, the music, the gifts — is systemic racism.  I wonder if good old Santa Claus is racist.  I wonder if snow has become racist."  Blanchet pressed Trudeau to explain the document, saying, "Is Christmas racist?"  "Obviously Christmas is not racist," Trudeau responded.

Bethlehem cancels Christmas.  Bethlehem, the town where Jesus was born more than 2,000 years ago, recently announced it is "canceling" Christmas this year, in honor of Palestinians who have died in Hamas' brutal war with Israel.  Bethlehem normally generates a majority of its revenue from tourism, especially around Christmas, when Christians flock to the Church of the Nativity, thought to be on or near the site where Jesus was born in a manger.  But city officials said that virtually all decorations, including a tree, lights, and a nativity scene would be dismantled prior to December 25 in honor of Palestinian "martyrs."  It will likely penalize many Christians there.  This means that there will be no Christmas tree or decorative lights in Manger Square, which marks the spot where Jesus Christ was said to have been born, for the first time since modern celebrations began.

Girl Guides of Canada won't participate in Santa Claus parade because the event is too religious.  Due to the Girl Guides of Canada's (GGC) secularism policy, the young ladies in the Ottawa area will not be allowed to participate in this year's Santa Claus parade.  The 2023 Kanata Santa Claus Parade is happening in the west end of Ottawa on Saturday, November 25 (an entire month before the religious holiday in question!), and Kanata South Councillor Allan Hubley told CTV News that he has been reaching out to community groups and inviting them to join in on the festivities.  According to the GGC's Guiding is for Everyone handbook ("everyone" excluding those who want to celebrate Christmas), as part of their broader "diversity, equity and inclusion policy," the girls cannot participate in any activities related to "faith-based beliefs, behaviours and traditions."

A Vapid Biden Christmas?  Nothing is special about Christmas at the White House this year.  In fact, not all the Bidens are represented in their Christmas decorations as the family continually ignores one of their grandchildren — Navy Jones Roberts.  There is more of a representation to dogs and cats than bloodline this year.  This is not a family who cares about family.  Even mafias treat their own better.  When Jill Biden gave her overview of the White House Christmas decor, there was nothing special about it.  It was all secular praise.  Except for the end of her speech when she (finally!) mentioned God's blessings as if an afterthought, her speech only recognized the temporal.  At least there are no decorations of Chinese communist despots, as there were during the Obama Administration.  With Biden, we have to lower our expectations.  Biden's Christmas message was full of ... nothing.

Climate Alarmism Behind Christmas Energy Shortages.  This Christmas eve, the 65 million Americans who live in between Illinois and New Jersey may be wishing that Santa puts a lump or two of coal in their stockings.  That's because the operators of the PJM electricity grid have declared a rare, system-wide emergency, urging customers to reduce their use of electricity.  "PJM is asking consumers to reduce their use of electricity, if health permits, between the hours of 4 a.m. on December 24, 2022 and 10 a.m. on December 25, 2022," it wrote in a statement.  Say goodbye to your Christmas lights.  "Electricity customers can take simple electricity conservation steps such as... Turning off non-essential electric lights."  Nearly 7,000 customers in Pennsylvania "have no choice but to follow PJM Interconnection's request to use less electricity," reports a local newspaper.

The Rejection of 'Merry Christmas'.  "Merry Christmas" as a greeting or as a cheerful blessing of citizen-to-citizen or neighbor-to-neighbor is vanishing.  Invariably, when I wish someone in a store or in my neighborhood a Merry Christmas, they respond by saying "Happy Holidays" to me.  One woman suggested to me that Christmas was religion-specific and not all people celebrate it, which is why she uses what she believes is a more neutral term.  In other words, she believes she is being kind and showing a gentle respect for all people whether they be Christian or not.  She obviously did not understand that by not responding to my Merry Christmas, she was not obliging me, not showing me the "respect" that she is according to all others who give not even a passing thought to the birth of Christ.  Christians are getting her much-needed greeting, but she will deny them any sense of preference.  My "Merry Christmas" to her is partisan and self-absorbed, lacking the largesse of the more neutral well wishes.

The United States is rapidly becoming a secular nation.  While most Americans still celebrate Christmas as a cultural holiday, ironically, more and more are doing so in an entirely secular manner.  In fact, by all accounts, there has been a shocking rise in the number of people ditching Christianity, people sociologists apparently call "nonverts."  The Pew Research Center now estimates that Christians will be a minority in America by 2070 if current trends continue.  And that will be the end of America, as it was founded on natural law, biblical values, and the Judeo-Christian work ethic, the very reasons it was the most successful nation in history.

Leftist: Christmas would be nice if it weren't for all the icky Christian stuff.  I'm not Christian, but I've always been grateful to live in a country where people so generously share the season's beauty with me.  However, I've never lost sight of the fact that "the reason for the season" is the birth of the man that super-Catholic Joe Biden describes as "a child Christians believe to be the son of God."  In other words, Jesus Christ.  No Christ means no Christmas.  However, for one British woman, what really spoils the otherwise lovely Christmas season is all that icky Christian stuff.  Polly Toynbee, a regular columnist at The Guardian, Britain's left-leaning newspaper, wrote a column entitled (for real), "Christmas comes with good cheer.  The tragedy is the religious baggage."  Yeah, it's a real shame about the reason for the season.

Teachers trying to protect their students from Christian symbols.  Incredibly — and illogically — the same teachers who push Critical Race Theory (CRT) in the classroom and revel in discussing every conceivable sexual orientation and practice with young students are absolutely determined to keep their charges from being exposed to any Christian symbols during the Christmas season.  In fact, they don't want you to even say the word "Christmas."  The blog We Are Teachers recently reposted a 2018 Facebook article titled "Holiday Decorations Don't Belong in Classrooms — Period."  So, it's okay to adorn one's classroom with a LGBTQ and/or BLM flag, but not with Christmas decorations?  Yup.  Why?  The article cited a number of reasons, including the fact that "not everyone celebrates Christmas."  Well, not everyone celebrates gay pride or the burning and looting of American cities, either, but that doesn't seem to matter to these insane "educators."  Another reason listed was, "The holidays are difficult for a lot of kids."  Yeah, well I'd say being forced by adults to talk about sexuality is difficult for all kids.

Is Christmas really a pagan festival?  It's as much a part of the season now as baubles, tinsel and the Christmas Number One: those articles, blogs and memes that pop up during the festive season claiming that Christmas, in spite of the name, is actually a pagan festival.  Certainly, the visitor to contemporary Britain would be forgiven for thinking that Christmas has little or nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ; and indeed there are many things we do at Christmas, and have done for centuries, that seem to have scant connection to any sort of religious celebration.  What does decking the halls with boughs of holly have to do with Jesus?  Or Christmas pudding?  Or Christmas ghost stories?  Or the older traditions of misrule, riotous mumming and reversing positions of authority?  Clearly the festive season's sometimes tenuous relationship to the Christian faith is not just a recent outcome of secularisation.  There simply never was a time when Christmas was a purely religious festival, blissfully uncommercialised and holy, as some earnest clergy might like us to believe.  Its ambiguous nature as a festival both sacred and profane is a feature of Christmas, not a bug.  But does that mean that Christmas is pagan?

Joe Biden Delivers Christmas Address Without Saying the Word 'Jesus'.  "How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given," Biden began, as he delivered his address to reporters at the White House.  The president spoke about a "child" born on Christmas but did not speak the child's name.  "We look to the sky to a lone star, shining brighter than all the rest guiding us to the birth of a child, a child that Christians believe to be the Son of God," he said.  Biden also spoke several times about the "light" and "peace" at the heart of Christmas.

Why Leftists Are so Miserable on Christmas.  [Scroll down] I think for some libs there is deep, hidden guilt during the holidays.  I know of several lefties who have thus far "Hunter Biden-ed" their way through life — meaning, they live off of mommy and daddy.  Imagine pretending you're "down with the cause" when you've spent your entire existence with a full fridge, located in a neighborhood where every driveway is home to a Lexus.  You show me an Antifa meeting, and I'll show you a bunch of rich kids who have never worked and whose parents never said no to them.  Yet they don their Che Guevera t-shirts and play the role of the revolutionary, knowing full well that when their little commie meeting is over, mumsy left some organic, plant-based meatloaf for them in the fridge back home.

Human rights commissioner in MA quits after mocking God, blasting 'trash' Christians amid Christmas tree spat.  A member of a Boston suburb's Human Rights Commission resigned after posting a profanity-laden post to Facebook last week that mocked God and cursed her fellow citizens amid controversy regarding a local library's Christmas trees.  The town of Dedham, Massachusetts, about 30 miles southwest of Boston, drew national attention after Lisa Desmond, manager of the local Endicott Branch Library, wrote on Facebook earlier this month that its annual Christmas tree display had apparently been canceled to prevent offending people.  "I have never posted a negative post on Facebook," Desmond wrote on Dec. 2.  "That is, until now.  I found out today that my beautiful library will not have [its] Christmas tree this year."

If There's No War On Christmas, Why Do Multinationals Ban The Word In U.S. But Not In U.K.?  I wanted to contribute again this year to VDARE.com's War Against Christmas coverage, by bringing to your attention the meticulous nature of how corporate advertisers and marketers across the board carefully delineate two separate "December celebrations," depending on which side of the Pond you are on.  As your contributor James Fulford has repeatedly pointed out, The Economist magazine has a "Christmas Double Issue" in Britain — but a "Holiday Double Issue" in the States. [...] This isn't an isolated incident unique to one corporation.  In fact, it happens virtually across the board within companies that run both U.S. and U.K. operations simultaneously.  It seems there's some unwritten rule amongst corporate marketers that any time a reference to the "December celebratory period" is mentioned for a U.S.-centered market, the word "Holiday" must be exclusively used, whereas for U.K. or other markets, the expected and normal word "Christmas" is used.

Washington School District Bans, Then Unbans Christmas Music on Buses.  Washington's Evergreen Public Schools (EPS) banned and then quickly unbanned the playing of Christmas music on school buses.  The district, located in Vancouver, Washington, sent out the memo, which was addressed to "All School Bus Drivers."  The memo, obtained by Breitbart News, was titled "Christmas Music with Students on Board."  It read, "Please refrain from playing Christmas music while students of any grade level are on your school bus."  The memo, dated November 28th, 2022, went on to say, "We want our students who do not celebrate" to "feel safe and comfortable on the bus and those who do have opportunities outside of school to sing their songs."  The memo was signed "Yvonne" by Yvonne Gaylord, the district's Transportation Director.

UK Diversity Group Calls to Rethink Christmas and Spare Feelings of Non-Christians.  Too many people feel left out of Christmas celebrations due to their own faith — or lack of it — so the traditional Christian season should be downplayed, a UK-based diversity lobby group said.  The call comes after statistics showed less than half of the population of England and Wales described themselves as Christian in the 2021 census, meaning Christianity is now a minority religion, as Breitbart News reported.  Both atheism and Islam are making major gains as more people reportedly feel left out as a "heavy emphasis on celebrating the birth of Jesus," can exclude others, according to Watch This Sp_ce, a self-described diversity and inclusion consultancy.

The green mob won't rest until Christmas joy is utterly destroyed.  The planet-saving Puritans are coming for Christmas, armed with righteous zeal and tins of soup to hurl at your father-in-law's framed watercolours.  There will be no DFS vans delivering new sofas in suburbia.  Even the Pope's festive tree is at risk of being cancelled.  Wait — is that Mariah Carey I hear playing, comrade?  Cease and desist or we'll glue ourselves to your porch.  Cometh the most wonderful time of the year, cometh the Winterval wokeys who want to bully, harangue and guilt trip us into performative misery and handwringing Weltschmerz.  Yes, there is much to feel bleak about, what with inflation, energy prices and the war in Ukraine.  But just because we could be depressed doesn't mean we should, and it most certainly doesn't mean we must.  Where's the harm in putting up a Norway spruce and bringing an LED twinkle into our chilly homes?  Frankly, warming the cockles of our hearts is a lot cheaper than warming the rest of us.

Elementary School Canceled 'Jingle Bells' This Year to Fight Racism.  Christmas is over, and I hope you had a good one — filled with the sights and sounds of the season.  For one elementary school in New York, the above didn't quite work out.  For the sake of equity, the school canceled "Jingle Bells." [...] An announcement was made earlier this year on the district's public website, which hosts a section on "Diversity and Equity."

MSNBC Guest: 'My Favorite Thing Is Hating on Christmas'.  I'll actually give Tiffany Cross some credit: she made an effort to keep her MSNBC Christmas show today largely upbeat and apolitical.  Lots of light-hearted stuff about "what's your fave Christmas movie, song?" etc.  That is, until Cross welcomed Michael Harriot onto the show, and ugly anti-Christian and anti-white bigotry broke out.

Elementary School Bans Jingle Bells As Having "The Potential To Be Controversial Or Offensive".  "Jingle Bells" is one of the most performed and well-known secular holiday songs ever written, not only in the United States, but around the world.  It's the first song to have been broadcast from space — by Gemini 6 astronauts nine days before Christmas in 1965.  It's regularly been sung at the White House — most recently by President Barack Obama and his family upon lighting the National Christmas Tree in 2016.  But "Jingle Bells" isn't being sung anymore at Brighton's Council Rock Primary School.  "Jingle Bells," explained Council Rock principal Matt Tappon in an email, has been replaced with other songs that don't have "the potential to be controversial or offensive."

Sorry Santa, you're too white, straight and male.  Santa Claus is too white, too straight and too male for most young people in the UK today, according to a poll.  The modern depiction of Father Christmas as an old white man with a big bushy beard who wears a red and white suit was made globally famous by Coca Cola's adverts of the 1930s.

The Editor says...
The rest of the article is not "family friendly" enough to be quoted here.  Here's a synopsis:  Perverts are in favor of spreading perversion.  Feminists spread feminism wherever they can.  Communists are in favor of destroying all traditions.  One might easily wonder if the "poll" cited in the article above was really just an incitement, to get all the left-wing fruitcakes to offer up their favorite suggestions.

Secularist group targets decades-long tradition of laying wreaths on soldiers' tombs.  A secularist non-profit organization that strongly urges separation of church and state in America is taking issue with Wreaths Across America's nearly 30-year tradition of placing wreaths on thousands of military graves.  The Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) is calling out Wreaths Across America, telling the Colorado Springs Gazette that the organization's actions in placing wreaths on military gravesites around the country are "unconstitutional, an atrocity and a disgrace."

Luxembourg Gov Locks The Unvaccinated Out Of Christmas, Thousands Rush Christmas Market, Run Over Barricades.  Protests turned raucous on Saturday against Luxembourg's government efforts to drive disease-protecting vaccines as demonstrators tried to push into a Christmas market site without being screened for their infection risk.  Over 2,000 people demonstrated against the government's increasing measures limiting social life for the unvaccinated, with marchers carrying their message through the capital's city center, police said.  Some knocked down barriers around Place de la Constitution — site of the Gëlle Fra, or Golden Lady, monument — to bypass mandatory checks, according to Luxemburger Wort reporters at the scene.  [Video clip]

The Fifth-Generation War On Christmas.  I despise Christmas music.  I hate it.  I can't stand it.  I don't want to listen to a single minute of it, and I certainly don't want to listen to it starting at Thanksgiving and stretching right up to New Year's.  Plenty of people share a moderated version of my opinion: that the music should be restricted to the actual Christmas season, which begins on December 25 and extends to Epiphany. [...] Because the problem is not that hearing "All I Want for Christmas Is You" three times a day for 30 days straight would drive any reasonable person mad.  The problem is that hearing "All I want for Christmas Is You" just once is an abomination. [...] This year (and I'm sure in others) the suggestion has been circulated that the entire Santa Claus Industrial Complex operates with insidious intent — even more insidious, that is, than the reduction of the incarnation of the Creator of the universe to a cheap commercial jubilee.

White House in Full Crisis Mode Over the Fate of Christmas.  If Joe Biden had been asked to create a scenario where he was 100 percent guaranteed to lose his re-election bid, the supply-chain crisis would top the list.  Even though it's still nearly three years to Election Day, a ruined Christmas is the kind of catastrophe that the American people will never forget — or forgive.

The Real Stakes of the War on Christmas.  This year the annual attacks on Christmas went beyond complaints about holiday salutations or public creches.  Blue-state governors and mayors like California's Gavin Newsom and government clerks like Anthony Fauci have issued diktats forbidding even private celebrations of Christmas by more than one family at a time.  These orders follow on this year's lockdown protocols that made liquor stores, pot dispensaries, and violent protests "essential," while church services were verboten.  These assaults on faith illustrate how far secularism has infiltrated our culture.

Five ways Google is trying to kill Christmas.  The search engine currently features a Doodle adorned with Christmasy lights in homage to December holidays, but goes to considerable lengths to minimize the month's signature celebration.  Click on the image at Google.com and up pops "December global holidays" content that downplays and diverts readers from the true meaning of Christmas, the world's most popular holiday.  First, it shares a default page from worldstrides.com that dryly mentions Christmas and gives equal weight to a list of contrived and obscure celebrations such as Kwanzaa and Boxing Day (sorry, Mum and Canada).  It gives Christmas, observed by more than a quarter of the planet, less space than Hanukkah, a minor one in the Jewish calendar.  Second, Google intentionally pushes a non-Christmas narrative.  The search results include a "People Also Ask" box that directs users to content such as:  What country does not celebrate Christmas in December?" and "What holidays besides Christmas are celebrated in December?"  The box also asks and answers "What are Global Holidays?" by touting the spiritual significance of the month for Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans and Zoroastrians.

The First COVID Christmas.  There was plenty of space under the tree this year.  Not anything to do at all with being good or bad.  Rather, that the usual bulk of boxes, fruit baskets, bangles, and bows have been replaced by a coterie of cute little string-handle bags containing a variety of personal protective equipment and all of its accoutrement.  Ugly Sweaters with mismatched patterns have given way to costly designer masks, and perfumes and colognes to hand sanitizers.

What the Lockdown Leviathans Don't Get.  Sure — usually "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas" by, say, the end of November.  But Meredith Willson's classic Holiday tune didn't quite come true this year.  After all, here's just a starter list of things that were either banned or restricted this holiday season:  Christmas family gatherings; Christmas concerts; Christmas tree lighting ceremonies; Christmas parties; Christmas worship services; Christmas sing-alongs; Christmas season sporting events; Christmas shopping trips; and even Christmas visits with Santa.  More broadly, nearly every conceivable social activity, aside from popping out to a grocery store to stave off starvation (or, possibly, suicide) for another week, was either banned or severely restricted this year for millions of us.

War on Christmas?  Biden's Ag Sec Once Tried to Tax Christmas Trees.  President-elect Joe Biden's pick to lead the Department of Agriculture tried to put a tax on Christmas trees the last time he was in charge of the agency.  Tom Vilsack (D.), a former Iowa governor who was agriculture secretary when Biden was vice president, implemented a 15-cent tax on each live Christmas tree in the United States in 2011.  His attempt ultimately fell short:  Facing widespread criticism, the Obama administration paused the tax just one day after it went into effect and abandoned it altogether the following week.  Vilsack's agency said the Christmas-tree tax was intended to subsidize a $2 million advertising campaign to counter market trends that it claimed increasingly favored plastic Christmas trees over their live counterparts.  It was also intended to fund research into growing trees that shed fewer needles.

Travel numbers spike despite calls to cancel Christmas.  Americans are hitting the road in record numbers despite government warnings that people should stay home during the Christmas holidays to limit the spread of COVID-19.  A fresh load of infections, hospitalizations and even deaths — on top of an already devastating year — has prompted a new round of travel bans and lockdown measures in some states.  There is no blanket restriction nationwide, though, and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened more than 1.1 million passengers at airline security checkpoints nationwide on Wednesday, the most since March 16.

I'll be Home for Christmas.  This year, "I'll Be Home for Christmas," tells a different story.  It tells the story of the millions of Americans, at home, who will spend Christmas alone.  And not because they want to, but because their governors and mayors have obligated them to do so.  Christmas is canceled due to COVID.  It is now your moral duty to remain home.  Skip that Christmas Mass at your local church, cancel your visit to Grandma's, decline any holiday party that might make you feel human again.  Apparently, nine months of lockdowns, shutdowns, mask directives and social distancing, haven't done a thing to quell the spread, so let's throw in a few more unconstitutional mandates to keep the tyranny going.  In fact, according to the CDC, if you forgo their first guideline to "limit gatherings," you are encouraged to eat outdoors.  I guess catching pneumonia in the frigid cold is a small price to pay in stopping the spread of COVID.  Wear masks, even in between bites, according to California governor Gavin Newsom, a request so ridiculous he himself chose to forgo wearing a mask as he wined and dined on "Oysters and Pearls" at the lavish French Laundry restaurant in Napa Valley.

The Left's War on Christmas Trees.  The renewable energy movement insists that Americans must drastically reduce carbon dioxide emissions, propounding grandiose "New Deal" solutions that employ government to compel a shift in manufacturing industries.  Meanwhile, in revolt against COVID isolation, Americans are celebrating Christmas in 2020 "with bells on."  Will the Biden administration one day legislate whether Americans can display a live Christmas tree versus an artificial one, based on carbon footprint as part of its green new deal?  Or maybe ban decorative trees altogether?  If proponents of eco-change are serious, America's Christmas is difficult to ignore.  COVID has inspired a record celebration of Yuletide festivities:  some $2 billion will be spent on Christmas trees this year.

The Real Stakes of the War on Christmas.  This year the annual attacks on Christmas went beyond complaints about holiday salutations or public creches.  Blue-state governors and mayors like California's Gavin Newsom and government clerks like Anthony Fauci have issued diktats forbidding even private celebrations of Christmas by more than one family at a time.  These orders follow on this year's lockdown protocols that made liquor stores, pot dispensaries, and violent protests "essential," while church services were verboten.  These assaults on faith illustrate how far secularism has infiltrated our culture.  And although in some states the Supreme Court has struck down such restrictions on the First Amendment's freedoms of religion and assembly, this tactical victory will not stop the strategic advances being made by those who want to remove God from public life in order to monopolize the authority to tell us how we should live and what we should believe.

Choose Christmas Joy Over Covid Fear.  Christmas, a time of joy, family, birth, and renewal is just days away.  It is a time and season that we need now more than ever.  Since March the entire world has been running under a heavy umbrella of doom and gloom.  The virus has dominated everything.  Government intrusion into our lives, businesses, churches, and more has become all encompassing and, quite frankly, unConstitutional on many fronts.  As we noted this fall, the CDC was issuing guidelines on how to cancel Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.  Times of joy and family must now be suppressed.  And we are supposed to be ok with that.  We are supposed to follow and adhere to the latest warnings by Anthony Fauci.  He is canceling Christmas.

Will Vermont have child COVID informants for Christmas?  Vermonters have not been advised whether their families will be allowed to gather for Christmas.  Vermont governor Phil Scott's Thanksgiving prohibition of family gatherings raised eyebrows nationally.  Post-holiday, schoolchildren were quizzed by teachers and sent home if they reported visitors in their homes.  Will Christmas be similarly policed?

"Merry Christmas" Project Educates About First Amendment Rights.  Every year governments try to ban references to Christmas in public schools and on public property.  Many stories and questions regarding such restrictions reach the desk of Texas Values team members during the Christmas season.  "We hope that less school districts are naughty and more are nice.  Texas protects anyone who wants to celebrate Christmas without fear of political correctness," said Jonathan Saenz, attorney and president of Texas Values.  "The Merry Christmas Texas Project ensures public school students and parents are knowledgeable about the common-sense safeguards in Texas law that protect their First Amendment rights."  [Video clip]

COVID-19 tyrants now set sights on Christmas.  Watch out.  One of Joe Biden's coronavirus advisory board members told CNN that Americans need to give up their Christmas parties in order to help contain the spread of COVID-19.  Who died and made these political hacks the keeper of the constitutional rights?  Look, we know the coronavirus is harmful to health — fatal even to some.  But we know, too, that the coronavirus is not a fraction as fatal or even harmful as what the political hacks say.

Minnesota resident's Christmas light display shamed for 'harmful impact' to community in anonymous letter.  St.  Anthony, Minnesota resident Kim Hunt received an anonymous letter from a neighbor on Monday [12/7/2020] chastising she [sic] and her husband for their Christmas light display.  "I couldn't help but notice your Christmas light display.  During these unprecedented times, we have all experienced challenges which casual words just don't describe what we're feeling.  The idea of twinkling, colorful lights are a reminder of divisions that continue to run through our society, a reminder of systemic biases against our neighbors who don't celebrate Christmas or who can't afford to put up lights of their own," the letter, shared by Crime Watch Minneapolis, reads.  "We must do the work of educating ourselves about the harmful impact an outward facing display like yours can have."  The letter then challenges Hunt to "respect the dignity of all people, while striving to learn from differences, ideas, and opinions of our neighbors."

First, They Came for Thanksgiving; Now They Are Coming for Christmas.  Kate Brown, the Governor of Oregon, was rather ambivalent in her approach to violence during the time Portland was torched by radical mobs.  In fact, she thanked "Oregonians for expressing their free speech rights largely through joyful celebrations..."  But Gov. Brown apparently did some soul searching since the election.  She found a joyful celebration about to be held by unquestionable enemies of the people.  It turns out actual domestic terrorists are Oregonians who wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving.  It's extremists who wished to dine on turkey and all the trimmings who are dangerous, as they are potential super-spreaders of disease and destruction.  Therefore, it's Thanksgiving celebrations that need to be tightly regulated.  It's Thanksgiving celebrants who need to be fined and sent to jail if they transgress the regulations the governor has established by executive order.

You Can Count on Education Elites to Wage War on Christmas.  Having spent 20 years in education, teaching every grade from the second through graduate school, I am not shocked by the outcome.  As I have said on many occasions, there is more free speech allowed in local pubs than there is on local college campuses.  The schools are quick to celebrate the alleged achievements of other religions and other peoples.  Yet, they want nothing to do with celebrations of Christians.  This certainly includes Christmas.

King Newsom bans indoor gatherings for Thanksgiving and Christmas.  California won't allow indoor family gatherings for the holidays, Christmas and Thanksgiving, and outdoor gatherings are limited to three families for a maximum of two hours.  This is arbitrary and tyrannical.  "Gatherings that include more than 3 households are prohibited.  This includes everyone present, including hosts and guests.  Remember, the smaller the number of people, the safer," reads the "Guidance for Private Gatherings," issued by the California Department of Public Health on October 9.

Standing up to the PC Bullies.  Leading up to Christmas, corporate cowardice finally jumped the shark:  Microsoft posted an icon of Santa's fur fringed crimson hat in their visual studio.  A single person complained — just one:  Santa means religion he whined.  Stop promoting Santa, stop promoting religion.  Obsequious Microsoft complied.  The icon vanished.  It didn't matter that fourth century Nicolas of Myra spent his life taking care of the poor and sick.  It didn't matter that honoring this great man's humanity is always appropriate.  It didn't matter that the nation loves Santa.  St. Nick must go.  And go he did, banished from Microsoft — banished by corporate cowards.  This corporate kowtowing to complaint has become all too common.

The Editor says...
[#1] Santa Claus is about as secular as he can be.  Personally, I find it offensive to see any depiction of Santa Claus in a Christian church because Santa Claus has no place there.  [#2] No company should bend to the will of any less than 51% of their employees on matters as trivial as this.  A company with managers as weak and malleable as this cannot succeed.

In England, Muslims are Turning Christmas Into Festivus.  The latest manifestation of Islamic supremacism, leaching the meaning out of Christian observances, comes from Whitehall Primary School. [...] ["]Children at a primary school have been told not to sing the word 'Lord' in the Christmas carol Away In A Manger, so that pupils of all beliefs can join in....["]  But which is more important:  to allow Christian children to recognize Jesus as their "Lord," as they have for two thousand years, or to change utterly what Jesus signifies, in order to make sure that "pupils of all beliefs can join in"? [...] We all know the answer:  it is the swelling population of Muslims, who now feel numerous and powerful enough to demand that Christians change the essence of their religious observances to accommodate them.

Using Christmas as a political tool:
Pete Buttigieg Calls Jesus Christ an Impoverished 'Refugee' in Christmas Message.  On Christmas Day, South Bend, Indiana, Mayor and 2020 Democrat Pete Buttigieg declared Jesus Christ an impoverished "refugee" without ever explicitly mentioning his name. [...] Buttigieg's calling Jesus Christ "a refugee" came days after he released his national immigration plan, in which he vows to import at least 125,000 refugees in his first year in office.  Likewise, Buttigieg said he will push Congress to pass a law that bans the United States from admitting any less than 95,000 refugees a year.

Vandals Destroy Christmas Decorations Across New Jersey Neighborhood.  Westfield Police are ramping up patrols after two vandals destroyed Christmas decorations across a New Jersey neighborhood.  The grinches were caught on surveillance camera, but have not yet been identified.

Brunei makes celebrating Christmas a criminal offense.  Imagine the outcry if any nation had made celebrating any Islamic festival a criminal offense.  But no one will take any significant note of this.

Woman punches person repeatedly after they wished her a 'Merry Christmas'.  One local woman is apparently so fed up with Christmas, police say she beat someone up over it.  Henrietta Bush is facing an assault charge.  It all began when someone wished her a "Merry Christmas" in Avondale Wednesday [12/25/2019].  Police say Bush responded by repeatedly punching that person in the face.

Black Lives Matter protests Christmas shopping in attempt to 'disrupt white capitalism'.  Honoring its six-year "Black Xmas" tradition, Black Lives Matter organized protests this Christmas season to disrupt holiday shoppers and encourage the disruption of so-called "white capitalism."  According to The Daily Wire, one such demonstration was held just this past weekend with nearly a thousand activists taking to the streets of Los Angeles in the organization's Mass March for Justice.  But the march was not all Black Lives Matter Los Angeles had planned in order to stick it to the man Sunday [12/22/2019].  Instead, the protesters proceeded to descend on the Hollywood & Highland shopping center in an attempt to "interrupt commerce on the weekend before Christmas" and end with a bang their month-long campaign advocating that holiday shopping no longer be done at upscale, white-owned businesses.

Climate Nags are Trying to Ruin Christmas.  [Scroll down]  Sadly, climate scolds are attempting to rob people of the joy and hope inherent in Christmas.  They are playing the role of the unredeemed Grinch, telling everyone that unless they turn off their Christmas lights, give up their Christmas sweaters, and stop buying and exchanging gifts, the world will end.  Climate Grinches proclaim celebrating Christmas is bad for the planet.  It all began on the much feared and anticipated "Black Friday," when around the world climate protestors attempted to block the entrances of retailers opening their doors to what is traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year.  Based on sales figures, most holiday shoppers ignored the protestors.  In Germany, after years of indoctrination by the cult of climate alarmism, a recent survey revealed 57 percent of households that celebrate Christmas expect to reduce their use of Christmas lights, with 11 percent of those surveyed saying they will not use Christmas lights at all this year; another 10 percent said they expect to not use Christmas lights in future years.

Trump Administration Investigates Ban on Christmas Decorations at HUD Complex.  The Trump administration has launched an investigation into the management company of a Missouri 55-and-older housing development for its ban on Christmas lights and yard displays.  Non-profit litigation organization Liberty Counsel reports officials with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are investigating MACO Management Company's ban on Christmas lights and décor displays at Grandview Estates, a housing development that is subsidized by HUD.

America is reclaiming Christmas.  This month, President Trump lit the National Christmas Tree on the Mall in Washington.  In a certain sense, it's nothing new.  The president has lit the National Christmas tree on the mall virtually every year since 1923.  But what makes this year so special is that the president didn't shy away from the true meaning of the season.

Satanists at the Christmas Party.  What Christians in America have known for at least two generations is that there's always someone itching to spoil their Christmas party in the name of diversity, separation of church and state, individual "rights" or some other doctrinal tenet of the Dark Side.

'Christmas' has become a bad word everyone is too afraid to say.  This past week, I scanned the food section of The New York Times online for Christmas recipes.  Scrolling from top to bottom, I found "Desserts That Bring the Party, but Not the Fuss," "A Festive Cake With a Big Reveal," "A Seafood Pie for the Feast" and even "The Golden Crunch of Churros for Hanukkah."  But there was not a single solitary recipe for anything bearing the name "Christmas."

Public Schools Are Not Christmas-Free Zones.  Some children in public schools are able to share the excitement of Christmas with classmates, others are not.  Misunderstandings about the whole issue of faith in public schools make headlines every December.  Schools displaying nativity scenes, singing Christmas music and even presenting "Charlie Brown's Christmas" are threatened with expensive lawsuits by groups working to keep Americans free from religion.  Misapplied claims of violation of the separation of church and state have even been known to prevent a teacher from using red and green decorative paper on a bulletin board.

Trump's America:  Majority Prefer 'Merry Christmas' Over 'Happy Holidays'.  According to Rasmussen, 68 percent of American adults say "Christmas should be more about Jesus Chris[t] than about Santa Claus."  Only 16 percent say they emphasize Santa, another 15 percent are undecided (how you can be undecided on this one is rather interesting to me.  Perhaps those undecideds are non-Christians.  That would explain it).  In 2014, support for Jesus over Santa Claus was 60 percent.  However, back in 2012, 76 percent of Americans supported putting the emphasis on a religious rather than a mythical figure during Christmas.

Neil Gorsuch Said 'Merry Christmas' On Television And People Are Going Crazy.  Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch set off a minor social media frenzy Tuesday after appearing on "Fox and Friends" and wishing host Ainsley Earhardt "Merry Christmas" during an interview promoting his book.  Leftwing critics suggested the justice was signaling his sympathies with people disturbed at the secularization of American public life by saying "Merry Christmas" instead of its capacious alternative "Happy Holidays."

Why the Left Doesn't Like Christmas.  Many on the left (as opposed to liberals) have been warring on Christmas for more than a generation.  Leftists always deny there is a war on Christmas and mock those who claim there is.  There is a mind-blowing chutzpah or lack of self-awareness when people do something and yet deny that they are actually doing it.  But the evidence is overwhelming.  The left has stopped schools from calling Christmas vacations by that name — the name schools called them throughout American history until the last couple of decades.  Almost every non-Christian school in America now calls Christmas vacation "winter break."  Fewer and fewer Americans, stores, companies or media wish people a "Merry Christmas," preferring the neutered "happy holidays" (despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans celebrate Christmas).  And in but one generation, virtually every American business has gone from having a "Christmas party" to having a "holiday party."

Only God's truth can create a healthy life, culture.  Evil has a brilliant way of operating.  Very seldom does the devil appear with horns and pitchfork; he more often masquerades as an angel of light.  At Christmas he comes in the form of the "happy holiday" celebrations complete with sparkly lights and presents under the "holiday" tree.  The goal is to make us feel good for a moment — to believe that all is well as we lounge before the fireplace, our hearts full from the kisses of our children and our tummies full from our "holiday" dinner.  In this beautiful moment of secular euphoria there is no need to ponder truth; no need to look to the Christ child for answers.  Yet tomorrow will come with its inevitable struggles.  And so evil tells us that there really is no need to worry.  After all, it is nothing more than another battle of ideas.

Putting the 'Christ' Back in Christmas.  President Donald Trump added a radical twist to the annual National Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony last Friday by invoking the divinity of Jesus Christ.  You would think revering the season's central figure would be expected, but you'd be wrong.  Although his predecessor, Barack Obama, mentioned the Nativity in general terms as "the story of a child born far from home ... who'd ultimately spread a message that has endured for more than 2,000 years," the more direct Trump went right to the sacred heart of the matter.

Claremont nativity scene depicts Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees separated in cages.  A Methodist church in Claremont unveiled a Nativity scene Saturday night [12/7/2019] depicting Jesus, Mary and Joseph as refugees in cages, likening one of the most well-known images of the Christmas season to photos that have become synonymous with criticism of the Trump administration's border separation policies.  The display, which has stoked debate on the Facebook page of the church's lead pastor, shows classic Nativity figurines of Joseph and Mary in cages on either side of a cage containing the manger of Jesus.  "We see this as, in some ways, the Holy Family standing in for the nameless families," said the Rev. Karen Clark Ristine, the lead pastor at Claremont United Methodist Church.  "We've heard of their plight; we've seen how these asylum seekers have been greeted and treated.  We wanted the Holy Family to stand in for those nameless people because they also were refugees."

The Editor says...
Some variation of this canard is now a standard feature of at least one politically-active Methodist or Episcopal church (with a female "Reverend," of course) every year.  Joseph and Mary were not homeless.  They were traveling because of a government decree having to do with taxes.  They were not trying to sneak into another country.  They were not refugees.

War On Christmas Leads to "Merry Christmas Texas" Project; Educates about First Amendment Rights.  Every year we hear of stories where the government tries to ban references to Christmas in public schools and on public property.  This week, Texas Values announced the launch of its annual "Merry Christmas Texas Project," a statewide effort to educate and protect the acknowledgment of Christmas in public schools.  The Merry Christmas Texas Law (HB308) authored by State Representative Dwayne Bohac which passed with bipartisan support in the Texas Legislature and was signed into law in 2013 protects the religious liberty of children, parents, teachers, and school staff.  The Texas Values legal and policy team helped draft the law.

Environmentalists: Thanksgiving, Christmas Holidays' Carbon Footprint Bad for Planet.  Before you sit down for your Thanksgiving feast or unwrap this year's gifts tucked under the Christmas tree, environmentalists want you to know that your holiday traditions are contributing to climate change and hurting the planet.  Media reports on this bad news are popping up everywhere online as Turkey Day arrives, including on the Earth Day Network website under the holiday-themed headline:  "Don't let consumerism consume your holiday" and the subhead "It's (not) a wonderful life[.]"

Tree Lighting Removed From Annual Holiday Celebration In Durham, NH After Complaints.  A Durham, New Hampshire celebration scheduled for the beginning of holidays is undergoing some changes this year in an effort to remove religious overtones.  Formerly called the Annual Tree Lighting Ceremony, the newly named Frost Fest will include the absence of a formal tree lighting.  Santa will be at the event but he will not arrive in a town firetruck as he has in the past.  The wreaths that traditionally adorned lamp posts on Main Street will also not be present this year.

Mayor won't rename annual Christmas parade after 'disappointing and hurtful' backlash.  The mayor of West Virginia's capital city on Thursday [10/10/2019] reversed a decision to change the name of the annual holiday parade after intense backlash from church leaders and conservatives.

Banned Christmas Songs.  Since they decided to pull "Baby it's Cold Outside" from its playlist because someone was offended, I feel that these other holiday songs are also on the chopping block.  How did our generation ever survive?

200 Years Ago Today Silent Night Was First Performed at St. Nikola Church in Oberndorf, Austria.  Silent Night is the most famous Christmas song in the world.  Even Maria von Trapp and her Family sang it in front of the White House in Washington after World War II to get money for careboxes to be sent to Austria.  On 24th December 1818, Joseph Mohr and Franz Xaver Gruber sang "Silent Night" in Oberndorf near Salzburg for the first time.  The poem was written by Mohr, a young pastor from Salzburg, and the melody was composed by the teacher and organist Gruber from Upper Austria.

Across Minnesota, thieves steal baby Jesus statues away from the manger.  David Gibson woke up to a strange, sad surprise outside the bed-and-breakfast he runs in Alexandria, Minn., earlier this month:  The baby Jesus figurine from his oversized, lit-up Nativity set was missing.  "I came out that morning and the [extension] cords were pulled out of the manger," said Gibson, owner of the Cedar Rose Inn.  "Jesus was gone."  Gibson said Monday [12/24/2018] that he combed the area looking for the 10-inch infant, but he hasn't found Jesus yet.

Iraq officially makes Christmas Day a national holiday.  The Iraqi Cabinet approved a law to mark Christmas Day, December 25, as an official holiday across the country "on the occasion of the birth of Jesus Christ," according to a statement released by the Iraqi government.  The Cabinet voted on an amendment to the national holidays law in the country that Christmas Day is a holiday for all Iraqis, and not only for the Christian community, as it had been for decades.

How the Creator of 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' Got the Gospel Past CBS Execs.  Watching A Charlie Brown Christmas has been a tradition for millions since it first aired on December 9, 1965.  While many love the iconic Vince Guaraldi score, the humor and the animation, one part of the special has always stood out and made it unique:  Linus's recitation of the Gospel of Luke.

America's National Character As a Christmas Truth.  Christmas is a favorite celebration the world over.  Children anticipate, neighbors decorate.  Families gather, communities unite.  Businesses close, politicians retreat.  Much of the world joins together in celebration — and not just in lands of Christian heritage.  For one moment a hush descends globally.  Even battlefields sometimes stop the carnage, however briefly.  Yet, as much of humanity prepares to suspend normally busy lives, what does the holiday mean to those who most enthusiastically celebrate it, and to our national freedom as conceived?

Heathen Michael Moore Mocks Christmas; Puts Ruth Bader Ginsburg Doll as Tree Topper.  With each passing year the American left escalates their attacks our the country's Christian roots and symbols.  Socialist Michael Moore posted photos of his Christmas tree this year with a Ruth Bader Ginsburg doll on top.

How the Movies Invented Christmas.  It is a well-attested historical fact that the publication of "A Christmas Carol," the best-loved book by the best-selling English-language novelist of the 19th century, had the unintended consequence of reintroducing Christmas to countless Britons and Americans who had stopped observing the holiday.  And its influence continues to be felt:  Dickens's 1843 novella has been adapted more than three dozen times for film and television since 1901.  Moreover, the vast majority of America's most popular Christmas films contain plot twists that are derived, at one or more removes, from "A Christmas Carol."

The Latest Survey About Christmas Confirms a National Trend.  A new study from Lifeway Research reveals that "most Americans want more religious meaning to the Christmas season."  Sixty-five percent of those surveyed said, "Christmas should be more about Jesus."  While that might sound like good news for Christians, the number of Americans who want to "keep Christ in Christmas" — while still a majority — is quickly declining.

Police Threaten Fines for Woman Who Invited Lonely People to Christmas Dinner.  A British woman was threatened with fines by local police for putting up signs inviting lonely people to Christmas dinner, according to Fox. [...] With British police busy taking knives off the streets after the government upped its assault on inanimate objects, one might think they'd be too busy to dole out fines for hanging flyers.  But police states always have time to infringe upon the freedom of their residents.

The 8 Best Christmas Songs You've Probably Never Heard.  People either love or hate Christmas music — there's rarely ever anyone in between.  I happen to fall into the former camp, although my holiday playlist is about half Christmas music and half regular music.  One of the problems with Christmas music is that we hear the same songs over and over again throughout the season.  It's easy even for someone who loves Christmas music to get tired of it by the end of December.  But that doesn't have to be the case.  You can find plenty of terrific Christmas songs that you won't hear in the stores or on the radio, and they can be welcome additions to your holiday enjoyment.

War on Christmas:  Town Removes Nativity Scene to Satisfy Christian Haters.  With the war on Christmas heating up, a city in Washington State has removed its traditional nativity scene over complaints from anti-Christian activists.  Officials at Woodland, Washington, banished its nativity scene to an abandoned lot in town removing it from city property because a few haters complained about the decades-old display.  City leaders noted that no one has ever complained about the display in the past.  But, after moving the scene, town leaders have gotten far, far more complaints for moving the display.

Principal bans candy canes, says 'J shape' stands for Jesus.  An elementary school principal in Nebraska was placed on leave after telling teachers to avoid decorating their classrooms with Christmas-themed ornaments so as not to offend those who don't celebrate the holiday.  The principal at Manchester Elementary School, identified by Fox affiliate KPTM as Jennifer Sinclair, sent out a memo earlier this week with guidelines as to what is considered appropriate for classroom decorations and assignments.  Teachers reportedly were told that generic winter-themed items, such as sledding and scarves, and the "Frozen" character Olaf, were acceptable.  Decorations that included Santa, Christmas trees, reindeer, green and red items and even candy canes, however, were not acceptable for the elementary school.

Atheists target Christmas, Hanukkah displays.  For as long as anyone can remember, a Nativity scene has been displayed during the Christmas season in front of the public library in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, but not this year.  After Americans United for Separation of Church and State dangled the threat of a lawsuit, the borough agreed reluctantly to end the tradition this year.  The scene has since found a new home on Main Street outside the Emmaus Moravian Church.  Not everyone was happy about it.

Baby Jesus In Cage As Part Of Dedham Church's Immigration-Themed Nativity Scene.  It's an unconventional take on the nativity scene at St. Susanna's Parish Dedham.  The baby Jesus is in a cage, the wise men are closed off by a wall.  For the parish, the crèche is meant to be thought provoking.  "We try to take a picture of the world as it is and put it together with a Christmas message," said Pastor Fr. Stephen Josoma.  That message this year questions "peace on earth", since Jesus represents migrant children being held at the southern border separated from their parents.

'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' classic called bigoted, 'seriously problematic'.  HuffPost, a liberal news site, was lampooned after saying Christmas classic "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" was "seriously problematic" over claims that it features sexism and bullying.  "Viewers are noticing the tale may not be so jolly after all," the outlet's video said.  "And they're sharing their observations online."  Among those observations was the suggestion that the TV classic was a story about racism and homophobia, while calling Santa Claus abusive and bigoted.

The Hate For Melania's Christmas Decor Is Even Worse This Year.  You may love Melania Trump's taste in Christmas decorations; you may indeed dislike them, or perhaps even detest them.  To each his own.  But the venom leftists have spewed at the First Lady these past two years regarding her Christmas decor goes beyond mere differences in taste and into pure "Mean Girls" territory.  On Monday [11/26/2018], Melania Trump welcomed the "most wonderful season of all" with yet another unveiling of her White House Christmas decor.  Working with a team of designers since August, the theme selected for 2018 was "American Treasures" to highlight our country's "unique heritage."

Mother-in-law charging family £17-a-head for Christmas lunch.  A man and his wife were completely shocked by his mum's request and they're even debating making alternative plans for Christmas.

Christmas is 'too commercial' so school bans holiday: report.  A school has banned Christmas for being too commercial[,] and is making kids beg for the holiday's return.  Pupils at Lady Lumley's School in Pickering, North Yorks., were told they must write to their religious ed teacher to plead for the celebration to be brought back.  In an assembly this week, "Father Christmas" told students about the true meaning of Christmas being "lost and buried under an avalanche of commercialization" before announcing the holiday was canceled.  Cards, gifts and Christmas activities were banned unless "persuasive arguments" can be made to argue the real meaning of Christmas, he said.

College Library Calls "God Bless You," "Merry Christmas" Oppressive Language.  The library at Simmons College in Boston has issued guidelines for language that may be considered oppressive to others, and among the phrases that are considered "microaggressions" are such greetings as "God Bless You," "Happy Easter," and "Merry Christmas" — because they are based in Christianity.  The guide, appearing on the private school's website, "is intended to provide some general information about anti-oppression, diversity, and inclusion as well as information and resources for the social justice issues key to the Simmons College community," the webpage explains.  The site offers hyperlinks to scores of videos, articles, and other resources on the wide-open areas of "diversity" and "inclusion," and includes eight subsections:  anti-oppression, anti-racism, anti-transmisia, anti-ableism, anti-Islamomisia, anti-sanism, anti-queermisia, and social justice zines.

Leftism and Degeneracy:  A Beautiful Thing.  Leftists demand that we stop saying, "Merry Christmas," teachers must stop addressing students as "boys and girls," and stop saying you're proud to be an American — all in the name of inclusion, a beautiful thing.  Most recently, leftists forbade us saying, "God bless you," claiming that it is insensitive and intolerant.  I disagreed with a well intentioned minister on TV who said Christians should not respond angrily, saying we will not buy your coffee if you don't say, "Merry Christmas."  Leftist businesses are cramming their anti-God agenda down our throats.  What is wrong with us expressing our disapproval with our dollars?

The Profound Value of 'Merry Christmas'.  The words "Merry Christmas" are the tip of the iceberg of our longing to go back to a more normal America.  The words are not merely about elevating a Christian celebration or an earlier period of exclusive white dominance. [...] "Merry Christmas" instead has a cluster of meanings that include the birth of Christ, of course, but also are linked through nostalgia and through the facticity of history to a time where more families were intact, where a more positive view of our heritage as a Christian society was held, where sexual mores frowned upon premarital and non-marital sex, where the USA itself was seen as a beacon and a haven in a world of poverty, heathen belief systems, and dictatorial governments.  The words "Merry Christmas" resonate with a dominant belief in the worth of the individual as being greater than the needs or consciousness of the "collective."  Yes, "Merry Christmas" is about shopping at Macy's or Saks or Amazon, but it implicitly and nostalgically reminds us that the family, not the "global village," is the building block of society.

Southern Poverty Law Center's 'Hate Tracker' Monitors Twitter Mentions of 'Christmas'.  Is there a War on Christmas?  Many on the right argue that there is, while others are skeptical that things reach that level.  However, the latest stunt by the supposedly nonpartisan Southern Poverty Law Center may cause skeptical folks to rethink.

Europe:  The Islamization of Christmas.  This year's Christmas season has been marked by Islam-related controversies in nearly every European country.  Most of the conflicts have been generated by Europe's multicultural political and religious elites, who are bending over backwards to secularize Christmas, ostensibly to ensure that Muslims will not be offended by the Christian festival.  Many traditional Christmas markets have been renamed — Amsterdam Winter Parade, Brussels Winter Pleasures, Kreuzberger Wintermarkt, London Winterville, Munich Winter Festival — to project a multicultural veneer of secular tolerance.  More troubling are the growing efforts to Islamize Christmas.

Happy Winter Festival.  [A] number of U.S. academic institutions are paradoxically bent on abolishing Christmas itself, bent on purging it of all historical, cultural or religious content, ostensibly to avoid triggering people, but really because they object to idea of content in the first place.  "At the University of California, Irvine ... individual departments are encouraged to ... have a 'year-end celebration' or celebrate 'seasonal themes such as fall, winter, or spring.'"  Perhaps no one illustrated the tendency to make Christmas just another random scheduled event more vividly than a University of Central Florida faculty member's proposal, which suggests "Happy Federal Holiday" as an alternative to Merry Christmas, making all holidays meaningful by refusing to single out one for celebration.

CNN: 'It's a Wonderful Life' Is, 'Inherently Sexist,' Should Be 'Retired'.  Even holiday classics like It's a Wonderful Life have come under vicious scrutiny in our politically correct, brave new world, with CNN openly questioning whether the beloved film is secretly sexist and should, therefore, be "retired" from American culture. [...] Seen through the revisionist prism of radical feminism, the classic Frank Capra film starring James Stewart and Donna Reed becomes part of a patriarchal plot to keep women subjected to men.

The Editor says...
Banning a movie is the same as burning every copy of a specific book.  This story is noteworthy because usually the people who are outraged about censorship are on the political left.  There are thousands of movies that should never have been made, and tens of thousands of books, journals and diaries that should never have been written.  But burning them all is destruction of history, and history is more important than your hurt feelings.

A Time for War:  The Battle for Christmas.  Up until now, the left has been winning this battle of Christmas, or should I say the battle for Christmas.  Christmas has been politicized.  As usual, the left started this battle by complaining.  Why not?  After all, "Merry Christmas" was offensive to some, therefore it should not be used.  Leftists started this mantra long ago and have transformed us to a nation of "Happy Holidays."  They started this when virtually 90% of America's population self-identified as Christian.  Back then, close to one hundred percent of the U.S. population used the phrase.  Hollywood made lots of sappy movies about Christmas.  My parents were atheists.  They said Merry Christmas to everyone.  And then the Grinches of the left went to work.

Winning in the War on Christmas.  The War on Christmas, the secular-progressives' assault on Christmas and yes, religion, is fading away.  And Christmas is winning.  In today's video message to our military, some of whom of course belong to faiths other than Christianity, President Trump beamed, "I just want to wish everybody a very, very Merry Christmas, we say Merry Christmas, again, very, very proudly.  Very very Merry Christmas."  Nearly two years ago then-candidate Donald Trump mused, "When was the last time you saw 'Merry Christmas?'  You don't see it any more.  They want to be politically correct.  If I'm president, you're going to see 'Merry Christmas' in department stores, believe me, believe me.  You're going to see it."  And you know what, I've seen "Merry Christmas" in department stores this year.  Yesterday at the end of the weekly meeting at my job my boss, who is Jewish, wished everyone "a very Merry Christmas."

We Are Not a Pagan Country — Yet.  I was always under the impression that this country was founded on Judeo Christian principles but this is dismissed in the academic world as being offensive to other cultures.  Ha!  This hostility towards the celebration of religious holidays is just a prelude to outright banning of these events.  Religion has always been the enemy of the Marxist ideology and atheism that has decreed it to be "the opium of the masses."  A populace with belief in a higher power than the state is dangerous to that state's existence.  It must be stamped out and the best way to do that is incrementally with politically correct screeds demanding fairness to those who might be offended by public acts by organized religions.  Who are these people anyway?  Offended by the color of Christmas and Hanukkah decorations?  Are you kidding?

Critics Attack Hallmark's Christmas Movies: 'They Brim with White Heterosexuals'.  While most Americans are gathering around the television for their annual binge of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies, the left has been busy trashing the outlet for a too-white holiday lineup.  The assault on the popular holiday tradition started this month with Salon.com's report.  The article is entitled "A super white Christmas:  The Hallmark Channel gives us TV's most homogeneous view of the holiday; Hallmark's white Christmas tales have hooked holiday viewers while leaving minority actors out in the cold."

The Editor says...
Hollywood studios and the New York TV networks have been controlled by the political Left and their ilk for as long as they have existed.  The people who made these suddenly-offensive movies were not Republicans.

Climate change forcing Santa to move to South Pole, Canadian government says.  A Canadian government website claims that global warming is forcing Santa Claus to relocate his toy-making village to the South Pole.  The Policy Horizons Canada website said last week that Santa signed an agreement with the "international community" to move his operation to the South Pole because of melting Arctic ice.

'We say Merry Christmas again very, very proudly': 'Trump sends holiday greetings to the troops.  President Trump kicked off his Christmas Eve at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida by participating in a video conference with American troops stationed around the world.  'I just want to wish everybody a very, very merry Christmas,' the president said.  'We say "Merry Christmas" again, very, very proudly,' Trump added, repeating his position on saying 'Merry Christmas' over 'Happy Holidays.'  The president spoke to various rooms full of military personnel — one from each branch — based in Qatar, Kuwait, in Guantanamo Bay and aboard the USS Sampson, per the White House pool report.

A refreshing change from the previous president.
Trump Spent Christmas Eve Personally Thanking Hundreds Of Armed Service Members Around The World.  Donald Trump is spending Christmas at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, or as he calls it, "The Winter White House."  Being in sunny Florida did not stop Trump from reaching out to hundreds of members of the armed service around the globe, some in active war zones.  Trump spoke via video teleconference to rooms packed full of service members stationed in Qatar, Kuwait, Guantanamo Bay and the USS Sampson in 5th Fleet OPS Underway, according to the pool report.  Trump spoke to five deployed units, one from each branch.

Trump is determined to push 'Merry Christmas' greeting backing away from more inclusive 'happy holidays' messages.  There's no mistaking President Donald Trump's 'Merry Christmas' message — he wields it as a weapon against political correctness.  For weeks, he's been liberally sprinkling his public remarks with Christmas tidings.  And then pointing it out in case anyone fails to notice.  Trump has long promised that this year would be different after what he saw as a trend toward giving the Christian celebration short shrift in favor of a more generic and inclusive 'happy holidays' message.

Atheist cries he's being 'assaulted' by Christmas banner.  A man has threatened to sue city officials in Eugene, Oregon, because of a Christmas banner that he believes is a violation of the separation of church and state.

Salvation Army halts some kettle locations in Wisconsin after workers threatened at knife point.  Salvation Army officials in Wisconsin are keeping dozens of donation kettles closed until police track down an "agitated" former employee who threatened two workers at knife point on Tuesday [12/19/2017].  The ex-employee confronted a red kettle worker and a Salvation Army representative outside a Walgreens store in Brown Deer, located just outside of Milwaukee, according to Steve Merritt, who supervises operations in the region.  "The man became quite agitated and pulled out a knife and waved it around," Merritt told Fox 6, after the man was asked to leave.  Salvation Army officials said in a news release that no money was taken, but the suspect also called The Salvation Army of Milwaukee County's Citadel Corps to threaten an officer working there.

Salvation Army Bell Ringer Attacked for Saying Merry Christmas.  Liberal progressive Democrats in Northern California really hate it when you say Merry Christmas.  So much so that an atheist liberal thug attacked a Salvation Army bell ring.  His reason?  Because the bell ringer said Merry Christmas.  This is Northern California in a nutshell.  As bad as Southern California is with Los Angeles, we aren't nearly as bad, or as violent as the extremist leftists in Northern California cities like San Francisco, San Jose or Sacramento.  That's Pelosiville.

Peace on Earth?  Not during New York suburbs' Christmas light wars.  U.S. homeowners festooning their front lawns with thousands of twinkling lights, massive inflated Santas, candy canes and reindeer to spark smiles are instead igniting ornament wars, enraging neighbors over traffic, pollution and safety concerns.

'Grinch bots' ruining Christmas for kids asking for high-demand toys.  High-tech software is the latest holiday Grinch, making it tougher than ever for parents to find that must-have toy at a regular retail price.  Software robots, dubbed bots for short, run automated hunts over the web, overwhelming retail sites with mass orders, gobbling up the most sought-after gifts.  So called "cyber-scalpers" then resell the goods, sometimes at mammoth mark-ups, and reap the ill-gotten gains.

University of Minnesota:  Guide calling Christmas trees, dreidels inappropriate was 'ill-advised'.  The University of Minnesota has disavowed a set of guidelines issued by one of its academic departments labeling holiday symbols such as Christmas trees, doves and dreidels as "religious iconography" inappropriate for a school setting.  The school's College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resources Sciences recently issued a set of guidelines that encouraged employees to "recognize holidays in ways that are respectful of the diversity of our community," Campus Reform first reported.  The department included a list of "religious iconography" that shouldn't be included in holiday parties, such as Santa Claus, Christmas trees, bows/wrapped gifts, bells, doves, dreidels, and green and red color schemes.  The list made the rounds on conservative media sites as evidence of an academic "War on Christmas," but the university on Thursday [12/21/2017] distanced itself from the controversy.

Mainstream media heralds book depicting Santa Claus as a gay black man.  Mrs. Claus is now a mister in a new gay-themed Christmas storybook for children that has CNN and the rest of the Mainstream Media all aflutter.  "Santa's Husband" tells the story of a black Kris Kringle and his white husband living in holy matrimony at the North Pole.  I don't mean to curdle your egg nog, but the storybook was written for children as young as four-years-old.

Alt-Left Insanity:  It's Christmas, So #Resist Trump with Cards, Gifts.  Can you imagine going through life as this much of a Scrooge?  Picture sending someone a Christmas (oops, that's probably patriarchal), I mean a "holiday" card that says in cute script:  "All I want this year is Trump Impeached."  It's all encircled by a nifty, clip-art drawing of a Christmas wreath.  Here's the theme:  "Those who spend their days in collective struggle for equality see the holidays as a time to send cards with a social-justice bent."  Wanna bet they send one to their psychiatrist?  This is an actual quote that would send most English teachers into retirement: [...]

CNN Hypes Children's Book Portraying Santa Claus As a Gay Man.  On CNN's New Day Sunday, the show devoted a four-minute segment to the new children's book, Santa's Husband, which portrays Santa Claus as a gay man who gets married to another man.  The segment included as guests the author, Daniel Kibblesmith, and illustrator Ashley Quach, with Kibblesmith recalling that he was partially inspired to write the book because of the complaints that are made each year about a "war on Christmas."

Escalating the War on Christmas at the University of Minnesota.  As we all know by now, being respectful of diversity means ruthlessly repressing the culture of the core population.  This cultural Marxist objective, as much as hatred of Christianity, drives the War on Christmas.  The guidelines also note that a Christmas party is not a Christmas party but a "winter celebration" (as if winter in Minnesota were something to celebrate).  Any reference to the point of Christmas — i.e., Christ — should be avoided; this explicitly applies not only to decorations and music but even to food.  Santa Claus, angels, Christmas trees, the Star of Bethlehem, and nativity scenes are specifically proscribed, along with the colors red and green.

'Christ' Purged from Christmas and the Left Rejoices.  According to the latest results from the Pew Research Center — and already being gleefully shouted from the rooftops of certain left-leaning media sites orchestrating the campaign against faith-based Christmas — while 90 percent of Americans still celebrate Christmas in one way or another, a majority find that the religious elements of Christmas are emphasized less and less and few of them care about that change.

I'm a Jew, Yet I Love Christmas.  Victimhood is attractive because it gives people permission to be judgmental without consequence and feel superior in doing so.  It creates a sense of being special, enlightened, and above it all.  But this merely traps people in a cycle of bitterness and loneliness as they fight the urge to simply enjoy the holiday season with everyone else.  Ironically, the fact that they receive the same gift as everyone else demonstrates their inclusion in the group rather than highlighting their difference.

Black Lives Matter Calls For Racist Boycott Of 'White Capitalism' This Christmas.  Black Lives Matter is calling for a racist boycott of "white capitalism" this Christmas, saying on its website this means spending no money with any white-owned business.

Hallmark Christmas movies under fire for spreading 'Caucasian cheer'.  But it turns out not everyone is a fan of Hallmark.  Slate published a scathing review of the network — complaining about its around-the-clock Christmas movies.  "They brim with white heterosexuals who exclusively, emphatically, and endlessly bellow "Merry Christmas" to every lumberjack and labradoodle they pass.  They're centered on beauty-pageant heroines and strong-jawed heroes with white-nationalist haircuts," the Slate writer declared.  There were complaints about the lack of gay people and feminists and Muslims in Hallmark Channel's movies.

Santa, Christmas trees 'not appropriate' for holidays, students told at University event.  Santa Claus, Christmas trees and the colors red and green are examples of inappropriate "religious iconography" during the holiday season, according to a paper distributed during a "Respecting Religious Diversity" event at the University of Minnesota.  "Jewish Hanukkah" is targeted, too, with menorahs and the colors blue and white also described as being "not appropriate."  "Consider neutral-themed parties such as a 'winter celebration,'" the handout read.  "Decorations, music, and food should be general and not specific to any one religion."

Muslims at Catholic School Grouse About Christmas Decorations.  It turns out Muslims in the USA really are oppressed after all.  How would you like to come over from the Middle East and attend an explicitly Catholic school like Loyola University Chicago, only to discover that Christmas is treated as if it were somehow a bigger deal than Islamic holidays, despite 5% of the students being Muslim?  Sajedah Al-khzaleh grouses in the student paper that "there is a lack of public festivity compared to Christmas." Sajid Ahmed, prayer coordinator for the terrorism-associated Muslim Students Association, says he "wishes Muslim holidays were just as prominent."

Boston Professor Proclaims 'Jingle Bells' a 'Racist' Song.  A professor at Boston University has proclaimed Christmas carol favorite "Jingle Bells" to be a "racist song" and is urging people to shun the jaunty tune.  Kyna Hamill, a theater history professor at Boston University, recently told the Boston Globe that the venerable Christmas song has a "secret" racist past that has been "systematically" hidden from Americans as they celebrate the Christmas season.  "The history of the song has remained hidden behind its local and season affection," Hamill told the paper.  She continued saying the song's "blackface and racist origins have been subtly and systematically removed from its history."

War on Christmas:  Irish Police Claim Kisses Under Mistletoe are 'Rape'.  Early this month, the Police Service of Northern Ireland deleted a tweet warning people that a kiss under the mistletoe this Christmas is "rape" after being brutally mocked for it.

Colleges across the country trying for "Christmas-free Campuses" this December because of tolerance.  It's not a matter of a "War on Christmas".  It's not a conspiracy either.  This highlights a particular way of thinking, one prevalent at colleges and universities.  It's a fake sort of liberal racist paternal concern for non-white, non-Christian culture, along with an illogical theory that witnessing the exercise of a belief system you don't participate in is somehow an assault on you.

Good Taste Returns to the White House this Christmas.  hough the hate-filled press would like you to think otherwise, this Christmas we have witnessed a return to a classic sense of style at the White House.  The much-discussed Trump Christmas decor has contributed to this proper and appropriate appreciation of style which — as opposed to fashion — is timeless.  Adam Flusser, the master of sartorial propriety, taught us certain standards complement our humanity.  Style is higher than fashion because style comports itself with something eternal; something that is in accord timeless and elegant principles.

The War on Christmas ... Parties, That Is.  It is a time-honored tradition, and in Dilbert-ified America most cubicle monkeys know the drill:  Don your smart-yet-festive sweater vest.  Show up to your company's voluntary holiday gathering, where absences are informally noted by supervisors who will passive-aggressively punish the missing come January.  Pretend you enjoy socializing with colleagues that you wouldn't invite over to your house on a dare.  All while drinking until your liver cries uncle, or until Jones from purchasing miraculously transforms into a sparkling conversationalist.

President Trump Hid A Massive Troll Of Obama In His White House Christmas Decorations.  Candidate Trump promised many times on the campaign trail that, as president, he would have America saying "Merry Christmas" again.  Trump has certainly made good on that promise, regularly using the greeting in speeches and statements.  When the Trump's released their official presidential Christmas card, the words Merry Christmas were front and center, emblazoned in gold.  Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, sent out eight official presidential Christmas cards in his tenure.  None of them said "Merry Christmas."  The distinction was cheered by conservative pundits and traditionalist who thought the Obama approach to Christmas was too "politically correct" and "inclusive."

Trump makes good on vow to wish America 'Merry Christmas'.  Ringing in the holidays for the first time from Washington, President Donald Trump lit the National Christmas Tree Thursday evening, wishing the country "a Merry Christmas" — as he vowed to do during his campaign.

Merry Christmas is back at the White House:  Trumps unveil their card with no repeat of the Obamas' Happy Holidays.  On Monday [11/27/2017], the Trump family debuted their holiday card, which wishes Americans a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, instead of the generic, more politically correct, 'Happy Holidays.'  That's different from last year's card sent out by President Obama, which included a family photo and wished Americans a 'joyous holiday season.'

Phoenix homeowner pulls plug on Christmas lights after city crackdown.  For the past 30 years, Lee Sepanek and his wife Patricia have celebrated the holidays by festooning their Phoenix home with 250,000 festive lights.  The couple's annual display draws visitors from all over.  But this year, their house will be dark.  The reason:  City officials have raised concerns about noise, traffic and parking issues, as well as with the Sepaneks' sales of cocoa and baked goods to offset costs, the Arizona Republic reported.

The Invasion of the Christmas Carols.  According to Linda Blair (a British psychologist, not the actress who played that poor little girl in The Exorcist), hearing Christmas music too early is actually bad for you.  In an interview on Britain's Sky News (not to be confused with The Terminator's SkyNet), Blair said that early Christmas music can be an unwelcome reminder of all the stresses that come with the season:  shopping, parking, dinners, relatives, taffy pulling, etc.  "You're simply spending all of your energy trying not to hear what you're hearing," she says.

Dairy Queen owner's politically incorrect sign goes viral after left-wing snowflake complains.  A sign posted by Wisconsin Daily Queen owner Kevin Scheunemann has gone viral after a left-wing tourist took issue with it in a social media rant.  The sign warns potential customers that, "This restaurant is politically incorrect." [...] According to The Daily Wire, Scheunemann first posted the sign two years ago after a customer complained about Christian music being played inside.  Instead of removing the music, he decided it was better to warn potential customers.

The War On Christmas In The Age of Trump.  The Main Stream Media consensus on the War on Christmas has long been a denial that there is such a thing — coupled with an insistence that, even if there might be, no one could possibly consider it an important issue.  2016 did not cooperate with this narrative, since the year saw discussion of the War on Christmas at the highest level in politics, from one end of Europe to another, and everywhere Donald Trump, who regularly promised to bring back "Merry Christmas" as the standard public holiday greeting, held one of his campaign rallies.

Why can't Army band play 'Jingle Bells' at Christmas show?  One of my favorite projects here at the Fox News Corner of the World is my annual Fox Radio Christmas show.  It's a two-hour extravaganza filmed in Memphis — featuring special guest performers, celebrities, a full orchestra and the Bellevue Baptist Church Singing Christmas Tree.

Christian Clergy Welcomes Islam in Church, Then Bows to It.  Last July, for the first time during a Mass in Italy, a verse of the Koran was recited from the altar.  A priest in the south of Italy enraged parishioners by dressing the Virgin Mary in a Muslim burqa for his church's Christmas Nativity scene.

Make it stop!  It burns!  It burns!
Man Arrested After Demanding That McDonald's Workers Turn Off "Christian Music" Playing In Eatery.  Angered that "Christian music" was being played inside a McDonald's, a Florida man cursed at employees and other patrons and demanded that they "turn it off and play Muslim and Hindu music," according to cops who arrested the customer.  Joseph Allen, 46, walked into the McDonald's around 10:20 AM Tuesday [12/27/2016] and created "a threat to the safety of others," according to a Largo Police Department report.  Allen, cops say, "began cursing at customers and employees" due to the "Christian music" being played over speakers in the fast food restaurant.  The "Christian music" to which Allen referred was apparently Christmas tunes.

Rome theater fires orchestral director for denying Santa.  An orchestral director lost his job at the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome after telling an audience filled with children that the man in the red suit who delivers gifts to good girls and boys does not, in fact, exist.

Black Lives Matter On Christmas:  Why Do African-Americans Celebrate 'White Supremacy' Holiday?  As many fortunate Americans look back on their holiday weekends with dismay over their tryptophan Turkey hangovers and uptick in their monthly credit card statements, the Black Lives Matter chapter in Atlanta was wondering why black people celebrate Christmas at all.  The group referred to Christmas as a corporate holiday rather than a religious one.  Black Lives Matter in Atlanta took to Twitter Sunday to raise the question:  Since white people do not celebrate black holidays, why are black people so willing to celebrate Christmas?  Black Lives Matter has said the holiday is predominately white, Heat Street reported.

Six Times the PC Police Tried to Steal Christmas This Year.  We are in the heart of Christmas season, so that means it's time for the tolerance Grinches to come out of their closets once again.  And, despite its dumpster fire excesses, it is only fitting that the year 2016 close with the memory of these recent incidents and examples of America's perennial War on Christmas.

RNC defends biblical Christmas message, slams critics.  The head of the Republican National Committee (RNC) ripped into critics who expressed outrage on social media channels over a biblical Christmas statement that was sent out on Sunday by the committee to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ.  A three-paragraph statement was released on Christmas Day by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus.  It began by remining readers about the true reason for celebrating the season — Jesus Christ — but many critics did not get past the first paragraph, as some read into and questioned the intentions behind it.

Three reasons why the New York Times' War on Christmas denial is all wrong.  The New York Times recently published an article purporting to trace the history of the "War on Christmas."  The article concludes that "there is no evidence of an organized attack on Christmas in the United States," and expressed skepticism about the "alleged liberal antagonism toward the holiday." [...] Fox News did not rile up gullible people to fight a war against Christmas that did not exist.  This out-of-touch thinking by the New York Times assumes that most people who watch Fox News are easily manipulated.

Extremist Christmas Wishes — White Genocide vs Fascist Ethno-State.  Back in a simpler time in America, all we wanted for Christmas was our two front teeth.  But after 8 years of a divisive Barack Obama, the country is split and shattered.  Extremists of all stripes have been growing in numbers.  A professor at Drexel University, George Ciccariello-Maher, who teaches a course on racism, made an unusual wish on Twitter yesterday.  He tweeted, "All I want for Christmas is White Genocide".  Oddly enough, he seems to be Caucasian, himself!  The school officially has rejected the message and called it, "utterly reprehensible".  Meanwhile, You-Tube posters Walt Bismark and 'Pistachio Girl' Emily Youcis are wishing for a Fascist Ethno-State for Christmas.

The Politics Of "Happy Holidays" And "Merry Christmas".  Christmas is less than a week away.  Despite the joyous time, we must recollect the realm of debate surrounded by the idea of phrases like "Happy Holidays" and "Merry Christmas."  Such a realm of debate brings to question total freedom of expression, toleration of differing ideologies and cultures, and how political correctness still commands the holidays.  A supercharged narrative of emotions comes with the territory when debating this topic.  Issues congealed to the topic include how not all Americans are Christians but the federal government recognizes a historically Christian holiday to insufficient diversity in holiday imagery in the public square.  However, one of the most trying issues that come to mind includes the fastening of an environment of hypersensitivity to Christmas and "holiday" imagery.

Three reasons why the New York Times' War on Christmas denial is all wrong.  The New York Times recently published an article purporting to trace the history of the "War on Christmas."  The article concludes that "there is no evidence of an organized attack on Christmas in the United States," and expressed skepticism about the "alleged liberal antagonism toward the holiday."  As the author would tell it, Fox News host Bill O'Reilly stirred up the passions of his viewers based on a book written in 2005 by another Fox News host, John Gibson, entitled "The War on Christmas."  John Gibson interviewed me for that book, and I detailed the legal battles I and others had fought against Christmas censorship from the mid-1980s.

Using Christmas gifts as weapons:
Trump backers get 'revenge gifts' from relatives: donations to liberal causes.  When John Tereska's Trump-voting family members open their gifts from him on Christmas Day, they will get a shock.  Inside pretty boxes they'll find notes thanking them for making donations to organizations like Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club that support causes expected to come under attack from the new administration.

Vandal crushes figures in creche at Saint Clair church.  A vandal severely damaged a few of the ceramic characters which were part of a Nativity set on the lawn of a church in the borough.  "We never had anything like this happen before.  It's sad," Bonnie Baker, the senior warden of the church, The Church of the Holy Apostles at the northeast corner of North Nichols and East Hancock streets, said Wednesday [12/21/2016].

University Advises Against Using the Words 'Holiday Party' — to be Inclusive.  Political Correctness has gone CRAZY. A Texas University has issued a guide on how to have an 'inclusive' Christmas party without saying 'Christmas' or 'Holiday'.  And it just gets weird from there.  Texas Women's University in their handy-dandy little guide called, 'A 'Festivus for the Rest of Us':  Tips to plan an all-inclusive, multicultural holiday party at the office', advises against using the word 'Holiday' because it implies religious tradition and could be offensive to those who are not religious.  Instead, 'End of Semester Party' or if it's a work party, an 'End of Fiscal Year Party' would be much better choices.

Obama: 'I had to Live Through Controversies Like the Notion That I Was Trying to Kill Christmas'.  In a recent discussion about political correctness and whether it has gone too far, President Barack Obama said it's a "tricky issue," because "the definition of political correctness is all over the map."  At one point in his pre-vacation interview with NPR, Obama used himself as an example:  "I had to live through controversies like the notion that I was trying to kill Christmas.  Right?  Well, where'd that come from?

Happy Holiday, Merry Christmas, Meh!  Unlike some cable anchors, I do not care if a salesperson says, Happy Holiday instead of Merry Christmas.  Bill O'Reilly sniffs that if a salesperson refuses to say Merry Christmas, he's out of there.  But if that salesperson has been ordered to do so from management, I hardly think that's the fair response to anyone just doing their job.

No "A Christmas Carol" for You:  School Cancels Production Because Tiny Tim Mentions God.  Local educators and administrators at a Pennsylvania school district have succeeded in playing the lead role of Scrooge this season.  After a 40-year tradition, administrators of Hempfield School District announced that Centerville Elementary School will not put on its production of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" for families and the community to enjoy.

War on Christmas 2.0: 'Jesus Never Existed'.  A new article in Big Think claims that more and more, "historians and bloggers alike are questioning whether the actual man called Jesus existed."  Trendy atheists like Richard Dawkins and the late Christopher Hitchens also dabbled in the denial of the historical Jesus, with Dawkins asserting that it is possible "to mount a serious, though not widely supported, historical case that Jesus never lived at all, and Hitchens averring that Jesus' existence is "highly questionable."

t's Not a War on Christmas; It's a War on the Constitution.  One of the most bizarre traditions of the holiday season for me is to watch those who assail the purpose and meaning of Christmas become apoplectic when someone weary of their politically correct antics refers to the behavior as a "war on Christmas."  It seems to me that if you don't want to be accused of warring against Christmas, you should stop attacking people's public celebration of it.  Stop attempting to deprive the community you live in of its collective expression of the significance of the holiday just because you don't share their convictions.  When you do that kind of thing, don't be surprised when people point out your petulant childishness.

Godless grinches try to take Christ from Christmas.  Todd Starnes reacts to Pennsylvania parents criticizing Charles Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol' and a Texas school worker forced to remove Charlie Brown decorations.  [Video clip]

Christians Slam 'Blasphemous' Ornament Featuring Two Gay 'Josephs'.  A Christian group slammed Christmas ornaments that featured gay Josephs as a "blasphemous" attack in a statement Monday [12/19/2016].  Artist Mark Thaler found himself under a wave of fury after he designed ornaments that featured same-sex parents looking over baby Jesus for his company, reports the Daily Mail.  The ornaments either had two gay Josephs or two lesbian Marys kneeling before baby Jesus.

The crazy number of insects that could be hiding in your Christmas tree.  There are a handful of insects that make their homes in pine trees — the most common include aphids, adelgids, scales, bark beetles, psocids, and mites (from abandoned bird nests) — and some, like praying mantises, lay their eggs on tree branches.  The reason you aren't likely to notice the little buggers right away is that the insects go dormant for winter.  "As soon as you bring the tree indoors and warm them up, they spring right back to life," [Dr. Nancy] Troyano explains.  Or in the case of praying mantis eggs, they hatch.  The good news?  None of these insects will cause an infestation in your home, and they're completely harmless... though a major invasion might take a toll on your sanity.

People Are Freaking Out Because Obama Just Said 'Merry Christmas'.  Just days after the the president sent out his last Christmas card while in office — which failed to mention Christmas at all — he wished everyone a merry one as he opened up his last news conference of the year on Friday.

The Evolution of the Winter Holiday in America.  [Illustrated by] The evolution of White House Christmas Cards.

Can Progressives Stop Making My Christmas Traditions Political?  As I grew up in Minnesota, my family embraced several Christmas traditions, two of which we essentially rotated every year.  One year we'd see Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" at the Guthrie theater.  The next year we saw George Frideric Handel's "Messiah" at Orchestra Hall. [...] Not only is a cultural event not the time or place to talk about politics, the "Hallelujah" chorus and "Messiah" themselves have nothing to do with politics.

WaPo Op-Ed:  Christian Celebration of the Virgin Mary is Hurtful to Rape Victims.  The Washington Post published an op-ed Friday [12/16/2016] by a pastor who complained that the annual Christmastime celebration of the Virgin Mary was hurtful to her as a rape victim.  "Our culture of purity celebrates the Virgin Mary.  As a rape victim, that hurts me," wrote Rev. Ruth Everhart, complaining that, "Church culture tends to be fixated on sexual purity year-round, but during Advent, I'm tempted to blame it on the Virgin Mary.  After all, she set an impossibly high bar.  Now the rest of us are stuck trying to be both a virgin and a mother at the same time.  It does not seem to matter that this is biologically impossible.  Everhart said that after being raped at gunpoint at the age of 20, "every Advent I feel a sense of kinship" with the Virgin Mary.

The Editor says...
A woman who engages in blasphemy is not a pastor, no matter what she calls herself.

Grade school cancels performance of "A Christmas Carol".  The fifth graders at Centerville Elementary School in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania have been performing "A Christmas Carol" for decades.  But this year that tradition came to an abrupt end.  Parents told local reporters the play was canceled because two parents complained about a line in the Charles Dickens holiday classic.  The unnamed parents took offense at the words uttered by Tiny Tim, "God bless us, everyone," television station WHTM reported.

College students sign a petition to cancel Christmas.  Cabot Phillips of CampusReform.org provides insight on 'Fox & Friends'  [Video clip]

Judge orders school to restore Charlie Brown Christmas decorations.  A Texas school district learned a very important lesson Thursday [12/15/2016]:  don't mess with Charlie Brown, don't mess with the Baby Jesus and don't mess with the Lone Star State's Merry Christmas law.  Judge Jack Jones issued a temporary restraining order against the Killeen Independent School District.  The district had backed a principal's decision to remove a Christmas poster that referenced a poignant scene in the beloved holiday cartoon, "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

War on Christmas won by the good guys, but insurgents remain.  You may remember about 10 years ago, "The O'Reilly Factor" began spotlighting companies that refused to say the words "Merry Christmas."  In fact, some of those businesses actually ordered their employees not to say that.  Well, that culture war issue ignited.  And we won.  Most companies stopped the nonsense and Merry Christmas became a common greeting once again.

Secret Santa, Peru-style:  Police dress up as Father Christmas to raid drug dealer's house.  Drug dealers in Peru may never look at Santa Claus in the same way again, after police dressed as Father Christmas raided their home and arrested them for possession of cocaine, ruining their chances of a White Christmas.  Video footage from Tuesday's [12/13/2016] raid shows a man dressed in a Santa outfit break down the front door of a home in north Lima before undercover officers stormed inside.  Four members of the "Pinto" drug gang were arrested, with more than 4,500 wraps of cocaine seized at the scene.

'Holiday,' 'evergreen trees' too religious for TWU.  Texas Woman's University is offering tips for an "all-inclusive, multicultural" Christmas season, warning that the word "holiday" is no longer inclusive enough and advising that office parties should instead be called "end of semester parties."  "When planning December office parties that coincide with the Christmas season, it is a challenge for event organizers to make celebrations 'all-inclusive,'" TWU explains in a news release.  "Not all faith traditions have holidays in December, and not everyone identifies with a particular faith tradition."

The Editor says...
Imagine having to go through life in this mental straightjacket, constantly worrying about offending certain narrow classes of extra-special people.

Judge orders school to restore Charlie Brown Christmas decorations.  A Texas school district learned a very important lesson Thursday:  don't mess with Charlie Brown, don't mess with the Baby Jesus and don't mess with the Lone Star State's Merry Christmas law.  Judge Jack Jones issued a temporary restraining order against the Killeen Independent School District.  The district had backed a principal's decision to remove a Christmas poster that referenced a poignant scene in the beloved holiday cartoon, "A Charlie Brown Christmas."

War on Christmas won by the good guys, but insurgents remain.  You may remember about 10 years ago, "The O'Reilly Factor" began spotlighting companies that refused to say the words "Merry Christmas."  In fact, some of those businesses actually ordered their employees not to say that.  Well, that culture war issue ignited.  And we won.  Most companies stopped the nonsense and Merry Christmas became a common greeting once again.  For me, it was interesting to go through that, because some on the far left actually denied there was any controversy at all and claimed that I fabricated it.  More lies from a crew that is incapable of telling the truth.

Texas judge allows 'Charlie Brown Christmas' poster to go back up.  A Texas judge ordered a school district to allow for the display of a poster inspired by the animated holiday television cartoon "A Charlie Brown Christmas," that the district had banned because it had a Christian message, state officials said on Thursday [12/15/2016].

Fury as school changed lyrics to Christmas carol over fears it's Offensive.  A school has come under fire for changing lyrics to a traditional Christmas carol to wipe out any reference of the festive period claiming some may be offended by what they consider "preaching".  Outraged parents hit out after the school also changed the name of its annual Christmas concert to a 'December recital', cutting any reference to the very reason for the performance whatsoever.  Alterations to the seasonal songs included exchanging the word 'Christmas' with 'winter' and 'Father Christmas' with 'friend' at the school in Norway.

Whoopi Goldberg:  Celebrating Christmas And Getting An Abortion Is The Same Thing.  "The View" host was talking about the right to display Nativity scenes on Tuesday [12/13/2016] when she brought up abortion out of nowhere.

Trump: 'We Are Going to Say Merry Christmas Again'.  Tuesday [12/13/2016] at a stop on his "Thank You" tour in West Allis, WI, President-elect Donald Trump opened up his appearance by fulfilling a campaign promise regarding the use of "Merry Christmas" as a holiday greeting.

More Shots Fired in the War on Christmas.  The one antagonistic atheist who complained, said, having to look at the cross harmed him or her.  I wonder how this person survives having to look at churches., steeples, and the crosses on those?  But here we go again offending the 99.9% to appease the .1%.

Indiana town removes cross from Christmas tree after ACLU lawsuit.  Officials in an Indiana town removed a cross atop the town's Christmas tree because they said they could not win what was expected to be a costly lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.  "It is with regret and sadness that the Knightstown Town Council has had the cross removed from the Christmas tree on the town square and is expected to approve a resolution at the next council meeting stating they will not return the cross to the tree," the council said in a Facebook post.  The council cites its inability to afford fighting a legal battle with the American Civil Liberties Union, a representative stated in an email to IndyStar.

Rev. Graham:  ACLU's War on Christmas Continues — Man Has 'Unwelcome Contact' With Cross, Causes 'Irreparable Harm'.  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is suing a very small town in Indiana because a single Christian cross on top of a spruce tree in the town square apparently is causing "irreparable harm" to one resident who, when he drives by, "is forced to come into direct and unwelcome contact" with the cross, reads the lawsuit.  This is absurd, said Reverend Franklin Graham, who added that it proves the "war on Christmas is still on" and that "the ACLU wants to remove God from everything."  "The war on Christmas is still on!" said Rev. Graham in a Dec. 12 post on Facebook.  "Because of one person's 'objection,' the ACLU is suing an Indiana town for having a lit cross atop their Christmas tree just as they have had for years."

Do You Care If A Nativity Scene Offends Muslims?  Should we change our traditions to bow to political correctness? [...] The attack on Christianity by atheists has been relentless in recent years, and now there is concern by the bleeding-hearts that we might just offend Muslims with our outward expression of our inner faith.  Do you care if a Nativity scene offends Muslims?

Microsoft Holiday Ad Celebrates Left-Wing Causes.  To celebrate the "spirit of the holidays," Microsoft released an ad this week best described as a collage of Left-wing pet causes.  The commercial features sympathetic images and anecdotes for Black Lives Matter, Syrian refugees, transgender activism and more general LGBT issues.  In a likely allusion to the 2016 election, Microsoft says the year "has been challenging for many" because "much of what we hear in the news can be negative."

The Editor says...
Microsoft is being particularly offensive in this case, for three reasons:  They ignore Christmas at Christmastime, lumping it in with other holidays, they attach Christmas to left-wing political activism, and they do all this for the sake of their own commercial gain.

Charlie Brown Christmas at Center of TX School Controversy.  It's difficult to think of anything less controversial than Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts crew but the classic Christmas special mentions Christianity explicitly which is a problem for some people.  A staffer at a middle school in Texas decided to use imagery from the special as decorations but was told the decorations had to come down.

School censors "Charlie Brown Christmas" poster.  One of the most poignant scenes in "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is when Linus stands on a stage and recites a passage from the Holy Bible describing the Christmas story.  "For unto you is born this day in the city of David a savior which is Christ the Lord.  That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown," Linus said. [...] The principal went on to explain that the poster violated the U.S. Constitution.  "She said my poster is an issue of separation of church and state," Ms. Shannon told me.  "She said the poster had to come down because it might offend kids from other religions or those who do not have a religion."

The Editor says...
[#1] The display of a poster in a public school does not constitute the establishment of a state religion.  [#2] The Constitution says nothing about the separation of church and state.  [#3] The Constitution makes no guarantee that you'll never be offended.

Texas attorney general drops a great big Yuletide truth bomb on school district.  Christmas in the Lone Star state has no greater defender than Attorney General Ken Paxton.  So when he read my column about a middle school in Killeen that tried to censor the true meaning of Christmas, he decided it was time to jingle somebody's bells.

So This Is (Your Annual War on) Christmas.  The Thanksgiving leftovers are gone by now.  Memories of oppressive Black Friday crowds (or the social signaling from those who refuse to participate) are fading.  The Christmas holiday season is in full swing, and with it comes all the news hooks from people being just stupid about it all.  Welcome to another viral outrage Christmas, full of media stories about how the tidings of comfort and joy are cultural appropriation, or colonialization, or denials of the glory of Christ (the reason for the season!), or bad for children's psychological development, or in some other fashion not being observed the way it ought to be.

VA manager bans Christmas tree from office cubicle.  A VA supervisor in the agency's Philadelphia office sent out an urgent email memo Tuesday [11/29/2016] warning employees to remove a Christmas tree that someone had decorated in the office.  "There is a Christmas tree, ornaments, and decorations in the cubicle across from Luis Stevenson's desk (the same cubicle where the scanner is housed)," wrote VA supervisor Rebecca Cellucci.  "If this belongs to you, please claim it.  Otherwise, it will be discarded on Friday."

Row erupts after Woolworths staff state the store is now Muslim — and they will not be selling Christmas decorations.  A huge row erupted after staff at a popular Woolworths branch said that they were now a Muslim store — and would not be selling any Christmas decorations this year.  Shocked locals were told the news when they discovered that the Christmas selection including decorations and chocolate Santas had been taken down just a few days after they were put on display.  When shoppers asked why the decorations had been removed, a staff member at the store in Germany is reported to have said:  "We are a Muslim business now.  We do not want to sell Christmas articles."

Christmastime Filth, Courtesy of Hollywood.  The corruption of American culture is evident in many ways, but few markers are more telling than the way Hollywood entertains us at Christmastime.  It was 70 years ago when "It's a Wonderful Life" was released.  NBC describes it as "a holiday classic and remains the movie people associate with Christmas more than any other.  Frank Capra's definitive film is a tearjerker that proves that, even in our darkest hours, the human spirit can and will rise triumphant."  Today, we are being treated to obscene lyrics, raw sex, misogyny, and violence.  Not one of the four Christmas-themed films released this season is worthy of being described as a family movie.  There are no guardian angels directing the lead characters to consider how the world would be without them; no triumph of self-sacrifice; no statement against greed; no childhood sweetheart to marry; no inspiration of any sort.  Just filth.

Sweden bans Christmas lights on state-owned poles.  Unlike previous years, there will be no Christmas lights in many Swedish towns this Christmas, reports SVT.  Formally the new ban is because of "security reasons".  The Swedish Transport Administration (Trafikverket) will stop allowing municipalities to put up their Christmas lights on light poles that the authority manages, and in many small towns, it means that the central streets actually do not get any Christmas lights at all.

Christmas Displays Are Government's New "Public Safety" Concern.  One would suspect that Christmas is a time for good cheer and goodwill towards all humans, however, it's not even October and the holiday cheer for one Plantation family has been thrown out the door.  As the Sun-Sentinel reported on September 27th, the city of Plantation filed an overly frivolous lawsuit against Mark and Kathy Hyatt, the masterminds of a phenomenal Christmas lights display on their very own front lawn, annually.  Nevertheless, the city seeks to shut down the joyous holiday fun of one family because it presents a case that public safety concedes the power of the individual's property rights.  The lawsuit, filed in a local circuit court, will also bring forth whether or not the city of Plantation holds any constitutional authority in this matter.

University Of North Carolina:  Christmas Vacation Is A 'Microagression' Now.  The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill issued a guide this week which instructs students that Christmas vacations and telling a woman "I love your shoes!" are "microagressions."  The taxpayer-funded guide — entitled "Career corner:  Understanding microaggressions" — also identifies golf outings and the words "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" as microagressions.

Christmas tree petrol-bombed in Belgium by youth shouting 'Allahu Akbar'.  While the city of Brussels was on lockdown on New Year's Eve due to an increased terror threat level, it didn't stop a gang of teenagers from vandalizing a Christmas tree in the Anderlecht area of the city, sparking outrage and fear among locals.  A video of the incident, which was posted across a number of social media platforms, shows a group of youths surrounding a Christmas tree before setting it ablaze with what appears to have been a petrol bomb.

Huffington Post's 'Muslim Christmas Message' Is More Lies.  Christmas for Christians in Muslim countries is an especially dangerous time.  In the days leading up to Christmas 2015, Christmas was officially banned in no less than three Muslim countries:  Somalia, Tajikistan, and Brunei.  Muslims in Israel torched Christmas trees in Christian towns.  In Germany, Muslims beat Christians after Christmas celebrations.  Muslims burned and destroyed churches in Sudan.  A pastor in eastern Uganda was hacked to death last Wednesday [12/23/2015] as he and other Christians tried to prevent Muslims from taking over their land.

Texas Restaurant Chain Touts 'Politically Incorrect' Holiday Policy.  One restaurant chain in Texas is warning customers that it may offend them by being too "politically incorrect" this holiday season. [...] The chain restaurant posted signs outside its nine Texas locations about two weeks ago that read, "Notice: This store is politically incorrect.  We say 'Merry Christmas,' 'God bless America.'  We salute our flag and give thanks to our troops, police officers and firefighters.  If this offends you, you are welcome to leave.  In God we trust.

The Editor says...
I suppose this is news on the east and west coasts, but in Texas, this is completely normal.

Town of Bethlehem bans 'Merry Christmas' signs.  The town named after the birthplace of Jesus Christ has banned signs celebrating the holidays at an intersection in the town that has become a local battleground for the War on Christmas.  Officials from Bethlehem, New York had a "Happy Hanukkah" sign and a "Merry Christmas" sign removed from a busy intersection and have refused to put up any new holiday signs out of fear the signs would be breaking the law, The Albany-Times Union reports.  The town's lawyer reportedly said Christmas trees and other symbols were acceptable, but written signs would not be allowed, a decision that has caused an uproar in the local community.

This Town Removed Its Creche, But Residents Had Other Plans.  With Christmas almost here, the news is full of the usual desultory stories about lawsuits demanding that one town or another take down its Nativity scene.  The law in this area has long been hopelessly confused, and plenty of municipalities decide in the face of threatened litigation that discretion is the better part of valor.  And the story always ends the same way:  Court 1, Town 0.  But this year in the rural Minnesota town of Wadena — population 4,133 — something is different.

Americans use more electricity for just their Christmas lights than some developing countries do ALL YEAR.  Americans use more electricity for their Christmas and holiday lights than some countries do all year, according to a new report.  The Center for Global Development says the amount of electricity used for holiday displays is more than developing nations, such as El Salvador, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Nepal, or Cambodia, use in a whole year.  The finding is based on a 2008 study which found seasonal lights account for 6.6 billion kilowatt hours of electricity consumption every year in the United States.

The Editor says...
One big hospital or office building may have as much electric generating capacity as Cambodia or Tanzania.  That only means they're still living in the 19th century and we're not.  If we have an abundance of cheap electricity thanks to good old coal and natural gas, it's not something to feel guilty about — and feeling guilty about celebrating Christymas is almost certainly the intent of the writer.  Notice also that Christmas lights are mentioned in the headline, but the body of the article talks about "seasonal lights" and "holiday displays" — which might include any number of things.  The average electic power consumption per capita in the U.S. is 1,683 watts.  In Tanzania it is nine watts.  In Cambodia it's 12 watts.  In Ethiopia it's six watts.  These are developing countries?

Three Cheers for Holiday Lighting!  Environmentalists critical of electrified America must have mixed emotions this time of the year.  It may be the season of good cheer and goodwill toward all, but it is also the time of the most conspicuous of energy consumption.  America the Beautiful is at her best in December when billions of tiny stringed light bulbs turn the mundane or darkness itself into magnificent beauty and celebration. [...] What about the holiday humbug that celebratory electricity depletes future fossil-fuel supplies, fouls the air, and destabilizes the climate?  Good tidings abound!  World oil reserves are over 20 times greater now than they were when record-keeping began in the 1940s; world gas reserves are almost four times greater than they were in the 1960s; world coal reserves have risen fourfold since 1950.

The War on Christmas.  Alas, today's "war on Christmas," which has become for cable news an annual ritual, is merely another one of those metaphorical wars, like the wars on women, poverty, cancer, global warming, history, energy, religion, and science.  (I'm sure I'm leaving a few dozen out.)  Of course "metaphorical" doesn't mean "fictional."  The "war" on poverty is — or was — a real thing; it just wasn't a war.  And yet the metaphorical wars have the capacity to elicit as much outrage as actual wars.

A Cafeteria Christmas.  "Jesus is the reason for the season" doesn't play well with moral relativism, atheism, individualism, or scientism.  The attacks by the secular relativists on 'organized religion' on almost a daily basis for so many years now have persuaded today's young people (and even many not so young people) that all the great Christian thinkers over the last 2,000 years got it all wrong.  We don't need moral truths and rules.  As modern, thoughtful, intelligent, civilized human beings we are smart enough to make up our own moral truths and follow our own conscious [sic].  All we really need to do is love one another and be tolerant of each other's views and everything else will somehow magically fall into place.

Saying 'Merry Christmas' Is Very Important.  The nearly universal change from wishing fellow Americans "Merry Christmas" to wishing them "Happy Holidays" is a very significant development in American life.  Proponents of "Happy Holidays" argue that it's no big deal at all, and that proponents of "Merry Christmas" are making a mountain out of a molehill, especially when proponents say that the substitution of "Happy Holidays" is part of a "war on Christianity."  But the "Happy Holidays" advocates want it both ways.  They dismiss opponents as hysterical while, at the same time, relentlessly pushing to rid America of "Merry Christmas."

Texas Governor Demands Removal of Satirical 'Nativity Scene' from Capitol.  Texas Governor Greg Abbott has sent a letter demanding that a tasteless nativity from a nontheistic foundation be removed immediately from the Texas Capitol building.  Governor Abbott pinned the letter to John Sneed, the Executive Director of the State Preservation Board that charges that a Freedom From Religion Foundation nativity is a "juvenile parody [that] violates the Preservation Board's regulations and should be removed immediately."

Islamic nation of Somalia follows Sultan of Brunei's example and bans Christmas celebrations because 'they are contrary to our culture'.  Somalia has banned Christmas and New Year celebrations because they are 'contrary to Islamic culture' — days after a similar move by the Sultan of Brunei.  Director General of Somalia's Ministry of Religious Affairs, Sheikh Mohamed Khayrow, warned that security forces would break-up any gatherings held in the capital Mogadishu.  He said:  'All events related to Christmas and New Year celebrations are contrary to Islamic culture, which could damage aqidah (faith) of the Muslim community.  'There should be no activity at all.'

Brunei cancels Christmas.  Anyone found illegally celebrating Christmas in Brunei could face up to five years in prison, according to a reported declaration by the Sultan of the tiny oil-rich state.  Brunei introduced its ban on Christmas last year over fears that celebrating it "excessively and openly" could lead its Muslim population astray.

The Editor says...
Muslims understand that Christianity and Islam are incompatible, and indeed, mutually exclusive.  It's a shame that American Christians don't understand that, too.

Banned live Nativity in Indiana goes on with mannequins.  Concord High School in northern Indiana used mannequins instead of student actors after a federal judge banned a live Nativity scene that has been performed for decades.

Nativity Taken Down To Make Way For Atheist Event In State Capitol.  An atheist group has forced Nebraska to remove a nativity from its state capitol and replace it with an atheist display.  The nativity is allowed to stay up until Dec. 18 when it must be taken down so that an atheist display can be put up.  The atheist display will feature a small model church and model capitol building with a large wall between them to symbolize the separation of church and state, The Lincoln Journal Star reports.  The atheist display will be up through Christmas, but not the nativity.

School district censors Charlie Brown Christmas.  The latest yuletide lunacy comes from Johnson County, Kentucky where the school district has censored an elementary school presentation of "A Charlie Brown Christmas."  The district also ordered other schools to remove all religious references from their upcoming Christmas productions.

Kentucky Grade School Scrubs All References To Christianity In 'Charlie Brown Christmas'.  Thursday's [12/17/2015] theatrical performance of "A Charlie Brown Christmas" at W.R. Castle Elementary School in rural Johnson County, Kentucky will be bereft of its heart and soul because a single whiner has scared school district officials into censoring all references to religion.  The main scene which will be deleted involves Linus van Pelt reciting a handful of verses from the New Testament's Gospel of Luke to explain to Charlie Brown "what Christmas is all about."

Audience members recite Bible passage deleted from 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'.  The scene at W.R. Castle Elementary School followed a firestorm of controversy in Johnson County this week.  Superintendent Thomas Salyer has said that, following a complaint, he consulted with legal counsel and determined that biblical references should be removed from the play and other Christmas programs in the Eastern Kentucky school district.  He said he was trying to meet the letter of the law.  That decision resulted in people protesting outside the school district offices in Paintsville since Monday [12/14/2015] and a request from a national legal organization to not remove the biblical lines.

Kentucky school district censors religious lines from 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'.  A Kentucky school district is being urged to reconsider after censoring "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and other programs by removing all references to religion.  The Alliance Defending Freedom weighed in Tuesday [12/15/2015] after Johnson County Schools officials agreed to modify its holiday programming in order to avoid a potential lawsuit, a move prompted by a complaint from a parent about the classic Peanuts play.

Thirty parents stage walkout after Jewish mother is accused of 'waging war on Christmas'.  A Jewish mother is under attack after she successfully petitioned her child's public school to cancel their annual trip to visit Santa Claus.  The woman, whose name is Talia, has a daughter at Sartorette Elementary School in San Jose, California, did not want her to participate in a kindergarten field trip where the children write letters to Santa then go to deliver them, drink hot chocolate and sit on his lap.  She decided to write a four-page letter to the school committee, and now the decade-long tradition has been canceled by the principal and superintendent.

Students sing "Allah Akbar" at holiday concert.  Nothing says Merry Christmas like a Ramadan song — at least in Blaine, Minnesota.  There was a big controversy after Thursday's [12/17/2015] holiday concert at the local high school — when the teenagers belted out a praise song to Allah.

Also posted under Islamic indoctrination in schools.

Is shopping on Christmas Day the next retail push?  It was once anathema to think of shopping on Thanksgiving Day, but now that's become almost commonplace with the likes of Walmart and Macy's opening their doors on the holiday.  What's next?  Christmas Day?  Actually, yes, according to consulting company LoyaltyOne.  "It's inevitable," said LoyaltyOne managing partner Dennis Armbruster, who predicts that retailers will start opening on Christmas Day within three years.  "What Christmas means to some is just changing, and a lot of families don't necessarily celebrate on Christmas Day because of extended family dynamics.  Consumers are also highly used to getting what they want, when they want it."

Come and take it: Controversy grows over UT's holiday party suggestions.  There's been more uproar over the University of Tennessee's controversial workplace holiday party guidelines.  Some state lawmakers have called for Chancellor Jimmy Cheek to resign, but groups of students and faculty have come to his defense by creating petitions.  Lawmakers, students, campus groups and administrators have all been talking about the inclusion guidelines and as of Friday, they were still on the university's website.  UT junior, Clayton Dorman, tweeted this picture out on Friday with the words:  "Come and Take It."

Small Town Moved Nativity Last Year to Avoid Atheists' Threats, but This Year....  A small town in North Carolina isn't backing down from an ongoing battle with atheists over a nativity scene that is traditionally placed outside of a local courthouse, with the scene once again sparking controversy after officials unveiled a new — and even larger — display.  After government leaders in the town of Dallas decided to move the nativity to private property last year under threat of a lawsuit from a secular activist group, residents pushed back with a well-publicized protest.

School principal bans Santa, Thanksgiving and Pledge of Allegiance.  Santa Claus is banned.  The Pledge of Allegiance is no longer recited.  "Harvest festival" has replaced Thanksgiving, and "winter celebrations" substitute for Christmas parties.  New principal Eujin Jaela Kim has given PS 169 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a politically correct scrub-down, to the dismay of teachers and parents.  "We definitely can't say Christmas, nothing with Christmas on it, nothing with Santa," PTA president Mimi Ferrer said administrators told her.  "No angels.  We can't even have a star because it can represent a religious system, like the Star of David."

Parents' dismay as principal bans all use of 'Christmas' and 'Santa Claus' — and Thanksgiving will be replaced by 'harvest festival'.  A New York City primary school principal has been accused of banning the mention of Christmas by parents.  Principal Eujin Jaela Kim reportedly scrubbed out any mention of the word 'Christmas', 'Santa Claus' and forbade explicit Christmas decorations.  'We definitely can't say Christmas, nothing with Christmas on it, nothing with Santa,' PTA president Mimi Ferrer said administrators told her.  'No angels.  We can't even have a star because it can represent a religious system, like the Star of David,' she told the New York Post.

Update:
Sanity wins out, school brings back Santa and the pledge.  Sanity — and Santa — have been restored at a Brooklyn public elementary school where St. Nick was banned, the Pledge of Allegiance was dropped and Thanksgiving was replaced with a "harvest festival."  The good news arrived at PS 169 in Sunset Park on Monday morning [12/14/2015], a day after The [New York] Post exposed the bizarre PC extremism of Principal Eujin Jaela Kim.  District 15 Superintendent Anita Skop stormed in the front door at 9:50 a.m., and minutes later, two fifth-grade boys were brought to the main office to lead a recital over the public address system of the Pledge of Allegiance, teachers told The [New York] Post.

No nativity scene at Florida Capitol this Christmas.  After erecting a nativity scene in the rotunda of the state Capitol for the past two years — and prompting protest displays from Satanic cults to a pole of beer cans — the Christian prayer group that sponsored the depiction said it was not going to continue the tradition this year.

Cornell University Warns Mistletoe Isn't 'Inclusive' Enough And Students Shouldn't Use It.  A guide to "inclusive" Christmas decorations created by Cornell University warns that any decorations that remotely evoke religion, which includes stars and mistletoe, are incompatible with the school's commitment to diversity.  The guidelines are buried inside a Cornell publication concerning fire safety guidelines for holiday decorations, and were first noticed by the website Campus Reform.  The first half of the document concerns certain banned fire hazards, such as candles and metallic Christmas trees.  The second half of the document, though, veers off into a discussion of how to make the Christmas season more "inclusive."

University: Your holiday party cannot be a Christmas party in disguise.  If you plan on having a Christmas party at the University of Tennessee be sure to leave the Baby Jesus and Santa Claus at home.  The taxpayer-funded university's Office for Diversity and Inclusion recently released an "unofficial" edict calling for the campus to host holiday parties that do not emphasize religion or culture.  "Ensure your holiday party is not a Christmas party in disguise," the organization warned in an online document titled, "Best Practices for Inclusive Holiday Celebrations in the Workplace."

The Editor says...
Since when does the appearance of Santa Claus at a Christmas party — or such a party itself — constitute an establishment of religion?

Churches on high alert as baby Jesus thefts spike.  At St. Anthony of Padua church in Soho, baby Jesus is on lockdown.  The church discovered the hard way that security measures were necessary about 11 years ago, when the Jesus sculpture in the churchyard's Houston Street-facing nativity scene was stolen — twice.  "We have a 5-foot wrought-iron fence — someone athletic could easily jump over it," the Rev. Joseph F. Lorenzo says.

Federal judge bans school's live Nativity show.  A federal judge has banished the Baby Jesus and the Three Wise Men from an Indiana high school's Christmas musical.  U.S. District Court Judge Jon DeGuilio, appointed to the bench by President Obama, issued an injunction against Concord Community Schools on Dec. 2.  The court order forbids students from presenting a live Nativity scene during the Concord High School's Christmas Spectacular.  The judge said that portion of the show is overtly religious in nature.

The Editor says...
So what?  Christmas programs at public schools have been "religious in nature" since public schools have existed, and that was never a problem until very recently.

Town official quits over 'Christmas' tree lighting ceremony.  A New Jersey city council's decision to add the word "Christmas" to the name of its tree-lighting ceremony prompted one council member to step down because it "turned it from a non-religious event to a religious one."

Syed Farook's Workplace Wasn't the Target of Violence — the Christmas Party Was.  Al-Qaeda and ISIS have encouraged attacks on Christmas Day and at Christmas-themed events to take advantage of vulnerable crowds and to strike at the heart of a Christian holiday. [...] ISIS, whose recruitment propaganda stresses the evil of "crusader" influences including holidays and declares it forbidden for Muslims to so much as receive a Christmas card, has stressed Christmas is a welcome target because of the fact that it's Christian.

After 33 years, 'Christmas in Washington' has been canceled.  After more than three decades and five administrations, "Christmas in Washington," the celebrity-packed holiday special attended by the first family, won't be returning for its 34th holiday season.  No, the Grinch didn't have anything to do with it — at least we don't think he did.  After last year's show, hosted by Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, TNT announced that it would no longer broadcast the Christmas special, ending a 15-year partnership with veteran producer George Stevens Jr. and his son, Michael.  The Stevenses, who had just been ousted as the producers of the Kennedy Center Honors gala, said they were in search of a new broadcast partner.

Hollywood Christmas Parade Picks Atheists Penn and Teller as Grand Marshals.  The Hollywood Christmas Parade has selected two famous atheists to be its grand marshals.  Magicians Penn and Teller, both avowed atheists, will host the event, according to ABC 7. [...] Examples abound of the duo's atheism.

School Cancels Christmas Service In Deference To Muslims.  After Muslim pupils refused to sing traditional carols at last year's Christmas service, one Milanese school has switched to hosting a "winter concert" — but many have reacted angrily to the idea.  Headmaster Marco Parma of the Istituto Garofani di Rozzano school was forced to resign his post over the weekend after a number of senior figures in Italian political life — including the prime minister — moved to attack his decision to cancel Christmas for his pupils.

Christmas is cancelled: Italians outraged over school decision to ban festivities.  Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi has criticised a headmaster who banned Christmas concerts and carols in his school near Milan in the name of multiculturalism.  "Christmas is much more important than a headmaster being provocative," Renzi told Sunday's [11/29/2015] edition of Corriere della Sera.  "If he thinks he is promoting integration and co-existence in this way, he appears to me to have made a very big mistake."

Arrests Made After Protesters Destroy Part of City Christmas Tree.  During the second night of protests over the Laquan McDonald shooting, police made several arrests after some demonstrators tore off lights from the Christmas tree standing in Millennium Park.  Video shows a group of protesters just before 10:00 p.m. [11/24/2015] yanking the lights from the bottom of the tree.  Police quickly responded to disperse the crowd.  Investigators have not said exactly how many arrests were made.

VA Christmas Tree Ban Causes Yuletide Uprising.  Folks around Salem, Virginia were ready to jingle the government's bells after they implemented a ban on Christmas trees and religious Christmas carols in the public spaces of the local VA hospital.  The holiday hullabaloo began last week when workers received an email announcing that Christmas trees would no longer be allowed in public spaces at the Salem Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Obama's Veterans Affairs Facility Just Banned 'Merry Christmas'.  It's becoming Christmas season again, so you know what that means:  The politically correct police are back in full swing trying to force everyone to say 'Happy holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas.'  Obama's latest move to do this is at a Veterans Affairs hospital.

Obama's VA Facility Bans 'Merry Christmas'.  President Barack Obama's Department of Veterans Affairs has banned employees at its facility in Salem, Virginia, from saying "Merry Christmas" to veterans.  It started as a broader ban that included Christmas trees.  Federal law recognizes Christmas as an official federal holiday (5 U.S.C. § 6103) and provides federal employees with a paid day off to celebrate the Christian belief in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.

'Tis the season for outrage?  Like wearing white after Labor Day, holiday decorations used to be considered a faux pas before Thanksgiving.  These days, decorations and holiday merchandise are in full display well before the turkey is even in the oven, and the start of the holiday season is heralded by the onslaught of seasonal outrage.  "It says something about the holidays, but also about human behavior — when people are angry, they share," Jonah Berger, a professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said. "

Dunkin' Donuts unveils festive holiday cups as Starbucks faces controversy over 'plain' red cups.  Dunkin' Donuts has a bit more joy in their cup of joe this Christmas.  Dunkin' Donuts' holiday cups will be decorated with a wreath circling the word "Joy" this season, in stark contrast with their rival Starbucks' minimal red design.

Donald Trump suggests boycotting Starbucks over red holiday cups, then admits, 'Seriously, I don't care'.  Some religious conservatives have expressed anger over the coffee company's annual holiday-time cups — a minimalist all-red design with no images aside from the company's green and white logo.  Previous years' cups have featured snowflakes, winter scenes and sometimes Christmas ornaments.  But a small number of critics see the design choice as part of a larger movement away from exclusively Christian-themed holiday decorations.

Christian evangelists claim Starbucks fanned 'war on Christmas' with minimalist holiday red coffee cups.  Snowflakes, doves and trees are out and minimalism is in for Starbuck's signature holiday cups — to the dismay of Christian evangelists.  The coffee chain's seasonal designs are remixed each year, but this year's tri-color tone of red, green and white has apparently angered some religious leaders for declaring a so-called "war on Christmas."

This mall sterilized Christmas so shoppers wouldn't be offended.  A Long Island mall swapped Santa's sleigh for something resembling a spaceship and nixed the Christmas tree because it didn't want to "offend" anyone, irate shoppers told The [New York] Post.  The Roosevelt Field Mall ditched its traditional holiday village and put Ol' Saint Nick inside a winter-themed "glacier" instead.  But some say the white and blue display looks more like something out of "Star Trek" than "Twas the Night Before Christmas."  "Santa comes along with a decorated tree; he doesn't come with a spaceship," Maria Lovdahl fumed.

The Editor says...
One might take the outrage another step further and say that Christmas has nothing to do with Santa Claus, greeting cards, or aromatic trees.

Getting Mad About Starbucks's Holiday Cups Is Insane.  I woke up this morning to find that real, adult people are actually upset that Starbucks's holiday cups do not mention Christ or Christmas on them — and view the absence of such language as an attack on their religion.

The Editor says...
If you don't like the marketing at Starbucks, don't go in there!  Life without coffee isn't as bad as life without Christian traditions or life without free speech.

Might offend non-Christians? Man told to remove Christmas display.  Jeremy Morris, of Hayden, Idaho, loves to go all out for Christmas. [...] It takes about three months to install all the lights and the decorations — so the Morrises are already hauling out the holly and reindeer and other holiday accessories.  Hence, the war on Christmas in Autumn.  The HOA objected to the lavish display and put Jeremy on their naughty list.  They were especially upset about the religious nature of Jeremy's display — as noted in a certified letter he said he received from the homeowner's association board.  "I am somewhat hesitant in bringing up the fact that some of our residents are non-Christians or of another faith and I don't even want to think of the problems that could bring up," the letter read.

Bernie's Wife Twice Corrects Herself: He Throws 'Holiday' Not 'Christmas' Party.  God forbid it should be said that Bernie Sanders throws a "Christmas" party! Sanders wife, Jane O'Meara Sanders, was interviewed on today's [10/26/2015] With All Due Respect.  When Mark Halperin asked the affable Mrs. Sanders to share a side of her husband that people might not know, she twice mentioned that Bernie organizes an annual "Christmas" party. And twice she promptly corrected herself, calling it a "holiday" party.

Lawsuit: Baby Jesus doesn't belong in Christmas play.  You would think the anti-Christmas crowd would wait until there's frost on the pumpkin patch before pillaging and plundering our long-cherished yuletide traditions.  But the Freedom From Religion Foundation has been chomping at the bit to bully those who celebrate the birth of Jesus.  In recent days they've filed a federal lawsuit demanding an Indiana school district yank a Living Nativity from a Christmas production and they successfully forced an Oregon school district to ban choirs from performing at a Catholic shrine.

Feds Will Regulate Christmas Lights.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a regulation for Christmas lights on Monday, deeming some holiday decorations a "substantial product hazard."  "The Consumer Product Safety Commission ... is issuing a final rule to specify that seasonal and decorative lighting products that do not contain any one of three readily observable characteristics (minimum wire size, sufficient strain relief, or overcurrent protection), as addressed in a voluntary standard, are deemed a substantial product hazard under the Consumer Product Safety Act ("CPSA")," the final rule said.

Santa Monica's ban on park Nativity displays upheld.  Santa Monica's long battle over Christmas-season Nativity scenes at Palisades Park ended Thursday [4/30/2015] when a conservative federal appeals court panel upheld a city law that bars unattended exhibits.  A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided the ordinance did not violate the free speech rights of the Santa Monica Nativity Scenes Committee, which sponsors the exhibits.  A lawyer for the committee said the decision will not be appealed.

Passenger tossed after flipping out over staff's 'Merry Christmas'.  [Scroll down]  "Don't say, 'Merry Christmas!'" the man raged before lecturing the attendants and the pilot about their faux pas.  The crew tried to calm the unidentified man, but he refused to back down and continued hectoring them.  He was escorted off the plane as other fliers burst into cheers and applause.

Man flips out when flight crew wishes him 'Merry Christmas';.  An overly-sensitive passenger was booted off a commercial flight at New York's LaGuardia Airport Tuesday [12/23/2014] when he flipped out after being cheerfully greeted by American Airlines personnel with the phrase, "Merry Christmas."

NBC Asks America for the Meaning of Christmas: 'Jesus' Didn't Make Their Cut.  NBC Nightly News offered two stories on Christmas in their December 25 newscast, including a show-ender about "what Christmas means to me."  Substitute anchor Tamron Hall offered this introduction:  "Finally, on this special night, a question:  What does Christmas mean to you?  Maybe it's the presents, the lights, the music, or getting together with family.  We put the question to people around the country and discovered once against that Christmas means something a little different to everyone."

The Anti-Christmas Atheist Missionaries.  That the atheist is devoted to something other than pure belief and blind faith is the great deception upon which the atheist's entire intellectual foundation is built.  It is a house of cards that they give the veneer of stone.  But make no mistake — they have faith.  To believe that nothing created something is every bit as much a leap of faith, perhaps an even greater leap given the evidence in the physical world, than believing that something had to create something else.

Baby Jesus stolen, replaced with real pig's head.  Police in Haverhill, Massachusetts, are asking the public to help solve a bizarre theft.  Authorities say a priest at Sacred Hearts Church, north of Boston, called them Christmas morning to report that someone had stolen a baby Jesus from a nativity scene and replaced it with a real pig's head.

What Christmas Really Means, And Why The Left Hates It.  [Christmas] is a time of year when people in predominantly Christian countries are more expansive, more gentle and more at peace with each other.  They smile more, and they let the little things go because it's Christmas, a time of cheer and good will, a time for friends and family.  It is also a time when the secular Left unleashes savage attacks on the very nature of Christ and the holiday itself.  Satanists demand the right to set up displays next to manger scenes, smarmy writers mock the traditions of Christmas and Christianity and atheists and Leftists go on the warpath with lawsuits designed to try and stop public religious displays of faith, especially Christian ones.

Texas Delivers Some Epic Bad News to Liberals Waging War on Christmas.  The Grinch didn't have to steal Christmas in one southern state — liberal school districts tried to do it themselves.  Thankfully, a bipartisan effort stopped those plans and defended the right to celebrate the holiday.

Ruining Christmas.  As usual, those for whom laws, ethics, and good will mean nothing have come together to try to ruin Christmas for the rest of us.

The Anti-Christmas Atheist Missionaries.  Every year, atheist groups invest time and money to convey their belief that there is no God, that no Christ-child ever existed in a manger like in that nativity scene (a beautiful representation of hope and life that is apparently an eyesore to them), and that the premise of Christmas is altogether false.  This year, we got to see atheists' appeal via billboards in Nashville, for example, in an effort to convert the "in-the-closet atheists who are pressured to observe religious traditions during the holidays."

Comfort and Joy.  Has Christmas has become a kind of "micro-aggression"? It seems to be bringing out the worst in people.

100 Years Ago Today Christmas Truce Halted World War I.  One Hundred years ago the Christmas Truce of 1914 was a spontaneous cease fire and day of Christian Brotherhood for both sides of the No Man's Land along the Western Front.  The event was kept secret by senior military officers and government censors as an embarrassing breakdown in military discipline.

New Liberal Christmas Tradition: Mary Was Raped.  Valerie Tarico wrote an article at Alternet, republished at Salon, that should get her a lot of invites to ironically themed liberal Christmas parties.  The title:  "Why rape is so intrinsic to religion."  Tarico lays out a series of myths from pagan traditions, mostly Greek and Roman, in which women are abducted, violated, and coerced.  We have Danae, Europa, Rea Silvia... and, what do you know, the Virgin Mary.

China Tightens Church Control Ahead of Christmas.  "They keep a very close watch on us, and there is nothing we can do," said a church official, who spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday on condition of anonymity because of fear of government retaliation.

'Merry Christmas' Sign Removed After Complaint In Marshfield.  Over the weekend, several DPW workers put an electronic sign on a friend's property, right on the main road through the town.  And the message?  Merry Christmas. [...] But apparently, someone complained and sure enough, there are by-laws governing electronic signs.  "We don't object to the message," said Building Commissioner Gerald O'Neill, "but the sign has to conform to size regulations, among other factors."

Yes, Virginia, there is a 'War on Christmas': Atheists unveil anti-Christmas TV specials.  Conservatives have been mocked for insisting there's an ongoing war on Christmas, but now it looks like they may have simply been ahead of their time.  American Atheists unveiled Wednesday the "War on Christmas" line-up on its television channel, AtheistTV, featuring "original programs proclaiming the truth about Christmas on December 24 and December 25, featuring scholars and celebrities from the atheist community."

Michigan Capitol To Host Satanic Display For Holidays.  Earlier this month it was announced that Florida's Capitol would host a satanic display — now the Michigan Capitol will follow suit.  According to MyFoxDetroit, the Satanic Temple in Detroit has created their own holiday display to be set up on the steps the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing starting on Dec. 21.

Santa Claus is removed from elementary school concert over complaint he is 'too religious'.  Santa Claus did not come to town, or at least he did not make his traditional appearance at one elementary school's winter concert, after he was banned following a complaint.  Many parents were outraged after receiving a letter notifying them of the change from the principal of the Andrew Peabody School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, days before the December 12 event.

Flashback: Muslim Cleric Says 'Merry Christmas' Greeting 'Worse' Than 'Killing Someone'.  A video from 2011 is making the rounds again on social media just in time for the Christmas season.  Lebanese-born cleric Abu Musaab Wajdi Akkari declares in the video posted on The Middle East Media Research Institute TV Monitor Project website that the "Merry Christmas" greeting is "worse than fornication, and drinking alcohol and killing someone."

'Green' Christmas Carols Replace Christ with Climate Change.  What the New Yorker is calling "Climate Change Carols" are a series of Christmas songs whose lyrics have been rewritten to focus on environmental issues, gutting the carols of any relationship to the season of Christ's birth.  Not only that, but the hope and joy characteristic of Christmas has also given way to gloom and doom.

Seven Insane Christmas Shopping Tips from the PC Police.  [#1] Toys like army men promote aggression in boys and can lead them to abuse women later in life. [...] [#2] Instead of "gingerbread men," give "genderless organic vegan gingerbread figures."

Christmas According to Matthew, Luke, and Obama.  After expounding repeatedly about who or what is Islamic, President Obama continues to assume the role of America's theologian in chief by giving us his twist on the "Greatest Story Ever Told."  Obama injected his private interpretation into the Christmas story to bolster support of his executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

Texas' Merry Christmas Law.  Last year, the Lone Star State passed a bill that allows schools to say things like, "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Hanukah" without retribution.  Co-authored by Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston) and Richard Raymond (D-Laredo), the bill, "allows students, parents, teachers and administrators the freedom to acknowledge these traditional winter holidays without fear of litigation or punishment and restores common sense by placing Supreme Court precedent into state law," according to the law's official website.

North Korea blasts Christmas tree near border as 'despicable psychological warfare'.  North Korea is irate at its neighbor to the south for its decision to allow Christians to erect a 30-foot Christmas tree roughly two miles form the border, saying it will "escalate confrontation" and cause a war.  The KCNA news agency, North Korea's state-run media apparatus, described the Christmas tree as an "intolerable insult" and an act of "despicable psychological warfare" by South Korea that "will fan up the confrontation with the fellow countrymen in the north and bring a war disaster."

Satanist shock troops enter the War on Christmas.  The commercialization of the holiday in times past annoyed a few serious believers, but in the main Christians were of generous spirit about inviting everyone to join the celebration, in keeping with the spirit of the holy day.  But lately there's been an aggressive effort to shove Christians aside and drown them out, bleaching every hint of religious significance from the season until it becomes a dreary little patch of public cultural property, tended as carefully as any graffiti-covered derelict building.

Satanic Temple Display Approved for the Florida Capitol's Holiday Decorations.  The Florida Department of Management Services recently approved an application for a holiday display from the Satanic Temple despite rejecting the same group's "grossly offensive" display last year, according to the Florida Times-Union.  The temple's display depicts a falling angel about to be engulfed in the fires of Hell.  Including the temple, a few other proposed displays will join the traditional Hanukkah menorah and Christmas trees in the first-floor rotunda of the Capitol.

Satanic Temple Approved For Capitol Holiday Display.  Florida's Capitol will have a new holiday decoration this year.  The Satanic Temple will be among its nativity scenes and secular presentations.  It's for Festivus, a non-commercial festival "for the rest of us," is close to coming back as a 6-foot stack of empty beer cans.  The Florida Department of Management Services this week approved the proposed holiday display from the Satanic Temple, which a year ago was rejected because the agency said its proposal was "grossly offensive."

Atheists use children to bash Christmas in billboard campaign.  Well, it's Christmas season and here we go again.  I truly believe in freedom of speech and I do not try to define what that freedom is (unlike those who define free speech as only speech they agree with).  However, it's just perplexing to me that atheists go to such lengths to attack something they don't believe exists.  If there is no God, why are you trying so hard to erase Him?  Just like my head-scratching over the Freedom From Religion Foundation, which continues to profess being "offended" by something they say doesn't exist [...]

USDA Christmas Tree Tax Takes Effect.  This year, your real Christmas tree will be more expensive than it needs to be.  That's because the Department of Agriculture is imposing a fee on each fresh-cut tree sold.  A few months ago, the federal government created a national marketing program to advertise the virtues of real Christmas trees.  It's funded by a 15-cent surcharge that will be added to the cost of each tree sold.  It's not a tax, Washington insists — merely a fee that you have to pay.

Neutering Religious Holidays.  We haven't even hit Thanksgiving, and already the war on Christmas is underway.  This time, one of the largest public school systems in the U.S. is eliminating every mention of religious holidays on its official calendar.  The Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland has cut Christmas and Easter, as well as Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashana, from next year's school calendar.  No religious holiday will be mentioned by name.

The Editor asks...
Whatever happened to the celebration of diverse viewpoints?

Montgomery County, Md., School Board Votes to Eliminate All Religious References to School Holidays.  By a vote of 7-1, the Montgomery County School Board voted on Tuesday [11/11/2014] to strip the public school calendar of all references to religion after Muslim groups mounted more than a year-long campaign to get Eid al-adha and Eid ul-Fitr added as a days off for students.  The majority of board members voted to remove all references to religion, resulting in the 2015 school calendar referencing Dec. 24, 25, 28, 29 and 31 as "Winter Break" without noting that school is closed on Dec. 25 for Christmas.  Next year March 25, 28, 29, 30 and 31 will be "Spring Break," without any reference to Easter.

Who's a 'Christmas-friendly' retailer — and who's not?  The online list published by the American Family Association separates retailers into "Nice," "Marginal," or "Naughty" for how they observe and employ the term "Christmas" in their advertising.  The list uses a color-coded system, with blue being the highest rating and red for retailers who say "Bah, humbug!"  Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the American Family Association, shares how he's witnessed the change in retailers' advertising over the years that AFA and others have released similar lists.

Oklahoma lawmakers advance 'Merry Christmas Bill' allowing traditional greetings.  It was Christmas in February for members of an Oklahoma House committee Monday [2/10/2014].  The House Common Education Committee approved by a 15-1 vote legislation saying that public school students, teachers and other staff members can greet each other with such traditional phrases as merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah and happy holidays.

Teacher Tells 6-year-old: Jesus Not Allowed in School.  A California elementary school is facing a possible lawsuit after a teacher allegedly confiscated a six-year-old child's Christmas candy canes and told him "Jesus is not allowed in school."  Last December, Isaiah Martinez brought his first grade classmates at Merced Elementary School candy canes.  Attached to each treat was a message explaining the religious legend surround the candies.  The legend references a candy maker who created the candy cane to symbolize the life of Christ.

House committee: Obama administration banned Christmas carols and cards for veterans.  VA officials in Iowa City, Iowa told representatives of the American Legion that they could not hand out gifts to veterans wrapped in wrapping paper that featured the term "Merry Christmas."  Additionally, the VA Medical Center in Augusta, Georgia — which treats veterans — banned Christmas carolers from singing Christmas songs with religious references in public areas.

Montgomery VA refuses to let woman give 'Christmas' gifts to veterans.  Jordan McLendon simply wanted to honor her late grandfather who was a Vietnam veteran.  "I made over a hundred goodie bags.  I put candy in the goodie bags and I wrote out over a hundred Christmas cards," McClendon explained.  McLendon spent two days making the gifts which she wanted to deliver to all the veterans at the VA Hospital on Perry Hill Road in Montgomery.  She said she did it because many veterans don't get visits from their family on Christmas.  When McLendon arrived on Christmas Eve morning, a VA official told her she couldn't deliver all of them because some of the cards and bags had 'Merry Christmas' on them.

The God of No God.  It's Christmas.  Our atheist friends are out there doing their thing.  No to a crèche here, take down that cross over there, absolutely not to the Ten Commandments display somewhere else.

Most Jews Wish You a Merry Christmas.  As a Jew, and a religious one at that, I want to wish my fellow Americans a Merry Christmas.  Not "Happy Holidays."  Merry Christmas.  I write, "my fellow Americans" because, as reported by the Pew Research poll released just last Wednesday, nine in 10 Americans say they celebrate Christmas.  Apparently, many Americans have forgotten that Christmas is not only a Christian holy day, but also an American national holiday.

Students, parents upset that Christmas cards won't go to local veterans due to policy.  They thought it was a kind holiday gesture, but dozens of Prosper students didn't get to deliver the Christmas cards they made for local veterans because of a VA policy against specific religious cards and phrasing.  The cards are still in North Texas, and the writers are disappointed their thank you's won't be seen by the people they were intended for.

The phrase is 'Merry Christmas'.  I have something to say and some of you may find it offensive:  Merry Christmas.  I'm not trying to insult anyone, please understand.  But the fact is, Wednesday is Christmas and I hope your day is merry.  Is it so wrong to wish that for all, or share that sentiment?  I surely don't believe it is.

'Happy Holidays?' But I Only Celebrate One.  [Scroll down]  Fast forward to today where "Happy Holidays" is issued forth because we don't want to offend anyone.  That's ironic because lumping everyone's holy day in together actually denigrates them all.  It sends the message that we don't want to really know what other people celebrate so we'll just cover everyone with a generic greeting and think the politically correct way makes everyone happy.

Environmental Fascists Move to Ban Plastic Gift Cards.  The left's environmental fascists go after another hugely popular capitalist standby, the plastic gift card. N

Army: Don't say Christmas.  That's the message that was conveyed to a group of soldiers at Camp Shelby by an equal opportunity officer from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, according to a soldier who attended a recent briefing.  "It's unbelievable that the Army would ban 'Christmas' like it's a bad word," said Michael Berry, an attorney with the Liberty Institute, a legal firm representing the unidentified soldier.

The Obama Christmas card reveals the zero at the center of our government.  There's been a fair amount written about the Obama Christmas card.  It's a pop-up card, which has an expensive look that's unseemly as millions lose their insurance and millions more have joined the ranks of the perpetually unemployed.  It's colors are cool, not warm, which seems to refute the warmth that Christmas brings to people in the dark of winter.  It shows a vacant building, which seems symbolic when one considers that Obama invariable answer to all the scandals revealed in the past year is to disclaim knowledge or responsibility.  And lastly, despite going out at Christmas time and despite Obama's claims to be a Christian, the card makes no mention of Christmas.

Also posted under President Obama wants no association with Christianity.

67% Say Christmas Should Be More About Jesus Than Santa Claus.  With the increasing commercialization of Christmas, the religious importance of the holiday often gets buried — but not in the minds of most Americans.  Sixty-seven percent (67%) of American Adults still think Christmas should be more about Jesus Christ than about Santa Claus.  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 17% believe the holiday should be more about the jolly fat man in red.

Nativity scenes removed from Guantanamo dining halls after complaints.  The commander of the Guantanamo Bay naval base decided Wednesday [12/18/2013] to move Nativity scenes from two dining halls following complaints that the decorations improperly promoted Christianity.

Half of America strips religion from Christmas.  Nine out of 10 Americans do Christmas and three-quarters believe in the biblical account of Jesus' birth — but only a little more than half actually regard the holiday primarily as a religious celebration.  More than one-third say it's more a cultural holiday, a new poll from Pew Research's Religion & Public Life Policy found.  The poll also found that generational differences in how Christmas is celebrated abound.  Younger adults generally see the holiday through less religious lens than older Americans.  And those under the age of 30 are far less likely to attend a religious service as part of the holiday celebration.

Some Parents Upset After L.I. School Removes Religious References From 'Silent Night'.  The song "Silent Night" is at the heart of a concert controversy on Long Island.  Officials at Ralph J. Osgood Intermediate School removed several religious references, including "holy infant" and "Christ the savior," from the popular Christmas carol before a concert featuring fifth-graders last week, WCBS 880's Mike Xirinachs reported.  The intent was to avoid offending non-Christians, but the change left others upset.

Schools slams door on Santa.  Christmas in Connecticut feels a little less Christmas-y in one high school after a teacher told students they could not decorate the classroom door with Santa Claus or Christmas trees.  "This is political correctness run amuck," an outraged mom told me. [...] The parent who contacted me said it's pretty clear what the school is doing.  "Christmas seems targeted for persecution," she said.  "If Hanukkah or Kwanzaa were targeted like that there would be such outrage.  We're not allowed to be outraged that Christmas is being taken out of the classroom."

Rasmussen Reports Americans Prefer Christ in Christmas.  More than two-thirds (67%) of Americans think that Christmas is more about Jesus Christ than about Santa Claus.  The survey of 1000 American adults conducted on Dec. 9-10 by Rasmussen Reports demonstrates that Americans consider Christmas a day of religious significance more than a day of bustling consumerism.

Sending Holiday Season Regards to our Conservative Warriors.  Pleasantly surprised and a bit shocked, I enjoyed religious Christmas carols playing in the elevator of a major hotel.  Progressive bullies are relentless in their quest to repeal the celebration of Jesus's birthday, Christmas, declared a federal holiday in 1870 by President Ulysses S. Grant.  Illustrating the effectiveness of the progressives' intimidation, anonymously, signs are being stealthily posted in public areas:  "It's OK to say Merry Christmas."

Festivus pole to go up in Florida Capitol rotunda.  A nearly 6-foot-tall "Festivus" pole made from empty beer cans will be put up in the Florida Capitol this week as a not-so-subtle protest to the recent placement of a Christmas nativity scene.

Air Force Base Takes Down Nativity Scene Following Complaint.  Officials at Shaw Air Force Base are trying to determine what to do about a holiday display after a Nativity scene was taken down last week.

The politicization of Christmas:
Santa Warns In Greenpeace Video Christmas Will Be Canceled Due To Global Warming.  Greenpeace is warning children the world over Santa Claus might not be bringing gifts to them because of global warming.  A "Save the Arctic" video released by the environmental group shows a sullen and dirty Santa — played by Jim Carter of "Downton Abbey" — in a dark, concrete room with water dripping from the ceiling.

More politicization:
OFA Video Teaches Parents How to Inject Obamacare into Christmas Dinner.  Just a week before young adults return home for the end of year holidays, Organizing for America is debuting a video imploring parents to interrupt their time with their children to promote the benefits of Obamacare in a last-ditch attempt to ease millennial dissatisfaction with President Obama.

Still more politicization:
Planned Parenthood Pens 'Twelve Days of Contraception' Christmas Carol.  Staff members of the Arizona affiliate of Planned Parenthood are celebrating the season by changing the lyrics of the traditional Christmas carol, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," to accommodate the abortion industry.

Air Force removes Nativity scene.  The Baby Jesus has been kicked off Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, according to an organization who relishes any opportunity to eradicate Christianity from the U.S. military.

"Robbing" and the "War on Christmas".  Yes, Bill O'Reilly was right, many liberals have stopped Americans from singing Christmas carols, from displaying nativity scenes, decorating their yards, places of business, schools, churches, public places, and have replaced the traditional "Merry Christmas" with the lame "happy holidays," under the guise that it offends their beliefs or lack thereof.

Santa trumps the Grinch under Texas' new Merry Christmas law.  A group of Texans is coming out in full force to protect Christmas, Hanukkah and other holiday celebrations and to make sure students, teachers and parents have the right to observe their holidays at school.  "It's time to end the war on Christmas and stop forcing our schools to bow at the altar of political correctness," said Jonathan Saenz, president of Texas Values, which is spearheading a Merry Christmas Texas effort.

The militarization of Christmas:
Defense Officials Defend Santa's Fighter Jet Escort.  Senior defense officials are defending the decision to have fighter jets escort St. Nick this year on the North American Air Defense Command's Santa tracker website.  The NORAD website each December posts videos of Santa Claus entering different countries and cities around the world.  This year, some of the videos will show fighter planes escorting the sleigh, a decision that has drawn criticism from the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood and others.

Sarah Palin blasts 'War on Christmas' during Liberty University visit.  Sarah Palin addressed Liberty University students at their final fall convocation Wednesday, blasting what she called a "war on Christmas" and promoting her latest book.  She was joined onstage at the Vines Center by Liberty Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. and the university's spokesman, Johnnie Moore, who sat together and discussed Palin's career, beliefs and book, "Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas."  "There definitely is a war on Christmas," Palin said.

Congress should say no to Obama's Christmas tree tax.  Whether people say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays," one thing they shouldn't have to say about the favorite season of kids everywhere is "Christmas tree tax."  But this perennial stinker of an idea from special-interest grinches with connections in the Obama White House is back, this time in the farm bill now before Congress.  The proposal is a 15-cent tax to be paid on every freshly-cut Christmas tree sold in America.  President Obama, at the urging of the National Christmas Tree Association, first proposed it in 2011.

Church-state battle envelops school choirs.  As Christmas nears, two local school districts find themselves being drawn unwillingly into the battle against religion in the public square — but both districts maintain that allowing students to participate in traditional Christmas concerts does not violate anyone's rights.  Choirs from Glacier, Flathead and Whitefish high schools will perform as planned today and Friday during the "Peace on Earth Community Christmas Celebration" despite receiving requests from the Freedom from Religion Foundation and American Civil Liberties Union of Montana to cancel.

Georgia School Confiscates Christmas Cards.  For as long as anyone can remember, teachers at Brooklet Elementary School have posted Christmas cards in the hallways outside their classrooms — until Monday.  When boys and girls returned from Thanksgiving break, they discovered that their teachers' Christmas cards had been removed — under orders from the Georgia school's administration.  Robb Kicklighter's wife is a third grade teacher at the school.  He said many teachers are disgruntled by the school's decision to confiscate the Christmas cards.

The religious cleansing of Bulloch County, Georgia.  It was November 12th.  His wife was on the phone and she was reading an email that she had just received from her boss at Sallie Zetterower Elementary School in Statesboro, Ga.  "As of today, if you have a Bible verse on your school email and/or Bible verse posted in the classroom, please remove it immediately," the email read.  But it was the next part of the email that made Mr. Cook tremble.  "If a student-led prayer is initiated, you must remove yourself and step away from the group," the email read.

School Board Posts 17 Legal Talking Points for Limiting Religious Liberty.  Last week, CNSNews reported that a Georgia school in Bulloch County decided to confiscate the Christmas cards that were posted along the hallways over the Thanksgiving break.  Traditionally, the school always had Christmas cards posted, but school administrators decided to un-deck the halls.

NJ Mayor Insists on Christmas Trees, Not 'Holiday Trees,' In His Town.  After his town advertised a secular "tree lighting ceremony," the mayor of Robbinsville, NJ took matters into his own hands and sent a letter to his constituents that no such thing would occur.  Mayor David Fried sent an open letter to the residents of his town yesterday rejecting a title the yearly tree lighting ceremony had acquired over the years, turning from a "holiday tree" to simply a "tree lighting ceremony."  The town would have a proper Christmas tree and celebrate religion, because the alternative is "just not right."

Sacrilege: Did the 'Glee' Christmas Go Too Far?  Glee's "Previously Unaired Christmas" should have stayed true to its name and remained a lost script, considering it was complete with a bisexual Santa, transgender Virgin Mary and its fair share of drunkenness.  Glee producer Ryan Murphy is used to pushing the moral boundaries on his hit musical show, but last night's episode may have gone a little too far even for his most loyal viewers — especially Christian ones.

School bans Christmas trees, the colors red & green.  An elementary school in Frisco, Texas is believed to be the first in the state to violate "The Merry Christmas Law" after they banned Christmas trees and the colors red & green from an upcoming "winter" party.  Boys and girls who attend the Nichols Elementary School "Winter Party" will not be able to make any reference to Christmas or any other religious holiday.  Christmas trees are also banned — along with the colors red and green.  The rules were sent to parents in an email from the school's PTA and first reported on by MyFoxDFW.com.

State lawmaker says Frisco school's winter party rules go against new law.  Some parents and a state lawmaker are upset about a party for students at Nichols Elementary in Frisco because it's called a winter party, and because the students will have to follow some party rules that the lawmaker says goes against a newly-passed state law.  Representative Pat Fallon says an angry parent asked why their child, who attends Nichols, won't see a Christmas tree and won't be allowed to say "Merry Christmas" at the school's winter party.

School cancels Operation Christmas Child over lawsuit threats.  A South Carolina charter school has canceled its annual Christmas toy drive after a group of self-described humanists complained that the project violated the U.S. Constitution and accused them of bribing children to convert to Christianity.  Renee Mathews, the principal of East Point Academy in West Columbia, S.C., said the annual Operation Christmas Child project was halted because the American Humanist Association threatened to sue the school.  "We received a letter saying we had to cease and desist immediately or they would take legal action against us," Mathews told me.

The Sarah Palin War-on-Christmas Soundboard.  For religious conservatives, howling over the so-called "war on Christmas" has become an annual holiday tradition almost as enjoyable as Christmas itself.  On Tuesday, Sarah Palin seeks to capitalize on the phenomenon with the release of her newest book, Good Tidings and Great Joy: Protecting the Heart of Christmas.

Hallmark removes the word 'gay' from Deck The Halls holiday ornament sparking fury from customers.  Hallmark has provoked outrage and ridicule from its customers after changing the words of a traditional Christmal carol on a festive ornament. [...] The original line — 'Don we now our gay apparel' — has been altered by the Kansas-City based company for its new line of holiday merchandise.  It now reads:  'Don we now our FUN apparel.'

The Editor says...
One thing that makes English hard to master is that many English words have multiple definitions.  The homosexuals are attempting to hijack words like gay and queer, and abolish those words' other definitions and legitimate uses.

Christmas Comes Early in Texas, As Gov. Perry Signs Religious Freedom Bill.  By law, it is now okay to say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hanukkah" in Texas public schools.  Gov. Rick Perry signed House Bill 308 on Thursday [6/13/2013], allowing public school students and staff to use traditional holiday greetings and display religious scenes and symbols on school property.

'Merry Christmas Bill' expected to become law in Texas soon.  After a good amount of hoopla, Texas Governor Rick Perry is expected to quietly sign legislation allowing public schools to celebrate Christmas and other winter holidays plainly and explicitly without fear of lawsuits.  The proposed law, dubbed the "Merry Christmas Bill," sailed easily through both the Texas House and Senate and now awaits the Perry's signature, reports the Dallas Observer.

Saudi Arabia: 41 people arrested for "plotting to celebrate Christmas".  Sharia Alert from the Kingdom of the Two Holy Places.

Washington Post Publishes Op-ed Urging 'Let's Give Santa the Boot'.  Dante Chinni calls himself "a card-carrying member of the East Coast Media Establishment Complex," and he proved in on Sunday [12/23/2012] with an article in Sunday Outlook section of The Washington Post:  "Instead of leaving cookies, let's give Santa the boot."  Secular liberals always first want to save the country for science and rationality, and Santa Claus is "reality's exception" for little kids.

Christmas in an anti-Christian age.  While undeniable that Christianity entails a belief in the supernatural, the miraculous — God became man that first Christmas, Christ raised people from the dead, rose himself on the first Easter Sunday and ascended into heaven 40 days later — consider what atheists believe.  They believe that something came out of nothing, that reason came from irrationality, that a complex universe and natural order came out of randomness and chaos, that consciousness came from non-consciousness and that life emerged from non-life.  This is a bridge too far for the Christian for whom faith and reason tell him that for all of this to have been created from nothing is absurd; it presupposes a Creator.

Confronting Christmas.  As godless secularism becomes more and more entrenched in our culture, the Christmas season is one of the most contentious times in our calendar.  Every year, there are stories in the news of banned Christmas trees or of Christmas trees renamed "holiday trees."  Christmas concerts at public schools draw threats of a lawsuit (even when the poor in Africa are the beneficiaries!), and U.S. congressmen are barred from wishing their constituents a "Merry Christmas" in their official mailings.

Lakemba Mosque imam issues 'fatwa against Christmas' - report.  The head imam at Lakemba, Sheikh Yahya Safi, reportedly told the congregation during Friday [12/21/2012] prayers they should not have anything to do with Christmas.  The fatwa reportedly warned:  "Disbelievers are trying to draw Muslims away from the straight path."  It said Christmas Day and associated celebrations are among the "falsehoods" for a Muslim to avoid.  "Therefore a Muslim is neither allowed to celebrate the Christmas Day nor is he allowed to congratulate them," it said.

Holiday tolerance.  It's almost Christmas.  Lights are up, trees are decked and, where it's still legal, Nativity scenes are on display.  This is the time of year when even high school orchestras playing carols to raise money for charity wind up being challenged by atheists who profess to be offended.

On Christmas, Einstein And Atheists:  It's that time of year when secularists and atheists join forces to eradicate all signs of Christmas from the Christmas season.  Thus Christmas trees become "holiday" trees and timid Christians swallow the attacks on their faith and their intelligence.  It's become second nature for secularists like Bill Maher to mock Christians as fools for believing in intelligent design and something as ridiculous as the Virgin Birth and the Resurrection.

Have You Bought Your 'Abornament' Yet?  Yes, abortion rights activists have reached a new level of depravity.  Apparently, as everyone indulges in the holiday spirit, the pro-choice camp decided to create abortion ornaments — or 'abornaments' — to be part of the commemoration of the birth of Christ.  The fact that pro-choice Americans threw this in the face of those who practice religion, or hold pro-life beliefs, is offensive in the extreme.

Don't Be Intimidated.  The joyous seasons of Christmas and Hanukkah always seems to always bring out different forms of intimidation from the coo-coo birds on the left. [...] They take much pleasure in destroying the simple traditions of religious celebrations and symbols, but they only attack certain established religions, beliefs, or philosophies, why?

Parents Say Christmas Carols are Form of Bullying.  A group of parents in Missoula, Mont. are upset over the religious nature of Christmas songs performed at a local elementary school — alleging the songs about the Baby Jesus is unconstitutional and a "form of bullying."  The parents, who declined to be identified, are threatening to sue the Missoula County Public School District unless songs like "Joy to the World" and "Good Christian Men Rejoice" are replaced with secular tunes.

Atheist Bah-humbug in Times Square.  The atheists, who spend their time largely fighting against an enemy they insist is not there, don't seem to be able to curb the will of the merchants who rake in up to one third of their yearly receipts during the Christmas season.  Don't worry, the merry will go on if they have anything to say about it, and the day the Christians give up the Christmas observance, the merchants will be the first to try to 'save Christmas.'  This writer is not naïve; I am fully aware that Christmas is a religious holiday created by the Catholic Church and is not a scriptural mandate.  We are never instructed to celebrate any birthday.  It is also known today, that if anything, Christ was probably born sometime in early April, not December 25.

Nativity scene returns after Warren man gets permit.  A longtime Nativity scene on Mound Road is back this Christmas after a four-year absence.  On Saturday morning [12/15/2012], John Satawa once again erected his 8-by-8 foot manger and statues in the median just north of Chicago Road, although this time he will do it with a permit he fought for years to get.

Denying The War On Christmas.  Children who attend Terry Elementary School in Little Rock, Arkansas know about the War on Christmas:  their planned trip to a local church to see "A Charlie Brown Christmas" was cancelled.  An anti-Christmas billboard in Times Square that shows a depiction of Jesus crucified is testimony to the vile nature of the War on Christmas.  There is no shortage of such examples.

NBC Editor Denounces "Religious" Part of Christmas.  NBC's medical editor denounced the religious part of Christmas during a panel discussion about the holiday on Today.  "I don't like the religion part," said Nancy Snyderman, the network's chief medical editor.  "I think religion is what mucks the whole thing up."  The "religion" she was referring to is celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

Navy Cancels Nativity over Atheist Complaint.  The Navy directed service members serving in Bahrain to cancel and dismantle a "Live Nativity" after receiving a complaint from a military atheist group who said the manger scene endangered Americans serving in a Muslim country and violated the U.S. Constitution. [...] The "Live Nativity" was a long-standing tradition at NSA Bahrain that featured the children of military personnel dressed as shepherds, wise men, along with Mary and Joseph.  It was part of a larger festival that included a tree lighting, Christmas music and photographs with Santa Claus and a camel.

The Editor says...
Oh, I see.  Apparently the troops weren't in any danger until they celebrated Christmas.

Man Faces Fines for Giant Santa.  The owner of a New Jersey business is facing thousands of dollars in possible fines after he refused to remove a 40-foot tall inflatable Santa Claus from his rooftop.  Santa us up on the rooftop of Seasonal World, owned by Tony Schiavone in Millstone Township.  He told television station WNYW that he's been hit with at least five tickets from town officials who believe the yuletide decoration violates the law.

University Students Want to Ban Salvation Army.  The University of California in Berkeley is considering a student government resolution calling for Salvation Army bell ringers to be banned from campus over allegations the charity is "anti-gay."

Ben Stein: People who attack Christmas not 'well in the head'.  Economist Ben Stein said there is an underlying sense of anger behind the so-called "War on Christmas" and that he doesn't consider people who attack the holiday "well in the head."

Secular Humanists Bid All 'A Merry un-Christmas'.  An atheist group is upset an Arkansas school offered students an optional, meaning not required, school field trip to see a production of "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown" which just happened to be showing at a local church.  The November 29 letter sent to the Little Rock Arkansas School District by the Appignani Humanist Legal Center speaks to separation of church and state and complains:  "The message of the play is clear:  Jesus Christ is the son of God and the messiah, and the real meaning of Christmas is to celebrate the anniversary of his birth.  It is completely sectarian in nature and expressly rejects any secular version of Christmas...".

Seniors Outraged Over Christmas Tree Ban.  Residents of a senior adult apartment complex in California staged a protest after the management of their building announced a ban on Christmas trees and menorahs in communal areas.  "We're all angry," resident Fern Scheel told the Los Angeles Daily News."  We want that tree.  Where's our freedom?  This is ridiculous."

Gov. Lincoln Chafee: It's Not 'Tradition' to Call It a Christmas Tree.  Gov. Lincoln Chafee (I-R.I.) told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that his administration calls the decorated evergreen tree erected in the Rhode Island State House in December a "holiday tree" — rather than a "Christmas tree" — because that is what the tree is traditionally called.

The Real Root of Atheists' Anti-Christmas Rage.  Why do some atheists embarrass themselves year after year trying to eradicate Christmas from American culture?  Why do they make themselves societal hemorrhoids during this hallowed season?

7 of 10 Americans prefer 'Merry Christmas' over 'Happy Holidays'.  By a wide margin, 68 percent to 23 percent, Americans prefer stores with signs that say "Merry Christmas" during the Christmas holidays than the more generic and secular "Happy Holidays," according to a new Rasmussen Reports survey.  And in all 34 of the categories the accurate and prominent pollster looks at, "Merry Christmas" was the hands-down winner.

68% Prefer 'Merry Christmas' Over 'Happy Holidays'.  Most Americans still prefer signs in stores that say "Merry Christmas" rather than ones with "Happy Holidays."  A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 68% of American Adults prefer Merry Christmas.  Just 23% like Happy Holidays instead.

Santa Monica may bar Nativity scenes in public areas, judge rules.  In a closely watched case, a federal judge denies a church coalition's request that the court require the city to allow Nativity scenes in Palisades Park this year, as it has for nearly 60 years.

The Santa Monica Nativity Scene Case: Why We Lost.  When Tuesday (11/19/2012), United States District Court Judge Audrey B Collins delivered a 28-page ruling denying my client the right to continue a 59-year-old tradition of exhibiting Nativity scenes along Ocean Boulevard in the City of Santa Monica this Christmas season, another dagger plunged into the heart of America's twilight customs and traditions.  The sneered-at "war on Christmas" was effectively lost for good.

Why One Poll Says 45% Would Rather Skip Christmas.  Some 45 percent of those polled said the holiday season brings so much financial pressure, they would prefer to skip it altogether.  Almost half said their level of stress related to holiday expenses is high or extremely high.  That's probably because nearly the same amount — some 45 percent — say they do not expect to have enough money set aside to cover holiday expenses.

Battle over coastal Xmas display goes to LA court.  Santa Monica officials snuffed the city's holiday tradition this year rather than referee the religious rumble, prompting churches that have set up a 14-scene Christian diorama for decades to sue over freedom of speech violations.

Brussels Bans Annual Christmas Tree Display — It May Offend Muslims.  Brussels replaced its popular Christmas tree exhibit this year at the city center due to concerns that it may offend the local Muslim population.

This is an original compilation, Copyright © 2024 by Andrew K. Dart

• A teacher in Texas discontinued all Christmas celebrations and substituted the celebration of Kwanzaa, during which first graders were taught to worship their ancestors.
• An Oklahoma public school banned all religious music and displays during the Christmas season.
• Kindergartners in Missouri were told they could not sing Christmas carols in school during the holidays.
• Students in South Carolina were told to write an essay on a topic of their choice during the month of December, but when one student wanted to write about Christmas, the teacher refused to grade his essay.