The 2023 Christmas season has been mostly free from big Christmas controversies or declarations of the “War On Christmas.” The website DefendChristmas.com conducted a poll two years ago and 95% of respondents were not even interested in fighting the “War On Christmas” - they just want to enjoy the holiday.
Today, on my show, I had fun talking about the past Christmas controversies that seem so benign today. There have been countless controversies over the placement of Christmas trees, symbols, and Nativity scenes in public schools or on public property.
My understanding is quite simple: if one religion is allowed on public property then that precedent opens the opportunity to other religions to place their symbols on public property. I would assume that the majority of Christians fighting to have Christmas symbols on public property would have little understanding for Muslim or Satanic symbols being placed on public property.
The controversy over saying “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” rallied people into a frenzy that replacing “Merry Christmas” with “Happy Holidays” was anti-Christian. As I Christian, when I hear “Happy Holidays” I think of it as a Christmas greeting because I celebrate Christmas.
Businesses and many retail outlets because using “Happy Holidays,” not as an attack on Christians, but to make more consumers feel included. I’m sure a few left-wing extremists relished in replacing “Merry Christmas,” but it seems the decision to use “Happy Holidays” was motivated by the inclusion of more consumers.
In November of this year, the town of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin issued an order banning the use of only red and green in holiday decorations. Employees of the city were encouraged to decorate with “neutral and inclusive decorations that celebrate the season without favoring any particular faith belief system."
This year a public school in Oregon apologized to a Jewish resident for displaying a Christmas tree at the school. Conservative Christian Todd Starnes blew this up as if schools across the country were apologizing for displaying a Christmas tree. Starnes, and others like him, earn a living by creating fear that Christianity is being taken from the American people.
My favorite Christmas controversy hit in 2018 when an elementary school principal banned candy canes in classrooms because if held upside down the candy cane makes the shape of the letter “J” - which she insisted stood for Jesus. The insanity went on when Principal Jennifer Sinclair in Elkhorn, Nebraska said that the red in the candy cane represented the blood of Jesus and the white represented the resurrection.
In the aforementioned cases, there is an individual in one city that makes a bizarre decision about a Christmas decoration and agenda-driven people in the media project those cases onto a map of the United States.
Liberals are not stealing Christmas, in fact, millions and millions of liberal Americans are as devout about Christmas as many conservative Christians in America. The fear mongering in this country needs to stop, but I doubt it will. Instilling fear in people creates a need to follow the source of the fear mongering and the belief that the person creating the fear is the only person who can save you.
In the 17th century, the Puritans passed laws prohibiting any Christmas celebration. If there had been talk radio and social media then, I can imagine the controversy that would ensue.
But there are no laws prohibiting Christmas and no one should brainwash you into believing that Christmas - or Christianity are in jeopardy.
Merry Christmas!