War on Christmas

I have been meaning to write something about the "war on Christmas," but Publius did it for me, and wrote it a lot better than I would have too. Here are a couple of grafs, but read the whole thing.

The basic idea of saying “Happy Holidays” is rooted in politeness – not hostility to Jesus. It’s just sort of rude to tell, say, a Jewish co-worker to have a Merry Christmas. I think part of reason many Americans don’t understand this is because many of them live in areas that are 100% Christian (in an ethnic sense, not necessarily a church-going sense).

Take me, for instance. I grew up in a town not knowing a single Jewish person. By the end of college, most of my immediate friends were Jewish. And there were just certain situations where it wasn’t appropriate to use “Christmas.” For instance, when I left town for winter break, “Have a good Christmas break” eventually became “have a good break.” It wasn’t rooted in hostility to James Dobson. It was just the polite thing to do. That was the animating spirit behind the practice.