Call off ‘war on Christmas’

By The Gazette Editorial Board

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Here's what we'd like for Christmas: A truce in the “war on Christmas.”

Christmas is a culturally and religiously important day for millions of, though not all, Americans.

Those who do celebrate Christmas do so in their own ways and for their own reasons. There's nothing strange about that in a multicultural society such as our own.

What's strange is the idea that some people feel they need to fight about the proper way to observe the holiday or act like victims because not everyone celebrates it the way they do.

Life's too short for petty squabbles about which public figures are too chicken to say “Merry Christmas” or whether retailers are “Christmas-friendly” or not. We say “enough already” with this talk about a so-called war on Christmas.

For Christmas celebrants, this is a time of celebration, prayer and reflection on their faith. A time to gather with family and friends. The freedom to celebrate - or not - Christmas isn't diminished by anyone else's belief. So why bicker about it?

In the 1990s, when the term “war on Christmas” entered the popular lexicon, it was more understandable that Christians might feel attacked. That's when public organizations started to take seriously the reality that not everyone celebrates Christmas or shares its religious tradition.

It made for some sometimes-awkward changes to public Christmas traditions that held deep meaning for many - and reminded others that they were outsiders looking in.

But that early wave of well-meaning political correctness has broken into a more tolerant atmosphere of respect and understanding. As communities, we're getting it, and that's also something to celebrate.

Still, every year, some pundits and indignant others drag out the dead horse of threatened Christmas extinction and beat it.

They hold themselves as Christmas traditionalists but come across as would-be Christmas police who judge every holiday reference and greeting by some unwritten code of acceptability.

It's petty, and hardly in keeping with the spirit of peace and goodwill that is the hallmark of the season and a tenet of Christianity and many faiths.

So Merry Christmas, readers. And to those whose religion or belief is not based in Christmas, then happy holidays.