Americans prefer to make merry

I'm back from several days of stuffing and loafing. Dang.

So let's ease back into the grind with some jolly holiday polling.

According to a new Rasmussen Poll, "Merry Christmas" beats the fruitcake out of "Happy Holidays" as the nation's preferred season's greeting. Merry Christmas was picked by 72 percent of those surveyed compared to 22 percent for Happy Holidays. That's up from 68 percent in 2008.

(h/t to Price of Politics)

Oldsters, marrieds and Republicans all lean more heavily toward merriment than youngish, single Democrats. The patisan divide is deep, according to the poll, with 91 percent of Republicans picking merry compared to just 58 percent of Democrats.

Ho, ho, ho-hum I say. We should consider ourselves lucky to get any pleasant greeting in this, the incivility era. The bird you just saw likely is not a partridge in a pear tree.

But this poll is all about red-blue, not red-green. We're in a holly jolly Culture war, in case you didn't hear.

The Merry Christmas-Happy Holiday fight has been going on for a while now, also known as the "war on Christmas." Fox News fanned it. Liberals joined the fight. Full candy cane combat erupted. Yawn.

Luckily, I think the fire is slowly dying. And that's because most people, myself included, think the whole thing is silly.

As the chatty battery-powered Santa at grandma's house says, the true meaning of Christmas is "in you heart." (Although this nugget of wisdom prompted my then-3-year-old daughter to surmise that she should see a doctor, pronto. ) In other words, we're all pretty much free to celebrate, or not celebrate, as we see fit.

Still, this year, the American Family Association has called for a boycott of The Gap and its sister stores over its all-inclusive holiday ad campaign, sparking a few predictable skirmishes.

This effort makes sense, since I always take my cues on how best to derive deep meaning from the Christmas season from mall-dwelling peddlers of cashmere hoodies. I bet you do as well.

 Although, frankly, if the AFA werre protesting the fact that the ads are loud and annoying, I'd strike the harp and join the chorus. 

Sadly, that is not the focus.

Merry Holidays, Happy Christmas, etc.