Dispatches from the Culture Wars: The War on Christmas is Back

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Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media.(static)

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The War on Christmas is Back

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Posted on: November 12, 2007 9:30 AM, by Ed Brayton

Seems like Bill O'Reilly's idiotic blather about the war on Christmas starts earlier every year. How about a War on Demagoguery?

Comments

War on Christmas, my ass! It's those damn lefties among Santa's elves we gotta worry about. I'm tellin' ya, never in existence have we seen such a resistance to ideas meant to free us. If you could see us, then you'd listen. Toiling through the ages? Making toys on garnished wages?? There's no union, they're only through when they outdo the competition.

Sorry. Sorry, got a bit carried away there. This time of year just makes me sing. Back to you, Ed Robertson.

Seriously, Billo just makes me laugh. Or cry. Kinda hard to tell the difference, sometimes.

Posted by: Johnny Vector | November 12, 2007 10:00 AM

How about addressing the really serious threat to Christmas? I'm talking about all those pagan customs that keep sneaking in.

Oh wait, take away the pagan customs, and what is left?

23 1/2 degree axial tilt is the reason for the season!

Posted by: BaldApe | November 12, 2007 10:18 AM

I would rather the mainstream media focus on the War on Winter Solstice

Posted by: nanovirus | November 12, 2007 10:24 AM

The War on Christmas! All the thrill of persecution without any of the inconvenience!

Posted by: Ericb | November 12, 2007 10:59 AM

IMHO, the "War on Christmas" starts not with improper holiday greetings or fights about location or content of nativity displays. Oh, no.

The "War on Christmas" started this year in August, when K-Mart had artificial Christmas Trees on display next to the Back-to-School Supplies.

Additional troops were brought in at the mall, where Christmas Decorations gradually moved into spots vacated by sold halloween merchandise.

The Target near my house will already have Christmas music playing already, very softly and only in certain departments. As November progresses, it will gradually expand to fill the store, until Thanksgiving comes and goes, when the din will be inescapable.

The real "War on Christmas" is being waged by people who want to turn it from a one-day religious holiday to a four-month frenzy of buying. The "War on Christmas" is the brainwashing of people to make them believe they must update their themed decorations every year, and buy presents for the sake of buying presents, not because they care for the recipients or because a gift seems like the thing someone really needs or wants.

The real "War on Christmas" is the constant badgering that we must buy this, decorate with that, get something for everyone on the "list", attend a whole slew of parties AND visit all the relatives, AND make it perfect for the kids, and still feel "goodwill towards men" after doing all that crap. Each time advertisers and retailers heap yet another demand upon us, insisting we must do or buy or give to make this a "perfect holiday season!" more of us revolt.

For some people, the financial demands are too much. Their revolt might be on a smaller scale, involving only themselves and their loved ones. They'll simplify, cut back the "gift list", give homemade presents, or even (GASP!) celebrate it as a religious holiday only. Their contributions to the war won't be noticed quite so much, although they are making some impact.

For others, the demands in general have taken away any pleasure we might have had in the secular celebration, whether or not we participate in the religious one. We're sick of it. We don't give a damn whether you say "Merry Christmas" or "Happy Holidays," just wait until frickin' December to start saying it. We know from experience that the shopping does not make the holiday happy. We know that "the perfect gift" does not make the holiday happy - nor does giving it on a specific day make it any more perfect. We know that after about the 50th time of hearing it in a week, "Joyeux Noel" doesn't sound so joyful anymore. We're tired of being assaulted with Christmas for such a huge part of the year, and our backs are up. So we're scaling back, too. We're not buying what they're selling, in goods or ideology. We're fighting back, and we're not quiet about it.

And that is the real "War on Christmas". Corporate America started it. The Public is just defending itself. O'Reilly is appealing to the attackers to stop the war, which shows what a fool he is. It won't stop until Americans stop feeding the effort - not by insisting that the proper greeting be used, but by insisting that advertisers and TV bloviators can't tell us what to do and how to do it.

Posted by: Alison | November 12, 2007 11:01 AM

What O'Reilly and other Christians fail to understand is that the more you promote the word "Christmas" in referring to all the holiday celebrations -- and the more you say "Merry Christmas" to people of other faiths and no faith -- the more you secularize it. You can't have a universally acknowledged and celebrated "Christmas" and ALSO "Keep the Christ in Christmas." Those are opposite goals.

If they really wanted to keep the holiday religious, they'd be trying to keep it as a church celebration only, and get it out of the public forums.

As an atheist, I celebrate Christmas -- and no, I do not keep the Christ in it or consider Jesus the reason for the season. And the more people like me say "Merry Christmas" the more the word Christmas becomes like Easter or Halloween. A word.

What matters is the holiday itself. And I'll agree with Alison that the themes of family, fellowship, charity, peace, and good will could be better expressed with less overt commercialization.

Posted by: Sastra | November 12, 2007 11:29 AM

Right on, Alison. Billo and Company are the only ones attacking Christmas.

In other holiday news, it appears the War on Michaelmas is completely over in this country. While shopping on that day, I noted that no one even wished me a happy holiday, much less a merry Michaelmas. Billo's got some work to do.

Posted by: kehrsam | November 12, 2007 11:36 AM

And what about the war on St. Valentine's Day? How many times do you hear a store employee in February wish a customer "Happy Valentine's Day" without using the word "Saint"?

Time for Catholics to fight back.

Posted by: Sastra | November 12, 2007 11:40 AM

If the War on Christmas is as effective as the War on Terror, Christians have nothing to worry about.

Posted by: jufulu, FCD | November 12, 2007 11:44 AM

Absolutely, Alison. Although personally, nothing says "Christmas" to me in quite the same way as the Victoria's Secret Christmas Dreams and Fantasies catalog does. Nothing like an angel in thigh high silver boots and a bra and panty set to really remind you of the "reason for the season." Oy vey.

Posted by: General Zia | November 12, 2007 12:10 PM

You know, if you consider Alison's and jufulu's comments together, it all makes sense.

We have a "War on Poverty", and we get more poverty. We have a "War on Drugs" and we get more drugs. We have a "War on Terrorism" and we get more terror. ...and if we have a "War on Christmas", we get more Christmas. So much that it has to spread out into August to fit the year.

O'Reilly's "War on Christmas" tirades are obviously a form of Christmas Decoration, just like the inflatable Santas. O'Reilly's just bringing it up now because, well, as the retailers tell us, it's obviously time to bring out the Christmas Decorations...

Posted by: SMC | November 12, 2007 12:11 PM

As christmas seems to start earlier every year, it's only right that BillO also start earlier. This is his cause, his fight, his shtick. A BillO's gotta do what a BillO's gotta do.

Posted by: Ron | November 12, 2007 12:35 PM

Years from now, when Billo's in a cheap, shoddy home for faux-newsmen, someone will tell him it's Christmas, but he is a bad man, so he will get NO presents. He will also get no Christmas dinner. And the Baby Jesus will smile*.

*If there were a baby jesus, but there's not, so you will all have to be content and just share in the feel-good story of Billo, years from now, sobbing into his snotty,scratchy moth-eaten blanket.

Posted by: J-Dog | November 12, 2007 1:43 PM

A link to Ferlinghetti's poem, Christ Climbed Down:

http://www.whizzo.ca/paul/ccd.html

The perfect commentary on the crass commercializing of Christmas (that Mr. O'Reilly never mentions). From A Coney Island of the Mind.

Posted by: MS | November 12, 2007 2:00 PM

I live in Vancouver, Canada which is about as politically correct a place as one could imagine. But no one stops me as a Christian from observing Christmas as I see fit. If the local school has a "Winter Festival" concert instead of a Christmas concert it bothers me not. And I will tell you why. Firstly everyone walks around saying "Merry Christmas" anyways. Secondly the real problem with Christmas is that is has become this commercialized monstrosity. If you want to talk about taking the Christ out of Christmas look no further. And here is the ironic part. The reason that everyone ( Christian and Non-Christian alike) ignore the PC language and says Merry Christmas anways is because for many people Christmas is a secular celebration.

Posted by: Cheddar | November 12, 2007 2:15 PM

Alison, as a Christian, I say you are right on! I pretty much hate everyting that leads up to Christmas in the secular world; although in the church year I do love the season of Advent. And Christmas Eve worship still has deep meaning for me.

Our newspaper had a great editorial cartoon showing Santa's sleigh running into a turkey. On his sleigh was a bumper sticker that said, "I don't brake for turkeys."

Posted by: Rev. AJB | November 12, 2007 3:20 PM

The War on Christmas! All the thrill of persecution without any of the inconvenience!

EricB, I think you win the award for most insightful comment on the post. I think billo and his friends do get a strange thrill out of this, and obviously they're not inconveinenced at all by someone saying "happy holidays" to them.

It's fun, it's safe--kind of like an amusement park, where we only have the illusion of danger (well, most of the time).

Posted by: James Hanley | November 12, 2007 3:43 PM

Bah! Humbug!
(well, someone had to say it ;-)
Growing up in an agnostic family during the 60s, we had "Christmas", as in: a tree, lights hung from the eaves, presents, playing Christmas records, exchanging cards (bearing various greetings) with friends and relatives, and a big dinner with family friends on the 25th.

And the whole Jesus-in-the-manger thing was another cute story, along with St. Nicholas and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. None of us believed a word of any of it.

But, hey -- we still said "Merry Christmas", so I guess we're all right in Bill-O's book, along with all the other superficial morons who value appearance over substance.

Posted by: Eamon Knight | November 12, 2007 11:48 PM

Ericb - best comment ever.

Posted by: Alberta Girl | November 13, 2007 12:12 AM

I want to second (or fourth or seventh) what Alison said.

I work in a national chain store, mainly stocking and 80+ percent of the holiday crap that we get comes directly from China. We make jokes about what we might catch from the Chinese dust on the boxes.

It boggles my mind how we can sell more of this cheap Chinese crap every single year. I've been wondering as I put up displays how much of last year's sales are rotting (or trying to rot) in the landfills...

Posted by: twincats | November 13, 2007 12:33 AM

The funniest moment in the past Wars on Christmas was when someone noticed back in 2005 that foxnews.com was selling "Bill O'Reilly Holiday Ornaments" to hang on your "holiday tree".

Google on "Bill O'Reilly Holiday Ornaments" for much archived snark.

Posted by: Alex | November 13, 2007 8:06 AM

Alison - You're "War on Christmas" rant deserves a much wider reading!

It's the best thing I've read in ages. Perhaps you need your own radio show, à la Randi Rhodes.

Posted by: Sam | November 13, 2007 9:18 AM

Holy Crap, I live in Fort Collins, and the funny thing is we've had just white lights for years now. Thats just how they've always decorated downtown, and it looks good.

I honestly don't know that anyone would even be able to tell anything is different.

Sillyness.

Posted by: Robert | November 13, 2007 9:28 AM

Lots of fantastic comments on this post

Allison, you should repost your comment on your blog so it will have its own URL people can link to - along with this post of course. I agree it deserves the widest possible play.

Posted by: decrepitoldfool | November 13, 2007 1:18 PM

Why won't the MSM report on anything GOOD happening in the War on Christmas?

Yeah, I know, someone said the same thing last year.

Posted by: slavdude | November 13, 2007 1:41 PM

Guess what -- Ron Paul is in O'Reilly's camp on this, at least since 2003:

"[T]he once commonplace refrain of 'Merry Christmas' has been replaced by the vague, ubiquitous 'Happy Holidays.' But what holiday? Is Christmas some kind of secret, a word that cannot be uttered in public? Why have we allowed the secularists to intimidate us into downplaying our most cherished and meaningful Christian celebration?"

Posted by: Raging Bee | November 13, 2007 4:17 PM

We know from experience that the shopping does not make the holiday happy.

Unfortunately, we also know from experience that shopping does indeed make the holiday happy, or at least a little less gloomy, for those whose jobs depend on our consumption. This is why there's so much hype, so much earlier each year: it's not just "corporate America," but small mom-and-pop businesses as well, who depend so much on holiday sales to make each year profitable.

And speaking of which, has anyone else here noticed a veritable deluge of gift-catalogues coming to us in the mail? People seem to be getting downright desperate this year, and it's as sad and worrying as it is annoying and contrary to the "holiday spirit."

Posted by: Raging Bee | November 13, 2007 5:44 PM

Kehrsam, I do regret that Michaelmas has disappeared without a trace, but consider the ignomy of Candlemas, February second. It's been transmogrified into Groundhog Day (at least in the USA.) No more blessing of the candles, now we are blessed with the sight of TV crews stomping around rodent dens waiting for the appearance of shadow- spotting marmots. The least they could do is to refer to the occasion as "Saint Groundhog Day."

Posted by: Bob Carroll | November 13, 2007 8:00 PM

Heh. I might just cross-post. I haven't put anything new up for ages. . .

Bob, do you think we could bring Candlemas back by trying to get the groundhog to see his shadow by candlelight? Maybe kids could play a game of trying to pass a candle without getting it blown out by February winds - kind of a relay race to the groundhog mound? It would be a way to pass the time until the canonization of a groundhog (the only way we could really call it "Saint Groundhog", of course!) In fact, a couple of relays in which the candle stayed lit all the way might count for SG's mandatory miracle tally.

Posted by: Alison | November 13, 2007 8:56 PM