May I Have My Christmas Back?

I'm getting really tired of being told that by saying "Merry Christmas" I am being intolerant. That my girls are not allowed to play Christmas carols because it is imposing religious beliefs on those who do not believe. What scares me most is the indoctrination of the kids who are now feeling that it's bad to wish someone a Merry Christmas and resort to Happy Holidays or even Season's Greetings, if they say anything at all!

Christmas is a Federal holiday and the vast majority of Americans celebrate this holiday. I do not hesitate to wish my Jewish friends a Happy Hanukkah and amusingly enough, I have wished a Happy Kwanza to several of my African-American friends only to have them say they celebrate Christmas and have no idea what Kwanza is or where it came from! I am not intolerant of other religions and views, so why are they intolerant to me?

Laer at Cheat Seeking Missiles has an interesting article that brings up new anti-Christmas talking points. I don't know about you, but I certainly didn't know that:

...Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and others outlawed the celebration of Christmas even when legal mobs sometimes broke in and destroyed Christmas decorations. In many states, it wasn't until the mid-19th century that Christmas celebrations were accepted. The one thing these people seem to have in common with their predecessors is a desire to impose their opinions and practices about Christmas on everyone else.'

Well, that's what Neal Conan, host of NPR's Talk of the Nation, is saying. And Adam Cohen has an editorial in the New York Times that states:

Throughout the 1800's, many religious leaders were still trying to hold the line. As late as 1855, New York newspapers reported that Presbyterian, Baptist and Methodist churches were closed on Dec. 25 because "they do not accept the day as a Holy One."

Now I'll admit that I am not an historian, much less a religious historian, but I sure haven't heard any of this before.

I suppose that despite what may or may not have been the case historically, I know that for all of my life (prior to the last decade or so), for all of my mother's life and even her mother's life, Christmas has been celebrated across the country. That Christmas carols were sung in schools and creches were placed on lawns of homes and churches alike and there was no dissent or anger over it. Seemingly since the Clinton administration, all things remotely religious have been considered divisive and intolerant. How did this happen? Can we stop it? Have we lost control of this insidious practice of political correctness?

I am not insisting that stores wish people a Merry Christmas, but if they are going to profit from a religious practice or holiday, then they should really acknowledge it. What I would like is the freedom for my children to celebrate Christmas in much the way that I did growing up. That they have the freedom to wish their friends a Merry Christmas without condemnation. That there be tolerance, not from the majority of Christians (for they are more often than not tolerant of other religions), but from the small minority of atheists or PC police who have taken it upon themselves to ban all traditions that do not adhere to their twisted thinking.

Give me back my Christmas!

Thanks for the link:
Dave at The Paladin Blog