The state was a grinch at heart, and decided to ruin Christmas for everyone.
Children could no longer watch Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in school.
School districts had to strike the word “Christmas” from the school calendar.
Nativity scenes, red poinsettias, mistletoe, and other decorations were all banned on public property.
The state stole Christmas while Americans slept.
This scenario may seem far-fetched, but a recent slew of lawsuits, filed most notably by the ACLU, endanger the open celebration of Christmas in the U.S.
Sure, the U.S. Constitution clearly provides for the separation of church and state. And some folks are just plain offended by public religious depictions.
So public schools shouldn’t favor the holiday depictions of one religion over another. We don’t take issue with that. But Christmas is a secular holiday in the U.S., has been since President Ulysses S. Grant made it so in 1870.
What’s more important, and often overlooked by the PC do-gooders is the simple fact that we can celebrate Christmas at all.
Celebration of life with friends and loved ones is an integral part of living in a free society. All clichés about commercialization aside, the idea of Christmas has come to embody the freedom of choice that only liberty bestows.
Whether you believe in Jesus Christ or not, Christmas in most Western democracies means eating, drinking, and being merry.
Those that would spend more time criticizing the holiday than actually enjoying it take their freedom for granted.
Such is not the case in places where they used to fire SAMs at Santa’s sleigh.
Today in the former East Berlin, the streets are filled with colored lights, and shoppers crowd outdoor markets for sweets and handcrafts.
More than 50 years ago, the communist government banned Christmas throughout the GDR.
Now there’s a 50-foot Christmas tree standing in Alexanderplatz.
Former East Berliners don’t mind a little tinsel with their freedom.
