![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kathyschiffer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Manger-scene-lights.jpg\")
Alas, 2011 has been the year of \u201cHappy Holidays.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\nIn my circle of family and friends,<\/strong> people still invoke the Lord\u2019s blessing as they sit down to eat, still say \u201cGod bless you\u201d<\/strong><\/span> when someone sneezes.\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s almost possible, barricaded in the dining room with the people I love the most, to forget that outside my door, it\u2019s a different story\u2014that for many, the season that reaches its zenith on December 25 is about rank commercialism, and not at all about Jesus.<\/p>\n I fear that we\u2019re seeing just a glimpse of a societal capitulation,<\/strong> and that in the future Christmas will be relegated to the churches, while increasing numbers of business establishments simply ignore the holiday for fear of offending a non-believer.<\/p>\n The affront against Christmas comes from more than one source.<\/strong><\/p>\n Earlier this month Lisa De Pasquale,<\/strong> reporting in Human Events<\/span> on \u201cHow Walgreens Stone Christmas and Got Off\u00a0 Looking Like Snow White,\u201d complained about Walgreens Drugs.\u00a0 The pharmacy chain, in its Thanksgiving weekend flyer, used the term \u201cHoliday\u201d 36 times but never mentioned Christmas,<\/strong> prompting one conservative organization to call for a boycott.\u00a0 \u201cIn other words,\u201d<\/em><\/span> Lisa wrote, \u201cbring your money, but leave your icky Jesus-talk at the door.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n A friend recently sent me a video in which a radical Islamic cleric says, \u201cSaying Merry Christmas is worse than fornicating, drinking alcohol, or killing someone.\u201d<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0 I\u2019m sure that the majority of followers of Islam would not support this Islamist extremism; but there is a common misperception that because some people do not follow the Christian faith, the majority of Americans who do must restrict their holiday greetings to hushed whispers.<\/p>\n And then there is the perpetually aggrieved Freedom from Religion Foundation.<\/strong>\u00a0 When the group Wisconsin Family Action erected a manger scene in the Wisconsin State Capitol rotunda, the Wisconsin-based FRF\u2019s co-president Annie Laurie Gaylor expressed the group\u2019s dismay in an article which appeared in the Wisconsin State Journal<\/span>:\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s distressing to me that we have a manger scene on top of all the religion at the Capitol.\u00a0 Every day it\u2019s religion, religion, religion.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/span> The Freedom from Religion Foundation is now planning its own \u201cslightly blasphemous\u201d Capitol nativity display celebrating the winter solstice.<\/p>\n In southeastern Michigan,<\/strong> where I live, the city of Warren has been in the news because the Freedom from Religion Foundation is demanding that an atheist banner be installed alongside the Nativity scene in Warren\u2019s City Hall.\u00a0 The banner reads:\u00a0 \u201cAt this season of the Winter Solstice, let reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0 The other side reads: \u201cSTATE\/CHURCH: Keep Them Separate.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n And now, Catholic News Service has reported that the Capitol Christmas Tree<\/strong>, a 63-foot Sierra White Fir on the grounds of the U.S. Capitol, includes a prominently displayed ornament which says \u201cI \u2665 President Obama\u201d<\/em><\/span>\u00a0 but includes no ornament readily visible to a person standing near the tree\u2019s base that uses the word \u201cChristmas,\u201d<\/em><\/span> or includes an image of the Nativity, or bears the name or image of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n In these United States of America,<\/strong> where our Constitution guarantees the \u201cfreedom of religion\u201d (and not freedom from<\/span> religion), the 85% of citizens who follow Christ seem to be losing the battle in the public square, and with that, losing a joyful heritage.\u00a0 Christmas, that day when we fall in silent awe before the Babe in the manger, is in jeopardy.<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n We can\u2019t let that happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n From our family to yours:\u00a0 MERRY CHRISTMAS!\u00a0<\/strong> And may the Babe of Bethlehem smile on you and grant you the peace of the season.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alas, 2011 has been the year of \u201cHappy Holidays.\u201d In my circle of family and friends, people still invoke the Lord\u2019s blessing as they sit down to eat, still say \u201cGod bless you\u201d when someone sneezes.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost possible, barricaded in the dining room with the people I love the most, to forget that outside […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":556,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,31,49,55,74,123,170,262],"tags":[380,449,551,560,2846,2922,744],"class_list":["post-5308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-atheism","category-catholic","category-christmas","category-culture","category-holidays","category-nativity","category-traditions","tag-christmas-lights","tag-freedom-from-religion-foundation","tag-manger-scenes","tag-mcdonalds","tag-nativity","tag-traditions","tag-walgreens"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kathyschiffer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Manger-scene-2.jpg\")
But this year, when I hit the mall or drive down a city street,<\/strong> I have a sense that something\u2019s missing<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n