Excuse me, in 1989 the Supreme Court ruled that if you want a Nativity Scene, do it on the church lawn, not the courthouse
16 years ago
BTW, GOP controlled Congress when it went to "holiday tree"
Oh and the 1986 Reagan Card made no mention of Christmas
But I respect you and usually you get it right 
Good roundup of articles...one interp might be that the media is trying to make a war out of nothing. Just thinking outloud. lgp
My problem isn't so much with the nativity scene being banned from the courthouse lawn (except that I personally enjoy looking at them!), it's when one religion is singled out for exclusion.
The spirituality and tradition of Christmas are inextricably intertwined in our culture, which is what makes it so difficult to separate them to kick one out of certain realms while still keeping it in others.
As for stores that bar employees from wishing customers a Merry Christmas rather than Happy Holidays, it is certainly their right if they think it will make for happier customers/more business. I think they are mistaken. But isn't that the very definition of political correctness -- offending a larger group in order to appease a smaller one?
One note: I don't believe I mentioned Republican, Democrat, conservative or liberal in my post. I don't care who did what, I just know that I'd be a happier customer if someone along the way, while I'm doing my Christmas shopping, buying my Christmas presents, trying to get into the Christmas spirit, preparing for my Christmas holiday, someone would just wish me a Merry Christmas.
Welcome to the Christmas Resistance Blogroll. Thanks for standing up for Christmas.
I'm a Christian, and I happen to work in the retail industry, but I'm not in the habit of wishing people a Merry Christmas during this time of year. Largely because this time of year is NOT Christmas--it is ADVENT. The Christmas Season is the twelve days spanning from Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, to the feast of the Epiphany, when we celebrate the wise men from the east who followed the star to where the baby Jesus was in Bethlehem.
Turning Advent into the "Christmas shopping season" was basically some greedy merchants' way of exploiting the Christian faith in order to make more money.
It isn't actually true that large retail chains are banning their employees from saying Merry Christmas, as so many pundits keep asserting. This rumor goes around the internet every year, and it has never been true. What the chains are doing is using corporate "holiday" signing and promotional materials (as opposed to buying Thanksgiving signing, Christmas signing, Hannukah signing, and New Years signing) in order to cut costs and put more money on the bottom line. It's really all about maximizing profits by reducing costs.
I find the commercialization of Christmas by the business community far more offensive than retailers sporting generic winter holiday signing.
Personally, I'm glad that there's no Nativity scene at my local court house or city hall. The idea of the government controlling the religious content of a Christian display gives me the creeps.
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