“Certain traditions, no matter what their origin, become part of the fabric of nations and societies… such is the case with Christmas in America!”
How to Build a Christmas Photo Collage Using Wondershare Photo Collage Studio
Christmas: An American Holiday to Love and Preserve…
Once upon a time not all that long ago – in fact, anyone over 50 will easily remember it – the word “Christmas” was everywhere during the month of December. Everywhere you looked – in stores, in town squares, in cities, in offices, and, of course, in private homes — there were Christmas trees, Christmas decorations, Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas parties, and Christmas vacations. Even Jews got into the act… Hanukkah Bushes, Christmas lights in blue and white and an embracement of all the festivities. Just ask Ben Stein.
Christmas was arguably the most beloved of American holidays. Independence Day, Memorial Day, and Thanksgiving were important too; but Christmas was something more. It gave rise to a whole “Christmas season” during which people got into the “Christmas spirit.” The first words of a popular song, recorded by Johnny Mathis as a platinum hit, summed it up perfectly: “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas / Everywhere you go…”
Then something strange began to happen. The very thing that made the “season” special started to disappear from the public arena. Stores no longer held “Christmas sales.” Businesses, and soon after, individuals, ceased to hold “Christmas parties.” And on and on. “Christmas” became a dirty word, and was replaced by “holiday.” The War on Christmas had begun.
We’ve grown so accustomed to the change that we’ve lost sight of just how significant it is. “Christmas” is loaded with meaning and rich in spirit. It imparts rich feelings unlike anything else. “Holiday,” by contrast, is a bland word that can signify anything from Independence Day to Labor Day to “Sweetest Day.” At most, it means a day that you might get off from work if you’re lucky. And nothing else. Saying “holiday” and meaning Christmas is like saying “a long dead politician” and meaning Abraham Lincoln. Technically, it’s not wrong. But the whole significance is lost.
Of course, this didn’t happen by accident. Ask most people how it happened, and they’ll just shrug and say, “political correctness.” And in fact, “PC” is a cruel master, uncaring about what it destroys, and swift to punish those who violate it. So most choose to bow and submit.
But not here. We are part of the The Battle for Christmas. We hope to reclaim the richness and beauty of Christmas. But it’s more. Christmas is a treasure and and part of our heritage that we all should be actively working to preserve our traditional American culture in any and all forms. Because that culture is worth keeping. It’s part of what holds us together and makes us American… including those of us who are not Christians.
So let’s fight back in the war on Christmas. And to all who feel the same we do… happy holidays and Merry Christmas!: Celebrating America’s Greatest Holiday - Perhaps it is time for Christians to be offended and to pull their accounts!! Stand-up!!
Chase Bank told a businessman to remove the Christmas tree he donated to a local branch because it could offend people.
Antonio Morales, owner of Bellagio Day Spa in Southlake, had assembled and decorated a 9-foot-tall tree in the lobby of the Chase Bank branch at 1700 E. Southlake Boulevard as a favor to the branch manager, who is one of his clients.
The tree remained in the lobby from the Monday before Thanksgiving until Tuesday. Morales said his friend called him Wednesday to tell him the tree had to go. She later showed him an e-mail from JPMorgan Chase saying that the tree had to be removed because some people were offended by it.
READ THE REST OF THE STORY AT STAR-TELEGRAM.COM - God Help Us!!
BILLBOARD BATTLE: CATHOLICS PUT UP PRO-CHRISTMAS BILLBOARD NEAR ATHEISTS‘ ’REASON’ MESSAGE
Recently, a group called American Atheists purchased a large, anti-Christmas billboard outside the heavily-traveled Lincoln Tunnel between New York and New Jersey. Now, a Catholic group has started a billboard war of sorts by purchasing a pro-Christmas message of its own on the other side of the tunnel.
“You Know It’s Real: This Season Celebrate Jesus,” a billboard for the Catholic League says on the New York side of the tunnel. That’s in response to the American Atheist billboard on the New Jersey side, which says “You Know It’s a Myth: This Season Celebrate Reason.”
“We decided to counterpunch after a donor came forward seeking to challenge the anti-Christmas statement by American Atheists,” Catholic League President Bill Donahue said in a statement on the group’s website. “Our approach is positive, and services the common good. Theirs is negative, and is designed to sow division. It’s what they do.”
“So after Christian motorists have had their sensibilities assaulted as they exit New Jersey, they will experience a sense of joy, and satisfaction, as they enter New York City,” he added. “It’s what we do.”
GOP SENATOR BOYCOTTS HOMETOWN ‘HOLIDAY’ PARADE
When Sen. Jim Inhofe’s (R-OK) hometown parade of lights took the word “Christmas” out of the title, Inhofe had had enough. Now he’s taking something else out of the parade: himself.
Inhofe annually appears in Tulsa, Oklahoma’s parade of lights by riding atop his horse, but said he will not do so again until the name is changed back to the “Christmas Parade of Lights.”
“Last year, the forces of political correctness removed the word ‘Christmas’ and replaced it with ‘Holiday’ instead,” Inhofe told Tulsa World. “I am deeply saddened and disappointed by this change.”
Mirroring a decision he made last year, the senator said “I‘m not going to ride in a Christmas parade that doesn’t recognize Christmas.” He added, “I am hopeful that the good people of Tulsa and the city’s leadership will demand a correction to this shameful attempt to take Christ, the true reason for our celebration, out of the parade’s title. Until the parade is again named the Christmas Parade of Lights, I will not participate.”
Inhofe served as Tulsa’s mayor from 1978 to 1984. His decision to pull out last year went unannounced so as not to detract from the health care debate.
Inhofe‘s position is in contrast to Tulsa’s current mayor, Dewey Bartlett, who admitted he is in essence being held hostage by political correctness.
“If it was up to me, I’d call it a Christmas parade, but I also understand that we have a diverse community, and I’m sensitive to the importance of the many cultures and traditions that make up our city,” Bartlett said. Go Here to See Video.
PHILLY‘S CHRISTMAS VILLAGE GETS ’HOLIDAY’ MAKEOVER
For the past three years, Philadelphia’s German Christmas Village has hosted festive booths and Christmas tree vendors in Dilworth Plaza located near city hall. But this year, the village’s arched entrance labeled “Christmas Village” will be replaced with “Holiday Village.”
According to local news reports, the request for the change came from Managing Director Richard Negrin. City spokesman Mark McDonald said Negrin made the request after the city received complaints from nearby workers and residents. “As a city of great diversity, one shouldn‘t be surprised that there’s a difference of views when it comes to symbols and words,” McDonald told the Philadelphia Daily News.
In addition, McDonald said the city is working on an official policy to address such events set up on city property in the future.
The German American Marketing Inc., the company which runs the Christmas Village every year, is reportedly happy to accommodate the city’s request, but noted that brochures and posters would keep the “Christmas” title. “People have to go to public buildings. They shouldn’t feel offended,” the company’s spokesman said. “It’s been very successful the last two years. People like the name. We built it like a German Christmas market. We did not think a lot about it.”
Video: Christmas Village in Philadelphia
Though the Village is clearly focused on Christmas, the Daily News adds that ornaments and decorations sold at the event are “largely of the secular variety, like elves, Santas and colored balls,” interspersed by an occasional nativity scene.
GOD TO RELEASE MEMOIR IN 2011
God is preparing to speak to you in another, hopefully, best-seller. According to publisher Simon and Schuster, the Almighty is looking to follow up his all-time number one book The Bible with a memoir.
But you‘ll never guess who will be God’s (Holy) ghost writer. According to Entertainment Weekly, Jon Stewart’s former* “The Daily Show” head writer and executive producer David Javerbaum will be serving in that capacity.
“God is represented by a burning bush, the Greek letters a and ‡, and, in this case, the Levine Greenberg Literary Agency, the same agency that represents David Javerbaum,” the publisher said in a meant-to-be funny press release.
“We feel like we are the Chosen Publisher,” Simon & Schuster’s Executive Vice President and Publisher Jonathan Karp told Entertainment Weekly. “A lot of writers are creative, but this writer is really creative. And we think He can produce the manuscript quickly: More than seven days, but less than a year.”
The yet-to-be-titled tell-all memoir is due out in 2011.
A great book on Losing Our Religion by aethiest S. E. Cupp, who says she is he perfect person for this book because she has no dog in the hunt, takes on the all too often avoided question and discussion of religion in America…
Merry Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment