“Merry Winter!” It’s cold. It’s dark. What’s so damned merry about winter? But that is the banner meeting customers this season in an American Banana Republic. Between craven self-censorship and government fiat, mention of Christmas has become equivalent to public farting in the United States. No hip American urbanite would be caught dead this December shouting anything more doctrinally specific than “Happy Holidays!”

Meantime the American Civil Liberties Union has been suing the bejesus - whoops! - suing the pants off local authorities who sanction nativity scenes on public property. School boards across the country have banned carols such as Silent Night in holiday assemblies. Frosty the Snowman is tolerable, but the ACLU has threatened to sue a school in Colorado for permitting Jingle Bells, which makes Jewish students no longer feel welcome. In New York City, public schools, menorahs and Islamic symbols are acceptable, but not nativity scenes. Teachers in Sacramento have been forbidden to use the word Christmas in the classroom, Illinois state government employees forbidden to say “Merry Christmas” on the job.

Read More