War on Christmas began with the Pilgrims

There’s good news tonight. The War on Christmas is over and, once again, Christmas has won.

The first wave of Christmas’s Shock and Awe campaign began with a pre-Halloween offensive that loaded the nation’s store shelves with an endless array of … stuff.

This was followed up by an onslaught of Christmas music, parades, movies and TV specials, led by Gen. Charlie Brown, who in 2015 marked 50 years of fighting for the true meaning of Christmas.

Meanwhile, a massive Santa army occupied shopping malls and department stores, as online retailers launched a ground offensive, deploying delivery trucks to every nook and cranny of the country.

(And just think, future Christmases promise the addition of an air campaign by delivery drones.)

The point is, can you say there’s really a “War on Christmas” when the only casualties stem from folks clobbering their fellow Christmas shoppers?

But what’s this got to do with politics?

Sadly, everything.

Donald Trump scored political points by saying we’ll all be wishing each other “Merry Christmas” when he becomes president.

Which means, I have no idea what.

That people will be so happy with Trump as president that Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindu and atheists will all go around proclaiming “Merry Christmas?”

That people will be forced to say “Merry Christmas?”

Who knows? Trump isn’t big on details, including details about what appears on his own Christmas card. It includes the hated “Happy Holidays” phrase.

But many Americans have come to believe that Christmas is under attack. They even consider themselves bold for saying “Merry Christmas,” which is about as brave as saying you love the flag and apple pie.

If any readers have been arrested for saying “Merry Christmas,” please let me know and I’ll be happy to tell your story. I’ll even visit you in prison.

In fact, I’d be curious to hear from anybody who has received even one negative reaction after wishing someone a “Merry Christmas.”

The truth is, in America, almost everybody celebrates Christmas.

Which even leads some religious people to ask why the non-religious celebrate Christmas.

After all, Christ is the “reason for the season,” right? That’s what the bumper stickers say. End of discussion. Except that the history of Christmas in America is more fraught with controversy than you might imagine.

The supposed “War on Christmas” didn’t begin with modern secular Americans. It began with the Pilgrims, who launched what would have been called the first “War on Christmas,” if Fox News had been on the air. (This was before cable news.)

The following information comes from an article titled “When America Banned Christmas,” in the Dec. 20, 2011 issue of The Week, available online. Many other sources are also available.

The people we call “the Pilgrims” were made up of Puritans and non-Puritans.

On their first Christmas in America, in 1620, they all worked, just like every other day except for the Sabbath.

The next year, some of the non-Puritans celebrated the day by playing a game, for which they were punished by Gov. William Bradford.

That’s right, punished for celebrating Christmas. And not just because it was a non-religious celebration. The Puritans hated any Christmas celebration. They called it “Foolstide” instead of Yuletide.

How could such religious folks reject Christmas?

For Bible-believing Christians, that was easy. There was, they argued, no scriptural justification for Christmas or, for that matter, any “holy” days.

“They for whom all days are holy can have no holiday,” was a Puritan maxim.

Puritans were also aware of the holiday’s pagan origins. Romans celebrated the birthday of the sun god Mithra on Dec. 25. It was part of a month-long celebration of food and drink, which sounds a lot like the modern Christmas.

It’s even possible that the date, Dec. 25, was chosen by early Christians as way to replace the pagan holiday.

The holiday revelry continued in 17th Century England, which led clergyman Hugh Latimer to say, “Men dishonor Christ more in the 12 days of Christmas than in all the 12 months besides.”

Think about that the next time you get annoyed because some store greeter wishes you “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”

Puritans - who were nothing if not committed Christians - would have considered either greeting foolish.

But while I respect the Puritans, I don’t have to agree with them. I hope I’m not offending too many of my Puritan readers when I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

And Happy Holidays!


Don Flood is a former newspaper editor living near Lewes. He can be reached at floodpolitics@gmail.com.