children (and perhaps some adults), feeling left out of the beautiful Christmas celebrations, including, most particularly, the music, the decorations and of course, the gifts, have turned our lovely holiday into a Jewish Christmas, involving major gift giving (never a tradition amongst Jews in earlier times). I won’t even get into the question of so-called “Chanukah bushes,” as the very concept makes me gag, so I am unable to write about it.
In recent years, after decades of angst, handwringing and litigation over such issues (add these to the list of things I don’t care about) as Christmas trees and crèches on public property, political correctness seems to require that we take the word “Christmas” out of our vocabulary and replace it with the word “Holiday.” This, presumably, is intended to ensure that everyone, whether he or she celebrates Christmas, Chanukah or Kwanza, feels included in the good cheer. To my astonishment, I have actually heard the term “Holiday Tree” uttered over the last few years. Well, folks, it’s not a “Holiday Tree,” it’s a Christmas tree. I say that knowing that the Christmas tree in the home goes back only to Victorian times among Christians and most certainly is pagan in its origin. Again, “nuff said” about the history of Christian observance.
Many Christians are pushing back against this trend, and rightly so. It is my custom, as it should be everyone’s, I believe, to wish his or her non-Jewish friends and acquaintances a Merry Christmas. Once upon a time, Christian Holidays were frequently an occasion for pogroms against Jews, but that is not the case today, and certainly not in America. Christians are entitled to celebrate their holiday joyously and unashamedly, and to call it by its