As Christmas nears, children have every reason to worry about Grinches. What if Dr. Seuss stories are banned? What if political authorities decide that there should be a publication prohibition about Santa Claus?
Are those reasonable fears?
Given the preposterous extremes of those who oppose anything to do with Christmas, it is no surprise that widespread anxiety is so prevalent. Clearly, this absurd situation should change.
The evidence is largely anecdotal, but it appears that a few plan to make any public celebration of Christmas illegal. The situation is worse south of the border, but we in Canada are not lagging far behind. For instance, in the United States the American Civil Liberties Union threatened a lawsuit if the word "Christmas" appeared on a school calendar, a violation, it was claimed, of the constitutional separation of church and state. In a small town in Texas, cupcakes with white icing were deemed constitutional, but not red or green. Perhaps the U.S. Supreme Court will bar even the slightest whiff of faith.
Here in Canada, some school boards disallowed any Christmas carols unless the lyrics were amended to eliminate any references to that festival. Furthermore, a judge in Toronto ordered a Christmas tree removed from the courtyard as she called it offensive to non-Christians. There is an injunction pending to curtail Christmas decorations in that city in front of the city hall. A few school boards now insist that the December break merely should be called a winter holiday. All this is pretty ghastly.
It is no surprise, then, that a satirical news show has launched a Campaign Against Humbuggery and called for a boycott of parking meters that lacked tinsel, its tongue-in-cheek theme was "the outrage of the month."
No one advocates the state establishment of religion in Canada, although in a few instances, religion is accepted. Before the opening session of the Ontario legislature, The Lord’s Prayer is read; much to the wonder of anti-religious zealots, the roof does not fall in. While Canada was launched as a Christian nation, now we recognize and willingly accept multiculturalism. However, by no stretch of the imagination should that mean that any allusions to Christmas should be abolished.
In an effort to be politically correct, there are those who have made fools of themselves. How did so many supposedly sensible people hijack religion?
It is about time, in fact long overdue, that we accept Christmas. It should be noted that even in China and Japan Christmas is celebrated, presents exchanged, and decorations and pageants are constantly encountered. Let us go back to some logic here and accept Christmas with all that implies, not only for our children, but also for our own self-respect.
