Religious Or Traditional?

I'm sick of the on going Merry Christmas vs. Happy Holidays debate in American media. Left-wingers are calling for the removal of anything that has to do with Christmas from public property, saying the government shouldn't endorse one religion over another. Valid point, I thought. On the other hand, right-wingers say the constitution was written with a christrian spirit, and the vast majority of Americans are christian anyway.

Many well-known department stores replaced "Merry Christmas" banners with "Happy Holidays" ones. Some even instructed their salesmen to greet their customers with only "Happy Holidays."

In response, right-wing media pundits are fighting back. Heading the effort is Fox's Bill O'Reilly, pushing for boycotting such stores. He and others say their motivation is tradition, not religion. O'Reilly presents himself as a "traditionalist," which by his definition means something like "sticking to the original American values and resisting radical changes to them for political gain." I find that funny coming out of O'Reilly's mouth.

Anyway. Today, my ex-host mom asked me to come pick up some gifts for my mother since I'm going to Kuwait. She said "I bought her some stuff for the Christmas tree. Does she put up a tree at all?"

I was the third Arab/Muslim student she had hosted, so she knows very well we don't celebrate Christmas. That got me wondering "maybe O'Reilly and his gang, to some extent, have a point in saying it is more of a traditional matter." Maybe an average American, like her, celebrates it merely out of tradition, not religion.

What'd ya think? If it's just a tradition, is that a good defense for keeping Dec. 25th as a Federal holiday in a supposedly secular nation?

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On an unrelated subject, I did very very very well on my last final today. Thank you Victoria. My exam preparation couldn't have been better without you yesterday. Much Love (L).