So much controversy whirling around this year.  We have people whinging and protesting    and boycotting because certain companies and individuals are replacing “Christmas”    with “holiday”.  I’d be more inclined to believe their religious commitment to    the holiday if they protested its celebration by a nation full of retailers.  Hey,    if America hadn’t insisted on turning it into a merchandising free-for-all, we wouldn’t    have had to turn Hanukkah into a big deal, create Kwanzaa, and make it into one big    all-inclusive “holiday season”.  Honestly, I saw a letter to the editor in one    newspaper where a woman refused to buy “holiday” M&Ms, because they were green    and red, Christmas colors, and she would not buy them ever again until they either    included blue and white for Hanukkah, and black for Kwanzaa.  She may not realize    it, but she’s on to something.  You want to celebrate Christmas, “put Christ    back in Christmas”, anything along those lines, then turn it back into a religious    holiday, stop buying all the stuff (not just the M&Ms. . .the decorations, the    trees, the obscenely huge number of presents nobody wants anyway) and start celebrating    with midnight services and a small family observance.  There would be a huge    sigh of relief!  Christians would get their holiday back.  Jews could go    back to observing Hanukkah instead of celebrating it, reinstating the high holy days    as the important days on the calendar.  Non-Christians would no longer have to    deal with feeling obligated to celebrate a holiday that’s not theirs, or give or receive    greetings that have no meaning to them, and it sure would make shopping for December    birthdays a heck of a lot easier.