Has Anything Changed? Yes, everything.

Alexandra at All Things Beautiful reposts a War on Christmas article from last year and asks:

I wrote this post at this time last year, and I am curious my gentle readers…has anything changed?

My answer is, “Absolutely.”

Is there a War on Christmas? Yes. But the momentum and shape of the cultural conflict has changed drastically.

What amounted to a political war on common sense has been routed from coast to coast and sea to sea with few exceptions. It’s truly as remarkable and sudden a shift as I’ve seen on anything in my life.

In 2003, I called for Christians to take back Christmas, In 2004, I called for us to celebrate the truth of the season not the over-commercialized “Holidays”. In 2006, I declared Christmas triumphant.

This isn’t exuberance on my part, this is fact. The cry went out across America, “Enough!” The assault on a basic tradition we’ve been taught by a hundred TV specials and movies to defend was perhaps the most foolish move the cultural left has made. When people are not allowed to say, “Merry Christmas” in stores for fear of reprisal from management, things had gone too far.

The result was that common people stood up against the bullies from the ACLU and liberals who dedicated themselves to being offended on behalf of the portion of that 4% of Americans who don’t celebrate Christmas who are offended by it’s celebration. Thanks to the Alliance Defense Fund, the ACLU won’t be able to spend years ruining the Christmases of small town executive trying to enjoy a traditional Christmas.

This year, “Merry Christmas” is back. It’s not just in stores, but everywhere. When polls come out saying that 69% of Americans prefer to be greeted with a Merry Christmas, boy it’s liberating. No longer do people who celebrate Christmas feel the need to tell other people who they know are celebrating Christmas, “Happy Holidays.” In more and more workplaces, people can wish their co-workers a Merry Christmas without fearing a lecture from Human Resources, a supervisor, or a meddling liberal co-worker.

It’s as if there’s been a retreat from insanity. This has been a wonderful Christmas filled with so much cheer. It’s Christmas like it ought to be all across the Treasure Valley. Certainly, in other areas, the level of PC liberals may make things more challenging, but clearly Christmas is advancing, not declining.

For this, we should be thankful. For truly, this season requires a reason. Happy Holidays gives us no reason for joy, no reason for peace, no reason for celebration. Deprived of Christmas, the season has as much meaning as an over-commercialized Labor Day.

Of course, now that those who favor Christmas are winning the day, some Christians suggest this is a good time to surrender.

I have little patience for this talk, as it seems these people take some perverse pleasure in righteousness being defeated and enjoy the idea of the church being beaten down, after all Christ said, “On this rock I shall build my church and the gates of hell shall beat it down every time until the rock comes back to save the day.” Oh wait, it was that the “The gates of Hell shall not prevail against it.” My bad (or is it their’s?)

Certainly, in fighting for the preservation of Christmas, we should behave ourselves kindly and as people of manners and character. However, we’re not to surrender a Christian heritage to appease the unappeasable gods of secularism. Remember, Eternal vigilence (not naivete) is the price of liberty.

Regardless, more than a triumph for the Church, the change of tempo in the War on Christmas should be welcome as a victory for common sense and a defeat of those who seek to sanitize our nation into a secular uber state. God bless and: