Christmas without religion

The election season is over and I am left with a void since the 24-hour coverage is over.

Yes, I admit it, I am a political junkie during the election season. So now I have to focus on a new subject to enlighten you all with, before we break for winter.

Since the Christmas season is nearly upon us, as noticed by a plethora of commercials and that annoying neighbor who has to be first to put up there decorations before everyone else; I thought it appropriate to raise an issue that has been brought to the forefront in recent years.

In recent years, there has been an effort to reduce the religious element in the Christmas holiday season. What do I mean by this?

Back in 2006, major retail chains like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, to name a few, ordered their employees to use “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” as the official greeting to customers entering the store.

The effort was presumably done to ensure that no one was offended because of their religious beliefs.

This however, created a controversy among many shoppers, because most people were not offended to the standard greeting regardless of their own religious affiliation.
After pressure from some groups, most of the major retailers brought back “Merry Christmas” as their official greeting.

The movement to remove religion has not been confined to stores though; as some of you might be familiar with the push to remove nativity scenes from schools all over the nation. Just Google the subject and you are sure to find numerous examples of schools that have done this.

Other symbols of Christmas like Christmas trees and songs like “Silent Night” have been removed from public schools in the name of political correctness.

My only question is what happens to the symbols of other major religious holidays around the same time?

As far as I know, there has been no effort committed to remove symbols of Chanukah, Kwanzaa, or Ramadan in public schools.

If the point was to remain politically correct and ensure a separation of church and state, why has there not been an effort to remove all holiday themes from public schools?

Perhaps I am missing some key information in my point, but there appears to be some type of double. There is nothing wrong with having Christmas themes in public schools.
Heck, most, if not all of us have memories of Christmas plays in elementary school.

So what is the problem with displaying Christmas themes in public if all religious holidays are given fair representation?

Well, let me end by saying Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays, and of course a Merry Christmas to all of you.