KEY POINTS:
I don't want to cause unnecessary panic and alarm among the nation's children, but as this has come from the Vatican, I feel duty-bound to pass it on: Christmas is under attack, and it is high time defenders rallied to the cause.
According to the Vatican paper, L'Osservatore
Romano, some countries are waging a veritable war against Christmas, "a war that tends to erase all the traditions of Christmas".
This is not, you understand, a call to go forth and spend more money on things you can't afford for people who don't really want or need them - although some of you may well regard that as a time-honoured Christmas tradition.
We're talking about a deeper, more meaningful Christmas.
It's not hard to see why the Vatican is fretting. It seems that an irreligious Grinch has been at work.
In Britain, the Post Office has been under attack by the Church of England for not including any Christian imagery on its annual holiday stamps, the staff at Inland Revenue protested at not being allowed to hold Christmas parties this year, and town councils are reportedly planning to rename Christmas as "Winterval".
Last week in Canada, an Ontario Court judge ordered the removal of a Christmas tree from the courthouse on the grounds that it is a Christian symbol that alienates people of other creeds and traditions.
And in the US, management at a Seattle airport took down all their Christmas trees after a rabbi threatened to sue them for refusing to also include a menorah among its decorations, to celebrate Hannukah.
When did Christmas become so politically charged?
Turns out the "war on Christmas" isn't a new theme. In 1647, Christmas was outlawed by Oliver Cromwell's Puritans on the grounds that Christmas revelry wasn't explicitly provided for in the Bible. But as people kept on celebrating anyway, it was officially reinstated in 1660.
The most recent revival was in 2004, when Fox News host Bill O'Reilly claimed the war on Christmas was "part of the secular progressive agenda to get Christianity and spirituality and Judaism out of the public square".
O'Reilly and fellow anchor John Gibson (who wrote The War of Christmas: How the Liberal Plot to Ban the Sacred Christian Holiday is Worse Than You Thought) campaigned against the retail trend of replacing "Merry Christmas" with "Happy Holidays" and calling Christmas trees "holiday trees". Evangelist Jerry Falwell accused of being out to "steal Christmas from America".
Plenty of liberal commentators have dismissed the so-called war as a figment of the religious right's imagination, fed by incidents of politically correct silliness.
There have been examples in the US of schools removing Nativity scenes, and others renaming their Christmas trees "friendship trees". Fear of running foul of anti-discrimination laws has a reported 74 per cent of British businesses anxious about religious-looking Christmas decorations.
But I'd say Christmas is winning. The US retail giant Wal-Mart reversed its policy of limiting the use of "Merry Christmas" in case it offended non-Christian customers. "We, quite frankly, have learned a lesson from last year," a spokeswoman said. Perhaps it was that the more than 80 per cent of Americans who say they're Christians prefer "Merry Christmas" to "Happy Holidays".
According to Wikipedia, 96 per cent of Americans celebrate Christmas, including 80 per cent of non-Christians - and even celebrated atheists like Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion, who commented Christmas had become divorced from religion.
Perhaps not so divorced. A just-released poll of 2500 British kids reveals that they rank God at number one of the most-famous people, with Jesus at number four, ahead of Father Christmas at number five. According to another poll, 8 out of 10 Britons believe that celebrating the birth of Christ is an integral part of Christmas, and 90 per cent believe that Christmas has been too commercialised.
Complaints about excessive consumerism have been around for decades, as have complaints that attempts to denude Christmas of its religious meaning are part of a secular plot to weaken religion's hold on society.
What's new is the part played by religious pluralism and multiculturalism. Well-meaning efforts to be all-inclusive have gone too far at times. Inclusiveness has been interpreted by some to mean a sacrificing of some of the cultural traditions held dear by the majority, lest they cause offence or discomfort to those who don't share them.
None of which is conducive to multicultural harmony.
According to a group of prominent British Christians and Muslims, the real threat to Christmas comes from secular Brits intent on marginalising the role that faith and religion play in society.
The local example is Middlemore Hospital's spiritual centre, which can accommodate a Muslim foot bath but not, apparently, a crucifix. I don't think they've quite got the hang of that inclusive thing.
The management at the Seattle airport, who took their Christmas trees down rather than include a menorah in their holiday decorations, didn't get it either. The trees were reinstated after a public outcry, and a back-down by the rabbi, but they could have avoided trouble if they'd done what Hawaiian airport authorities did this year and put up Christmas trees and menorahs. Merry Christmas.
