Worried that the mere public display of a Christmas tree or students hearing Linus tell Charlie Brown the Christmas story would violate the Establishment Clause, detractors claim any public religious observance is unconstitutional. I support the disestablishment of religion and the separation of church and state, which originally was a Baptist idea to protect the church from the state, not the other way around. Properly understood, it should not prohibit a public Nativity display or require that a Christmas tree be rebranded in Orwellian fashion as a “holiday” tree.

Christmas is under assault despite its being celebrated and honored by the overwhelming majority of the American people. It has reached comical proportions, including the diluting of Christmas observance by lumping it in with other holidays under the rubric of “winter festivals” or the embracing of fictional holidays such as Festivus. A Nativity scene in Florida recently saw the addition of a Festivus pole among the wisemen and sheep. It’s no wonder we haven’t been able to find peace in the season. This made-for-TV “holiday,” literally about nothing and seriously embraced by no one, is seen as having an equal role in the winter season and being deserving of recognition, while Christmas, among the most sacred holidays celebrated by more than 2 billion Christians worldwide, is increasingly frowned upon and ridiculed.