War on Christmas: Is the festival under attack? (BBC)
By Daniel Nasaw
BBC News Magazine, Washington
Dozens of US congressmen have pledged to protect Christmas from attempts to undermine it. So is the West's foremost public holiday really under attack?
One of the most famous family scenes in history, the nativity, appears to be facing threats from all sides.
A tug of war is going on over a nativity setting on a courthouse lawn in Texas, with the Freedom from Religion Foundation urging it be removed or an atheistic solstice banner put up nearby. In South Carolina, a state hospital has banned a nativity scene from its premises.
It's part of a wider assault on the Christmas tradition, say some Christian groups, who also point to a rule barring congressmen from sending Christmas cards through the official congressional post.
Theirs is a very modern crusade over the place of religion in public life that has been taken up on both sides of the Atlantic. In the UK, rumours the very name "Christmas" had been replaced in some places by "Winterval" provoked outrage.
***
more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16273917
Oh, the poor oppressed Christians ... the whole month of December is scheduled around Christmas, but it's crushing their spirits that people don't celebrate in exactly the way they want, using exactly the right words. 
(Scroll down about a pageful for an interesting interview 
-- "Christmas was celebrated by most people in England as an occasion of revelry, of overeating, of drinking. Christmas was a rowdy holiday." )
= new reply since forum marked as read
