World News Korner

With only a month or so before her Christmas book hits the dollar bin at bookstores and Wal-Marts around the country, Sarah Palin tries to get people riled up over the insidious, and imaginary, "War on Christmas."

A Silent Night in Wausau on Monday? Bet not. Can't wait for parents to take this on.... http://t.co/dKrcCfbNZc
— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) October 8, 2013

Her tweet links to this Fox News article:

The Wausau, Wis. School District says it’s okay to jingle bells and don gay apparel but lay off the Baby Jesus stuff – and that has parents and students ready to deck somebody’s halls.

The community became enraged after the elementary schools canceled their upcoming Christmas concerts and the school district issued guidelines that curtailed the number of sacred holiday songs the high school choir could perform.

Phil Buch, the director of the Wausau West High School choir programs since 1981, told the Wausau Daily Herald that he was given three choices after meeting with school officials about the upcoming yuletide season.

He was told the choirs could perform one sacred song for every five secular songs performed; eliminate all Christmas music or postpone December concerts.

He was also reportedly told that the district had to approve every musical selection. Instead, Buch announced that he was temporarily disbanding the school’s elite choir.

School Board member Pat McKee told me it’s nothing short of a war on Christmas.

“When you look at it on the surface, it’s hard to argue against that train of thought,” he said.

“People are justifiably making that correlation – that it’s a war on Christmas.”

OMGAWD! A War on Christmas you say?

Well fortunately there is a book coming soon that will set the record straight about the TRUE meaning of Christmas, and how important it is to protect it from the heathen scum who want to strip Christ out of the holiday that does not really fall on his birthday, but we pretend it does, and return it to its pagan roots where virtually all of its traditions were taken.

I imagine that Palin will spend a lot of time in the month or so before the book comes out fanning the flames of frustration of Christian zealots panicked that their stranglehold on the holiday might be loosening as the country becomes more and more diverse, and less and less religious.

Speaking of history it might be informative if somebody explained to little miss "I slept through history class" that for almost the first hundred years of this nation's history it was not even considered a federal holiday.

Courtesy of The History of Christmas:

After the American Revolution, English customs fell out of favor, including Christmas. In fact, Congress was in session on December 25, 1789, the first Christmas under America’s new constitution. Christmas wasn’t declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870.

It wasn’t until the 19th century that Americans began to embrace Christmas. Americans re-invented Christmas, and changed it from a raucous carnival holiday into a family-centered day of peace and nostalgia. But what about the 1800s peaked American interest in the holiday?

The early 19th century was a period of class conflict and turmoil. During this time, unemployment was high and gang rioting by the disenchanted classes often occurred during the Christmas season. In 1828, the New York city council instituted the city’s first police force in response to a Christmas riot. This catalyzed certain members of the upper classes to begin to change the way Christmas was celebrated in America.

In 1819, best-selling author Washington Irving wrote The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, gent., a series of stories about the celebration of Christmas in an English manor house. The sketches feature a squire who invited the peasants into his home for the holiday. In contrast to the problems faced in American society, the two groups mingled effortlessly. In Irving’s mind, Christmas should be a peaceful, warm-hearted holiday bringing groups together across lines of wealth or social status.

Irving’s fictitious celebrants enjoyed “ancient customs,” including the crowning of a Lord of Misrule. Irving’s book, however, was not based on any holiday celebration he had attended—in fact, many historians say that Irving’s account actually “invented” tradition by implying that it described the true customs of the season.

I bet that historical information will not make it into a certain poorly written book attempting to make a buck off of the most overly commercialized holiday in history. What do you think?

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