The 'war on Christmas': Did Lincoln start it?

[Generic Other]

Perhaps this article will shut Bill O up? I learned a lot I did not know myself.

<snip>
The public Christmas as Americans know it today did not take form until late in the 19th century. George Washington issued a proclamation on Thanksgiving, but he never made any statement about Christmas (or Easter for that matter). The first state to recognize Christmas as a holiday was Alabama, in 1836, but the North and especially New England resisted. Not until 1856 did Massachusetts accept Christmas as a holiday. The federal government took until 1870 to follow.

more:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/23/opinion/frum-war-on-christmas/index.html?sr=sharebar_facebook

[Warpy]

1. No, the Purtans did.

They thought any celebration was unseemly. They were sour people who thought unsmiling labor was the highest form of prayer. They sucked all the joy out of life and trod it to death.

They were the foulest specimens the world has produced and I don't wonder that Europe was desperate to get rid of them. I just wish they'd been dumped on Greenland, that the Americas had been spared.

Wiki's got a good article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_in_Puritan_New_England

[Generic Other]

4. They were grim ones, weren't they?

I wonder how they would view their WASPy offspring today? Would they embrace Westboro Baptist? I never really thought of it before, but it seems likely that the Westboro folks would fit right in to most of the Puritan communities of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

I don't think Puritans would like the excessive consumerism of Christmas. They found their own century overly idolatrous, indulgent and sinful.

[JHB]

2. There have always been RWers griping about a war on Christmas

Henry Ford blamed Jews for "attacking" it and other Christian holidays. The Birchers blamed commies.

Same playbook.

[seattledo]

3. Why not just say xmas?

Instead of treating them more respectfully than they treat us nonxtians.