"Commercialize Christmas, or Else!"

"Religious conservatives have a cause this holiday season:  the commercialization of Christmas.  They're for it."  So claims Adam Cohen in this recent New York Times opinion piece.  Commenting on the various boycotts of some retail outlets that shy away from using the word "Christmas," Cohen continues:

Christmas's self-proclaimed defenders are rewriting the holiday's history. They claim that the "traditional" American Christmas is under attack by what John Gibson, another Fox anchor, calls "professional atheists" and "Christian haters." But America has a complicated history with Christmas, going back to the Puritans, who despised it. What the boycotters are doing is not defending America's Christmas traditions, but creating a new version of the holiday that fits a political agenda. . . .

This year's Christmas "defenders" are not just tolerating commercialization - they're insisting on it. They are also rewriting Christmas history on another key point: non-Christians' objection to having the holiday forced on them. . . .

The Christmas that Mr. O'Reilly and his allies are promoting - one closely aligned with retailers, with a smack-down attitude toward nonobservers - fits with their campaign to make America more like a theocracy, with Christian displays on public property and Christian prayer in public schools.

It does not, however, appear to be catching on with the public. That may be because most Americans do not recognize this commercialized, mean-spirited Christmas as their own. . . .

Now, there is no denying that Cohen makes some good points.  That said, I cannot help thinking that his "theocracy" charge is at least as "mean-spirited" as Fox News's campaign to resist "Happy Holidays."  Some "War on Christmas" partisans overstate the matter, but still . . . it is certainly my impression that some of the scrubbing away of the word "Christmas" has a "politically correct" (not a respectfully pluralist or anti-commercialism) tone to it, or owes too much to a misunderstanding of church-state separation.  And, at least in some cases, it strikes me that the anti-"Christmas" crowd is at least as caught up in mean-spirited culture-warrior-ing as the "boycott 'Happy Holidays'" gang.