A very Merry 12th day of Christmas!

I know, a day late and a dollar short.  I didn't get back in to make the proclamation last night, so here it is.  Contrary to popular belief, the war on Christmas didn't start a few years ago when merchants foolishly decided to censor their employees from speaking the "C-word" in public during that shopping season formerly known as  ______mass.  Rather, it began hundreds of years ago as successive generations of Protestants tossed out more and more of the traditional garb of a practicing Christian.  This was typically under the auspices of it being 'too Catholic.'  Sometimes, as Protestant denominations are wont to do, they did it in order to separate themselves from all the other denominations that they concluded were doing it wrong.  Nevertheless, by the time Christmas began to reemerge in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was picked up only on the actual Feast day - the 25th - and from there a mountain of traditions, mostly secular and commercial, were added to the pile. 

Still, there are some, and a growing number at that, who are starting to yearn for a less commercialized, 'we hate religion but love money' approach to the frenzied orgy of consumerism and self centered greed, who are beginning to discover what Christians for centuries knew - this should be a period of celebration and festivities that rejoiced in the birth of God our Savior, and looked for the eventual consummation of our salvation in his gracious and loving arms.  And that it shouldn't end in one day when stores stop running ads for the latest sales.

So Merry 12th day of Christmas, belated.