That’s right, it’s Christmas, not "Xmas" and all that other rot. If you’re telling people "Happy Holidays" because you’re embarrassed to say "Merry Christmas," or paralyzed by over-sensitivity, just get over it and let yourself go. Trust me. You’ll feel much better. Go. With. Christmas.

Christmas is such an event in Western Civilization because it’s a recognition and celebration of a set of core values and beliefs at the very root of this great civilization, whether Christ is to you a literal being, or to me a great metaphor. An atheist, such as myself, who can’t appreciate the splendor* of Christmas and all that it represents (religiously, commercially, and all that) is just hopelessly materialist to the point were we are left to wonder how these people manage to care about anything. If you can’t care about Christmas, for Christ’s sake, what on Earth can you care about?

I just hope Kim is right about all this misdirected energy swinging the other way.

*(Not a word I’ve ever used much, but my friend Greg Swann has gone and got me hooked on it, so hat tip to him.)