We’re not the grinch after all

I have long felt bad about the injury Jews have inflicted on Christmas by leading the charge to limit public celebration of this great religious holiday. Here we are, living in a country whose Christians have treated us with unprecedented kindness, tolerance, and fellowship, and we show our thanks by forcing them to remove the most meaningful aspects of their most important holiday from the public square.
This year, however, I was able to find solace in Garrison Keillor’s rant about how Jews have injured Christmas by writing “trashy” Christmas songs. I had not focused, until I read Keillor’s bizarre column and Scott’s response, on the fact that Jews have contributed songs like “White Christmas”,” Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and other staples of this “most wonderful time of the year.” These songs may annoy Keillor, but they have pleased millions of American Christians of all ages. Thus, we Jews have contributed more to Christmas than ugly litigation.
Since this is the time of year when we should make a special effort to be charitable, I will speculate that Keillor’s rant against “Jew” Christmas songs represents displaced anger over the successful efforts to drive the holiday’s religious content out of the public square. If so, I feel his pain.
To conclude, although it’s been said many times, many ways, Merry Christmas to you.

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