This past week, the governor of Texas released a television ad which revealed some startling and disturbing news: children can no longer celebrate Christmas openly.
I’m glad he informed me of this, as I was all set to proceed as normal with Advent 3 and Advent 4, before celebrating my merry little way into Christmas Eve and Christmas 1. (Possibly I might go nuts and break loose with the Feast of the Holy Name. Who knows? I’m unpredictable!) But thank God for you, Rick Perry! Who knows what horrors might have befallen me had I proceeded? Fire from the sky, locusts, plagues, mass chaos, cats befriending dogs, etc, etc. (Also, suddenly my schedule just opened way up. Drinks, anyone?)
Is it possible Rick Perry is the Grinch and I have failed to notice up til now?
(A more pressing question: please God, does this make Rick Santorum Max the dog? Because that would explain so. very. much.)
It’s possible that this has escaped Rick Perry’s notice til now, but there do exist people who choose to either not celebrate Christmas, or to celebrate it differently than he does. (The same goes for Easter, actually. Also, Maundy Thursday. Seriously, Newt Gingrich, anytime you want to spearhead a Catholic-politician movement to widen the federal recognition of such an important religious holiday as Maundy Thursday, bring it on.)
So people celebrate it differently. Or don’t celebrate it. And in the mind of Rick Perry, Bill O’Reilly, etc, this creates a war on Christmas. This is puzzling. Do holiday trees invalidate the birth of Christ? Does saying ‘Season’s Greetings!” one too many times cancel out the Incarnation?
What sort of flimsy, wishy-washy Christmas is that?
Once God breaks into creation, God doesn’t drift back out again, like Casper the Highly-Suggestible-and-Holy Ghost. You can’t take the Christ out of Christmas.
Christ is in this thing permanently.
Which, if you ask me, is sort of the whole point.
Red Shoes, Funny Shirt 