the heck w/Xmas, how 'bout putting Christ back in everyday life?

From the Washington Post:

This month, as in every December since he took office, President Bush sent
out cards with a generic end-of-the-year message, wishing 1.4 million of his
close friends and supporters a happy "holiday season."

Many people are thrilled to get a White House Christmas card, no matter what the greeting inside. But some conservative Christians are reacting as if Bush stuck coal in their stockings. "This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has
suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in
our culture," said William A. Donohue, president of the Catholic League for
Religious and Civil Rights. Bush "claims to be a born-again, evangelical
Christian. But he sure doesn't act like one," said Joseph Farah, editor of the
conservative Web site WorldNetDaily.com. "I threw out my White House card as
soon as I got it."

Religious conservatives are miffed because they have been
pressuring stores to advertise Christmas sales rather than "holiday specials"
and urging schools to let students out for Christmas vacation rather than for
"winter break." They celebrated when House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.)
insisted that the sparkling spectacle on the Capitol lawn should be called the
Capitol Christmas Tree, not a holiday spruce. Then along comes a generic
season's greeting from the White House, paid for by the Republican National
Committee. The cover art is also secular, if not humanist: It shows the
presidential pets -- two dogs and a cat -- frolicking on a snowy White House
lawn.

"Certainly President and Mrs. Bush, because of their faith, celebrate
Christmas," said Susan Whitson, Laura Bush's press secretary. "Their cards in
recent years have included best wishes for a holiday season, rather than
Christmas wishes, because they are sent to people of all faiths." [Me here...who woulda thunk I would ever agree w/the current White House on anything...]

That is the same rationale offered by major retailers for generic holiday catalogues, and it is accepted by groups such as the National Council of Churches. "I think it's
more important to put Christ back into our war planning than into our Christmas
cards," said the council's general secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar, a former
Democratic congressman. [Amen, Reverend, Amen!]