It’s time for the annual display of anti-holiday cheer.
A Texas HOA has taken a rather frosty attitude toward a family in their community, demanding they take down Frosty, their inflatable snowman, on their front yard because it’s too early to be happy for the upcoming holiday.
Thumpety-thump-thump stormed the homeowner’s association higher-ups to the offending jolly happy soul (which Christmas song fan favorite character is celebrating his 50th birthday this December 7 by the way) and in effect knocked his old silk hat on down the road.
There was no mention by the bah humbuggers of what the family should do with the reindeer or Santa helicopter which they had also installed.
Turns out the family is expecting child number three in December and with all the planning a baby entails, especially at Christmas, they thought – evidently wrongly – that Frosty should come first so that their two boys, 7 and 3, wouldn’t think the new arrival had somehow deflated their traditional inflatable friend.
In this hap- hap-happiest time of year, the ho-ho-horror stories appear.
A pastor shouted at kids waiting to see Santa in the Amarillo, Texas mall saying he wasn’t real; nothing but a red suit. Angry parents, leaving their toddlers behind, stepped out of line to confront the preacher, some protesting to Westgate Mall representatives that the Santa Claus Grinch should be banned.
Banned, as it turns out, is what Jesus was from public property in Gig Harbor, Washington, the tiny figurine, along with the rest of the privately owned Nativity, sent packing.
But evidently under cover of darkness, and unbeknownst to authorities while residents appealed to the City Council at its regularly scheduled meeting, the baby Jesus cradled in the arms of a statue of the Virgin Mary made a surprise reappearance to the site from which all had been recently booted.
“Jingle Bells”, blasted “like 700 or 800 times a day” from a Christmas display boasting a loudspeaker in New York City resulted in a lawsuit, the neighbor saying “all he wants for Christmas is some peace and quiet.”
The colors red and green and Christmas trees too for that matter were erased from an elementary school holiday program in Frisco, Texas. One teacher, although nervous of possible repercussions, put an elf on the shelf anyway.
The singing of “Silent Night” was reportedly silenced at a Vancouver, Washington grocery store over fears shoppers might be offended. The two young carolers were “depressed that we couldn’t spread anymore love, joy and cheer.”
A front-yard inflatable Frosty got stabbed in Soulard, Missouri. Deflated over the “mean spirited” vandalism of his Christmas yard display, the owner established a GoFundMe account to cover Frosty’s medical expenses.
Meanwhile the neighbors of Frosty and the family in the Texas HOA story, in a display of solidarity, have been firing up their own generators, running extension cords, and it is rumored that stores have sold out on snowmen.
So, in the spirit of the season, perhaps we can have a little fun with this and readers can add to the list (there are seven above, four more below so we need just one to make it the dirty dozen, aka the twelve days of Christmas) of grinch- scrooge-like examples in the news of the war on Christmas.
8. Jeff Bezos’ retail giant Amazon has labeled a children’s Christmas Nativity Story as “Christian Holiday Fiction.”
Rumors of course have the Seahawks being purchased by Bezos who, should the deal go through, might be inclined to change the team colors to candy cane striped red and green instead of blue and green or the plain grinch-green they sometimes wear, just to show he’s not anti-Christmas, as to colors anyway.
9. Durham, New Hampshire, in an effort to remove religious overtones, will not formally light the tree this year and Santa will not arrive in a town firetruck.
No idea why the means by which the red-suited fellow arrives has religious overtones but nevertheless it ain’t gonna happen.
Wreaths on lamp posts are coming down too.
Whether there’s a law against saying Christmas, especially Merry Christmas, in Durham is unknown.
10. Tony Evers, Democrat, with a year’s worth of governorship under his belt in Wisconsin, has taken it upon himself to rename the evergreen erected for some reason this time of year ‘the Capitol Holiday Tree’, a change from Christmas Tree as it has been known in the past, depending on who had naming rights.
11. “During the holidays, Starbucks aspires to bring mini moments of joy in our customers when they visit our stores, making their day even more cheerful and bright.” So goes their seasonal message to coffee consumers. They will do this with cups that say “merry coffee” instead of “Merry Christmas” but they insist they’re not anti-religious, necessarily. They will still sell their signature Christmas Blend (its 35th year doing so), and play holiday music – yes, including Christmas carols – in their stores.
12. Your turn.
Merry Christmas btw.
Whelp, I’m going to spend some time at Starbucks, as they are the only solid group of folks who don’t wimp out during the holidays! Thank you, Starbucks!
Umm, it’s probably not correct to say that Starbucks is the only business…Acknowledging Christmas…my bad! Merry Christmas folks?
If a store, business, individual, or whoever doesn’t want to celebrate Christmas, that is their right. BUT, it is not their right to prevent others from celebrating Christmas as they wish.
It is solely hatred of Jesus that motivates the anti-Christmas crowd. America is founded as a “Live and let live” society which allows freedom of speech, religion and free association. Now, the Thought Police–like Communist Soviet Union and Communist China–are working to prevent you from exercising your GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS!
Even so, in the midst of mistreatment and persecution, Christians, with God’s help, need to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” as Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:44. Jesus explained: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34)
The reason for the season is that God sent His only Son, Jesus, to take away our sin and give eternal life to anyone who would receive Him. That is the reason we celebrate Christmas! Thank you, Jesus!
Merry Christmas!
May God Bless You,
http://www.StephenNeufeld.com
David,
I read your article with great interest and it made me think.
The issue of Bah humbuggery starts with Step 1 which is hateful anti-Christians and hateful anti-Jewish complainers doing what they can to kill Christianity and the Jewish faith. They apparently also enjoy abusing kids by stealing their imagination, fun, and joy.
Step 2 makes the hateful killing effort possible and easy when spineless commercial property owners, business owners, private property owners, government officials, and politicians, driven to be politically correct, CAVE under the pressure of complaints about JESUS and CHRISTMAS.
In some cases it only takes a single complaint before those in charge run away like cowards with their tails between their legs as they strip any sign of CHRISTMAS or JESUS from view. And now it is all the way down to Frosty.
So it boils down to on one side we have the loving Christians and loving people of Jewish faith. On the other side we have the Haters.
There is another element in society we have not heard from. I say, Agnostics, since you are in the middle stand up and unite against the haters by supporting our hard fought for Constitutional Right to Free Speech and thereby allow individuals to spread love and generosity and kid magic which should include a Frosty display.
For those who hate Christmas, I say, “Turn the other cheek” or to put it in non-Biblical terms so as to be more politically correct in an effort for you to get my message, look the other way. Shop somewhere else.
I wonder, if Haters hate Frosty so much, why do they look into Frosty’s yard? Why not look across the street? Perhaps Haters love to hate and they derive a self punishing masochistic pleasure by hating Frosty.
Okay David. I am done thinking. Thanks for your letter.
Oh and David, I wish you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, or Happy Frosty, for this coming holiday season.
Joseph Boyle