Penna Dexter

On the last day of November, the president and first lady switched on the 50-foot tall National Christmas tree to kick off another Christmas season in Washington D.C. The president took the opportunity to highlight a campaign promise — his promise that we'd be saying Merry Christmas again. And on that Thursday night, he said it. He told the crowd: "We're saying Merry Christmas again." He said, "Today is a day I've been looking very much forward to all year long. It's one that we have heard and we speak about and we dream about. And now, as the president of the United States, it's my tremendous honor to finally wish America and the world, a very Merry Christmas." It's not that the Obamas didn't do Christmas. I mean they had 54 Christmas trees around the White House and grounds one year. (The Trumps only have 53.) Plus, President Obama often said Merry Christmas in his seasonal address. But, early on, the previous administration, in order to make Christmas more inclusive, considered not displaying the traditional crèche in the East Room. The idea was shot down, but the point was made. The White House sent out official holiday cards each year with no mention of Christmas. As Family Research Council points out, "the Obamas famously wanted a 'non-religious Christmas.'" But President Trump says we're in "a holy season, the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." He's still inclusive. "Whatever our beliefs," he told the crowd at the Ellipse, "we know that the birth of Jesus Christ changed the course of human history." The words Merry Christmas are fighting words because we're in a war. It's a war on the religious nature of America, prosecuted by the secular Left. Radio host Dennis Prager, who is a Jew, wrote a couple of years ago that the words “Merry Christmas bother the left because they are a reminder of just how religious America is." So let's keep saying it: Merry Christmas!