First, it's a Christmas Tree, not a holiday tree. Second, it's a Menorah, not some sort of festive candle. Calling either anything different is pretty silly. It's equally as silly to truly believe that political correctness has made it impossible to wish anyone a Merry Christmas. Watch: Merry Christmas! Yep. Like I thought, the earth is still spinning. Now watch this: Happy Chanukah! Yet again, nothing happened. Happy Holidays! Somewhere Bill O'Reilly is furious. The first two were fine, but that last one is just going over the line.

Look, saying "Happy Holidays" is not an affront on Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, the very celebration of the Winter Solstice, New Years, or whatever else goes on this time of year. It's simply a quick and easy way to wish someone a happy and joyous time of year, regardless of what they believe or celebrate. If that doesn't work for you, force yourself to assume that "Holidays" is referring to Christmas and New Years: Christmas is one holiday, New Years a second, therefore the plural form of holiday would be holidays. See? That wasn't as painful as you thought, was it?

Do you know why we celebrate Christmas on December 25th? Because it's Jesus' birthday, right? Wrong. "In 336 C.E., the Western Church decided to celebrate December 25 as Jesus' birthday (official adopted by Bishop Liberius of Rome in 354 C.E.), to usurp the popular Roman pagen feast of Natalis Solis Invicti ('birthday of the unconquerable sun'), honoring the Persian sun god Mithras." That's taken from the book Contrary to Popular Belief by Joey Green. It's amazing how many Christmas traditions have nothing to do with Christ's birth, including the date itself.

Oh! I almost forgot...

Merry Christmas!