“A Pagan Response to the ‘War on Christmas'” by Debra Macleod

You’ve heard of the so-called “war on Christmas,” right?  It’s where some Christians lament the choice of some people and organizations to say “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”  They’re mad as hell that society seems determined to “take Christ out of Christmas.”

As a pagan, I don’t think there’s a war on Christmas; however, there was, in the past, a definite “war on paganism,” when beautiful ancient traditions were criminalized, usurped and finally overlaid with practices that Christianity claimed as its own.

For centuries, any attempts to clarify this — “Hey, that’s actually an ancient pagan idea!” — were met with violence or ridicule.  And so, it eventually came to pass that Christians actually believed certain pagan concepts and customs were Christian in origin.  After all, no one was telling them any different.

Now, we have a situation where some people are outraged that pagan traditions are actually being…