Save Christmas!!

Ok, so this "separation between church and state" thing is going a little too far now (well, not just now, I am sure the topic I am about to discuss has been an issue for some time now, but anyway). In Maplewood, NJ, the Columbia High School brass ensemble is not allowed to play any Christmas songs as part of their repetoire.
"Holiday celebrations where Christian music is being sung make people feel different," said Mark Brownstein, a Maplewood parent. "And because it is such a majority, it makes the minority feel uncomfortable."
Also, AOL.com has a poll question up that asks: "Should religion be included in public holiday celebrations?"

Now..if religion was taken out of these holiday celebrations...what holidays would we be celebrating? Without Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa etc, this time of year would mean nothing except that the calendar's about to advance a year. And, in my opinion, the only reason we even celebrate winter and snow as enthusiastically as we do is because of Christmas. I had a conversation with a coworker the other day about her past experiences with Christmas carolling. I was talking about how I'd never really experienced it before (as in, a group of people showing up at my door and singing "Oh Holy Night") and she was telling me about the time she and her friends ran around town in 8th grade singing to people. Being that Cherry Hill was pretty much half Jewish, Christmas songs weren't really so abounding, unless you were listening to B101. She was mentioning songs, like "Frosty the Snowman" and such and I came to realize that, eventhough there is no mention of Christmas, Jesus, Santa or even reindeer in there at all, I've still always lumped it in there as a Christmas song.
So, anyway, taking religion out of holiday celebrations would effectively take the holidays out of the celebrations, and all we'd be left with is a parade celebrating the fact that everyone is walking around freezing their asses off.
As for taking Christmas out of the public spectrum...it's stupid. Sure, it's a religious holiday, but its an extremely prominant one, one that has become such a great tradition in American society. I mean, come on...unless you are at the mall...people are generally much nicer around Christmas...so more power to it!
As for the guy above who is saying hearing Christmas songs makes him feel different or whatever...when it comes down to it, Christmas music just kicks Hannukah music's ass. If we wrote better Hannukah music, I'm sure it'd be played all over the place. But, come on..."The Dreidel Song" is for 3 year olds and "Sivivon" is really quite mean sounding and not so cheerful (oh, and also, Christmas music is in English (well, except "Feliz Navidad"...damn, that's one catchy-ass tune!)).

I had more planned to say about this topic earlier, but I have to get off the computer now, so I guess we're all stuck with this. But, either way, the moral of the story is...long live Christmas (but praising God in the Pledge of Allegiance can go...)