It's a CHRISTMAS tree, bitches!

So I put up my tacky, fake Christmas tree today. For cheap and fake, it looks rather nice. But all the hype that's going around about Christmas and Christmas trees right now biggles my mind. Stores are using "holiday" in all their ads, cities are sponsoring "holiday" trees, companies are having "holiday" parties, etc. It's all crazy, considering that:

1. the majority of Americans are Christian, even a good number of the PC crowd. Good marketing dictates that you market to those who are buying. And hell, who doesn't love a good sale?
2. nothing about Christmas trees smacks of religion to an objective eye. If you knew nothing about Christianity, you wouldn't know, for example, what the star tree-topper represents. Hell, most Americans don't even know that the trees are a relatively recent development brought to the US by German immigrants in the 19th century. I mean, seriously. Do they really think they had pine trees in Bethlehem? Me thinks not.
3. I know JEWS who put up "Hanukah bushes"
4. Our popular celebration of Christmas is derived from a combination of ancient and modern symbology and many local variations, therefore in and of itself a symbol of diversity and inclusion. And in point of fact, we've been steadily taking the "CHRIST" out of Christmas for decades, anyway, so why the fuss now, when the holiday has all but lost its meaning and become a huge corporate marketing ploy?
5. When we get out of school, close up shop, take the day off work, or get together with the family we ALL know why we're REALLY doing it- we've just forgotten. And maybe we should try to make ourselves remember.

Can't we all just realize that freedom of religion was meant to protect expression, not contain it?

So Merry Christmas, Happy Ramadan, Joyful Hanukah, and Festive Solstice... and, I guess, Happy Holidays to anyone I left out.

/me goes to watch Charlie Brown Christmas now. He understands me.