Let's try to rediscover the spirit of Christmas

Isn't it wonderful what secularism can do to a religious festival? In many shops, schools, councils and government departments we can't even call it Christmas any more, because that's insufficiently inclusive. Never mind that I never met a Muslim, Jew, Buddhist or Hindu who resented Christmas. Indeed, they welcome it, and hope only that their religious festivals might also get a modicum of recognition.

It's not followers of other religions who are making Christmas ever-more bland and banal, ever-more distant from the supposed spirit, though they are usually invoked. It's the secularists — some with naive good intentions, some determinedly with malice aforethought — who are trying to eliminate Christ from the festival that bears his name. Thus we receive festive cards wishing us season's greetings or happy holidays, decorated with snow-clad conifers; primary teachers no longer put up nativity scenes; and we sing Jingle Bells rather than O Come, All Ye Faithful.