Will there be a real move some day to Cancel Christmas and all other holidays, including Thanksgiving, that have any connection to religion?  Could it happen?  In this novel the attempt is made because it would increase profit by eliminating Christmas vacation pay.  In real life, the notion of a religious occasion being sanctioned as a public holiday will undoubtedly be challenged in the courts by a person or persons.  I am certain it will happen.  When it does, what are the chances that it will succeed?  And if successful, where does it stop?  Thanksgiving was initiated as a day of thanks to God for the harvest.  Will it be challenged as a religious feast?

Yes, Christmas is a religious feast; and so is Thanksgiving.  In fact the very term holiday comes from the medieval times when Holy Days were days of celebration, when work ceased, and people were relieved from labor.  The Church started this custom as a form of relief for workers, ever mindful that productivity can increase if workers are not unduly tired or stressed.

That is the history.  Tradition over the centuries has now given greater significance to these holidays than originally planned or perhaps even intended.  Thanksgiving has become the day when families gather in grateful thanks for all the good things that have happened to them over ht e past year.  For believers, atheists, and agnostics, there is a feeling of joy and gratitude, often shared with the closest family members.  Thanksgiving has become the time of assembly of families at the ‘old hearth’, often reserving Christmas for personal family celebration, especially when there are young children in the home.

Christmas too has come to be more than a celebration of the religious birthday of Jesus Christ,.  While this is certainly a very important and major event for Christians, it is also a period of time when good fellowship reigns, and a spirit of happiness and joy seems to permeate everything.  Gift giving is a manifestation of this good fellowship.  For believer and non-believer alike, Christmas is a traditional time of joy and recognition of the fellowship of mankind.

And yet our system is such that one person alone can bring suit to have the custom cease.  That person can use the concept of incursion of religion into the state, invoking the rule of separation of Church and state to strike down the observance of Christmas and Thanksgiving as religious feasts that have no basis in law as public holidays.

Could such a suit prevail?  Could it happen?  Can the will of the majority be superseded by the will of a single person?  But that single person will say it is in the Constitution.  But is isn’t.  The phrase ’separation of church and state is NOT in the Constitution.  In fact, the exact opposite is there.  The First Amendment includes the statement: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”  This is often used to say that the framers meant that religion had no place in public functions or places.  That is NOT true.  In my opinion, the framers of the Constitution intended the exact opposite.  They wanted religion in the public square.  They wanted freedom of exercise of religion.  The phase, ‘or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’ has been ignored for too long.  Denying prayer in the schools is exactly that – ‘or prohibiting the free exercise thereof’.  So is removing the ten commandments from a courthouse; so is challenging the phrase ‘in God we trust’ on our currency; so is challenging prayer in Congress; and so too any attempt to eliminate observance of Christmas and Thanksgiving!

Yes, I am sure it will be tried.  Hopefully common sense will prevail and justices will be served, and that idiocy will not be permitted.

I wrote this book to call attention to this possibility.  I also wrote it because I love Christmas.  I wish it would go on all year long.