Anthony Browne: Unholy war on Christmas

What communists, Puritans, and enlightened liberals have in common

Anthony Browne calls it a war on Christmas. I am inclined to agree:

Christmas has always stirred passion, attracting opponents and supporters. But, until recently, banning it has been so culturally offensive that fictional Christophobes entered the English language for their infamy. Ebenezer Scrooge declared: ‘Every idiot who goes about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly in his heart.’ Dr Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas declared that the Grinch’s motivation was ‘that his heart was two sizes too small’.

But real-life Scrooges and Grinches have banned Christmas before, not because their hearts were too small but because their bigotry was too great. And now it is happening again.

Read on.