By Billy “Kneecap” Braddock

Warning! You are entering a Red Neck column. You may encounter American flags, preference to the Second Amendment, the Lord’s Prayer and a country attitude. Read at your own risk December is a great month. Although, I’m not real fond of the cold, it’s nice to have a change of seasons. Normally, I usually like to write something humorous because it’s such a happy month. However, lately all I hear about is a “War on Christmas”. Why would anybody want to declare war on one of the happiest holidays of the year? Don’t we have enough wars? A “War on Women”, “War on Poverty” and “War on Drugs” and none of them seem to be very successful. It’s not necessary to believe in it to celebrate the birth of Christ. According to historian, Ronald Hutton, the current state of observance of Christmas is largely the result of a mid-Victorian revival of the holiday, spearheaded by Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”. Dickens sought to construct Christmas as a family centered festival of generosity in contrast to the community-based and church centered observations, the observance of which had dwindled during the late 18th and 19th centuries. Modern celebrations of Christmas include more commercial activity compared to the more religious celebrations of the past. Historian, Stephen Nissenbaum, contends that the modern celebration in the United States was developed in New York State from the defunct and imagined Dutch and English traditions in order to refocus the holiday from one where groups of young men went from house to house demanding alcohol and food, into one centered on the happiness of children. He noticed that there was deliberate effort to prevent the children from becoming greedy in response. Christmas was not proclaimed a holiday by United States Congress until 1870.

Once again this holiday season and the right to celebrate Christmas are under attack. Even some Christian faiths reject the holiday for theological reasons. I’m always amazed by the amount of money atheists spend on signs and ads to ensure us that the holiday season is not about the birth of Christ. They tell us that it’s all about the winter solstice. Which is fine. We still have gift giving parties and show our generosity and our faith not only in God but in each other. Still, no matter how you look at it the Christian message remains, but I still don’t understand why these people would spend all this money to dissuade me from enjoying my faith. Christmas Day December 25th whether or not it is the real birth of Jesus Christ is celebrated by 95% of Americans. 65% consider it a very religious time. And 33% of the world also celebrates this day. I’m not real good at political correctness but I still walk around saying “Merry Christmas” not happy holidays and I don’t have a holiday tree I have a “Christmas tree”. I’m not much into organized religion, but I still believe that Christmas is about God, family and friends.

Christmas is a time of year, to where you should realize that you don’t need God as much as he needs you.

I used to refer to the days gone past as the good old days. What if someday we look back and consider these the good old days? And you say we don’t need God’s blessing

I always have more to say in my blog on my website nobodiesopinion.com.

See you on the shiny side of tomorrow…