Decorating a week before Thanksgiving, hiding the elf of the shelf, and putting up an unreasonably large blow-up Santa in your front yard are traditions celebrated by many. Yet there is a growing number of people who don’t consider Christmas as a religious holiday and in 2019 the religious elements are emphasized less than in the past.

By definition, the “War on Christmas” has been used in different media platforms to denote Christmas-related controversies. The belief that multiculturalism is shadowing traditional American values has evoked this war on the internet.

“A Large handful of people, mostly conservatives believe there is a big push from ‘the left’ to move away from publically celebrating Christmas,” Megan O’Donovan (’20) said. “Saying ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas’ are examples of how they believe we are eliminating Christmas.”

In efforts to end this war, President Trump tweeted “People are proud to be saying Merry Christmas again. I am proud to have led the charge against the assault of our cherished and beautiful phrase. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!”

Whether a cashier says “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Holidays” while I’m checking out doesn’t really matter to me, but since its 2019 others would disagree. Shoppers shouldn’t get mad a cashier for saying ‘Merry Christmas’ when 90% of all Americans celebrate Christmas. Getting some unwanted Christmas spirit thrown at you during the 25 days is good for you- despite your religious beliefs.

The Pew Research Center reported that 9 in 10 Americans say they celebrate Christmas, yet less than half celebrate it as a religious holiday and Millennials were least likely.  According to another Pew survey the percentage of Americans who identify as Christian has a downward trend while those who describe their religion as atheist or agnostic has risen.

Every year Starbucks releases holiday cups that spark controversy among the coffee-drinkers. Without fail, 2019 was no different. Starbucks released cups that had candy cane stripes, green polka dots, and slogans that say “Merry Coffee.” Per usual the people are mad that Christmas was chosen to represent all the winter holidays for these cups. But if Starbucks had had made cups blue or white others would complain that they’re not festive enough…and they aren’t wrong.

This is a never-ending war fought between people who will never agree. Leftist think that publically celebrating the American Christmas traditions that have been practiced for years will somehow downgrade the importance of other religions. But in reality, Christmas was built on a foundation of religious beliefs and traditions and ending those will change the meaning of Christmas completely.

Despite the controversies, we should strive to appreciate what’s in common among all the winter celebrations; family friends, food, and tradition.