Here is a gem from the past:

"And it has become pretty general.  Last Christmas most people had a hard time finding Christmas cards that indicated in any way that Christmas commemorated Someone's Birth."

Where and when did this appear?  Take a guess. Bill O'Reilly?  Wrong.  again. World Net Daily?  Nope...read on...

Here is some more of the text:

   

"Easter they will have the same difficulty in finding Easter cards that contain any suggestion that Easter commemorates a certain event.  There will be rabbits and eggs and spring flowers, but a hint of the Resurrection will be hard to find."

Still not clear?

   

"Now, all this begins with the designers of the cards.  And even in this business one comes upon that same policy of declaring Anti-Semitic everything that is Christian.  If Rabbi Coffey says the New Testament is the most Anti-Semitic book ever written, what must be the judgement on an Easter card that is truly an Easter card?"

Getting an inkling?  How about this text?

   

"There has not been any 'persecution' of the Jews in the United States and never will be any, but all that the Jews have had to carry in the way of misunderstanding has been the result of the leadership which has misled them into paths of bloated ambition, instead of substantial human achievement."

Year? -- 1921

Source? -- One of the nastiest antisemitic tracts ever published in English: The International Jew:  The World's Foremost Problem, Chapter 36.

Originally published as an article, "'Jewish Rights' to Put Studies Out of Schools," THE DEARBORN INDEPENDENT, issue of 19 March 1921.

Collected in:

Henry Ford and the staff of the Dearborn Independent, The International Jew:  The World's Foremost Problem.  1920-1922,  Vols. 1-4.  Chapter 36: "Jewish Rights" to Put Studies Out of Schools.

I have always been a little surprised that we have not done a better job in response to the Fox News-led war on Christmas meme. (The bogus, and related meme that liberal secularists are trying to drive people of faith from public life and all religious expressions from the public square, was even internalized by elements in the Democratic Party for awhile, and this undoubtedly confused the issue.)

But what I really want to surface today is that even within the alleged cabal of the reviled secular liberal media -- there is a 25 year public radio broadcast tradition that honors and celebrates the holiday in a remarkable and joyous fashion.  My local NPR affiliate, WFCR - FM (Five College Radio, operated by the University of Massachusetts, and Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Hampshire, and Amherst Colleges) joins in the annual airing of the Christmas eve BBC broadcast from King's College, Cambridge of A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols.

WFCR classical music host John Montanari writes:  

No two hours in New England Public Radio's entire yearly schedule are as eagerly anticipated as are 10:00 to noon, Eastern Standard Time, on the 24th of December.  That's when one of the oldest continuing traditions in broadcasting, dating back to 1928, is renewed for new and old audiences alike.  We could or would no more not broadcast A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols than we could or would forestall the lengthening of days following the winter solstice.

Like all beloved traditions, "Lessons and Carols" remains comfortingly consistent, while also constantly refreshing itself with new elements.

It is aired nationally on many NPR stations by American Public Media.

I'll be listening when it is re-broadcast:  On Christmas day, in the morning.