In the cultural battle over whether to use the seasonal greeting "happy holidays" or "Merry Christmas," the latter appears to be winning, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released Tuesday...In the poll, 61 percent of respondents said more stores and institutions using "happy holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas" is a change for the worse. Last year, 43 percent said the use of "happy holidays" was a change for the worse.

Interestingly:

A majority of liberals and a majority of Democrats said they preferred "happy holidays" last year. But this year, a majority of liberals and a majority of Democrats said their preference was "Merry Christmas."

As I write, I see that this is the top story on the Google News segment collecting War on Christmas stories, a rich source of ammunition and outrage. As I have noted previously, this should be regularly checked by VDARE.com friends interested in the issue - not least because Google's computers track and measure interest.

A certain degree of dangerous complacency is creeping in amongst the defenders of Christmas. Joe Farah, whose WorldNetDaily has has done wonderful service in this cause, feels it is time to apportion credit:

I think the difference this year was right here – this news service, WorldNetDaily.com.

One waits with interest for the graceful acknowledgement of this from The O'Reilly Factor. [VDARE.com late note - But if Bill O'Reilly really is flinching, maybe he won't mind]

In war, relaxing after a few succesful encounters is lethal. An able enemy counterattacks. That is why Paul Weyrich's elegant recent article is so valuable. He rejects the tactic of demanding defenders of Christmas be embarrassed over its commercial aspects, avoids the frequently-raised irrelevance of how much church-going friends of Christmas plan to do, and concentrates an a key issue rarely raised:

It is significant that Christmas is banned from most stores. It is highly significant that it has become politically incorrect to wish someone a "Merry Christmas"...Each time retail stores have advertised a Christmas sale, the owners may not have cared about the true meaning of Christmas but they were acknowledging the legitimacy of this important Christian Holy Day. That is why it matters that Christmas has been banned from Wal-Mart. I hope Christians take this insult seriously and I hope that the Wal-Mart bottom line suffers during the Christmas Season.

Christmas, and the various customs it entails, is an ethnic tradition. As it happens, the tradition of the majority ethnic group in this country broadly defined, and of its founders. Attacking Christmas is an attack on them.