As we said last week, the vacuous rhetoric about the imaginary War on Christmas seems to be greatly diminished this year. That's not to say that no one is beating that particular drum, just that the fever pitch of the last two years is, thankfully, absent to a large extent. And that's a good thing.

However, this year more than ever it seems that we can't so much as drive around the block without seeing a sign like the one below:

Jesus is the Reason for the Season? Um, no, sorry. As we've mentioned in the past, a subset of our members was raised Catholic, and quite frankly Jesus was never the reason for their Christmas season. Not remotely. Not ever. As children, it was abundantly clear to us that Santa was the reason for the season. The holiday — and in fact the entire month leading up to Christmas Day — revolved around a jolly fat man, not a bearded hippie or a baby in a manger. Later, as the parent-encouraged delusions of childhood faded, the reason for the season simply became family and friends, food and drink, and the quiet enjoyment of the holidays. The point is: never once was Jesus the reason for our Christmas season.

Of course, your mileage may vary. Those of you who do celebrate Christmas in some form may have different reasons for your season. Perhaps it's a break from work or school. Perhaps it's raucous Christmas partying. Perhaps it's giving or — a personal favorite around here — receiving presents, or a time to help those who are less fortunate.

The bottom line here is that Jesus simply isn't the reason for the Christmas season. Some may see it that way, but that statement just isn't true universally. We wrote about something similar to this two years ago, around Christmas 2004, and we thought we'd dust off that old post in response to the misguided "Reason for the Season" signage that we've seen so much of this year. If you haven't read it, please feel free to take a gander — we've pasted it below.

Now, as is the tradition for our Christmas season, we're about ready to wind down for the year. In all likelihood this will be our last post until the new year, as some of us plan to spend the coming long weekend (and then some) with family and friends, eating and drinking and exchanging gifts. Not once will Jesus' name be mentioned, but believe us when we say that it will still very much be Christmas.

So to all our readers, Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, Cheerful Kwanzaa, and a very solemn Ramadan. (We won't wish you a Joyous Fucking Reacharound Day this time; those are joyous enough without our help.) Happy Holidays, folks; we'll see you next year.

Merry christmas folks, looking forward to a new year of rants :).

Nicely said, guys.

Happy (pick your appropriate) holidays.

Here's how I generally break it down:

The reason for the season: The tilt of Earth's axis, causing our hemisphere to be colder when it's tilted away, as the sun's rays hit at a shallower angle. (No, it's not the distance that causes this; we're actually closer to the sun in winter than in summer.)

The reason for the "holiday season": The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. After this, the days get longer again. To ancient peoples, this was a sign of hope. Of course they'd celebrate it.

The reason for the specific date of December 25th: Back when Mithraism was huge, its winter-solstice celebration was Mithra's birthday: December 25th. This was later adopted by Christians to make Christianity appeal more to Mithrans.

The reason for calling it Christmas: Now we get to Jesus.

But anyways, whether you look at "the reason for the season" in the sense of the season of winter or the holiday season, the reason is purely secular. Or, as I like to say: If Jesus were the reason for the season, Canada would turn atheistic overnight.

Man, Infophile, you're really easy to shop for.

Jesus is the Reason
for the Lesion

(maybe you should get that checked)

Happy New Year.

Happy new year folks.

It was nearly a year ago that I began blogging again, and it was all your fault.

Thanks for a year of excellent reading.

Thanks, all, and Happy New Year.