(1)  So, last Friday, Bill O’Reilly had the following talking points, as summarized on his website:

Banishing the words ‘Merry Christmas’ is simply disrespectful to people who celebrate that federal holiday. In Wisconsin, an elementary school changed the name of ‘Silent Night’ to ‘Cold In The Night.’ In Plano, Texas, a school told students they couldn’t wear red and green because they are Christmas colors. That’s flat-out fascism. If I were a student in Plano, I’d be a walking Christmas tree after that order. Talking Points understands that you know what is going on here.

In yesterday’s post, I pointed out how the Plano Texas story is untrue.

And now, we address the alleged "rewriting" of Silent Night:

Ridgeway Elementary didn’t change the lyrics to “Silent Night.” What they did was perform a 1988 copyrighted play called “The Little Tree’s Christmas Gift.”

That play actually contains numerous songs about Christmas, including the grand finale, an audience-led group singing of “We Wish You A Merry Christmas.” The play’s creator, Dwight Elrich, happens to lead the New Covenant Singers of Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles.

In fact, “The Little Tree’s Christmas Gift” has been performed in several churches, including the Oakwood Forest Christian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, the St. Anthony Parish School in Des Moines, Iowa, and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church of Abeline, Texas.

So why are the Silent Night lyrics changed in “Little Tree’s Christmas”? Because the play is about a small, lonely Christmas tree that is told it is “too scraggly, it will never sell.” That character sings the revised lyrics — “Cold in the night, No one in sight, Winter winds whirl and bite” — in a scene lamenting his sad state. The rewording has absolutely nothing to do with “secularizing” the song.

So what’s the bottom line?  There is no war on Christmas!

(2) Via Bobharris.com, here’s a snapshot of a page from Fox New’s webpage.  There are 11 "holidays", ten of which are circled (Fun time: find the 11th one! Click the picture to blow it up).  And the word "Christmas" does not appear once.

Why does Fox News hate Christmas?

(3)  Speaking of Fox News re: War on Christmas, don’t miss this letter from a former Fox News producer.  Here’s excerpts:

Make no mistake about it: Fox is on a mission. Its slogans say, "Fair and Balanced" and "We Report, You Decide." But in the six years that I worked there, what I heard most from Fox management were mission statements — about turning things around, taking news back from the liberals, and giving "middle America" a voice long denied it by the "east coast media elite." In other words, using its news report to bring about change — in the media and, ultimately, in the direction of American culture….

But what really separates Fox from the competition is its unabashed use of religion as a divisive weapon. Common sense — and common courtesy — have long dictated that personal religious beliefs be kept out of news reporting unless the story at hand involves religion. But on Fox, it’s not uncommon for an anchor to raise the issue of a guest’s religion, or lack thereof, a propos of nothing…

So, again, it’s no wonder this "War on Christmas" (now in its second successful year) is a production of Fox News Channel — the very network that has made accusation, recrimination and confrontation the gold standards of cable "news," and whose personalities have fashioned a self-serving "war" out of whole cloth, thanks to … a shameless management willing to use even Christmas for its own political ends.

(4)  If Jesus were alive today, how would he take action against all those horrible atheists who are trying to destroy Christmas?

Maybe he would do something like these guys:

Joel Krupnik and Mildred Castellanos decked the front of their Manhattan mansion this year with a scene that includes a knife-wielding 5-foot-tall St. Nick and a tree full of decapitated Barbie dolls. Hidden partly behind a tree, the merry old elf grasps a disembodied doll’s head with fake blood streaming from its eye sockets.

No one answered the family’s door to explain on Tuesday, but Krupnik told the New York Post it was a statement about the commercialization and secularization of Christmas.

"Christmas has religious origins,” he said. "It’s in the Bible. Santa is not in the Bible. He’s not a religious symbol.”

Merry Christmas, Saint Nicholas!

(5)  The War on the "War on Christmas" goes international!

A department store Santa on his way home for the night was beaten up by stressed-out Christmas shoppers in Germany.

Stefan Stettler, 31, from Wiesbaden, was still in character and chatting to other passengers while waiting for his train home.

Police say two men, allegedly stressed after a full day’s Christmas shopping, lost their patience when asked to "tell Santa what they want for Christmas".

The men took Stettler’s sack of presents and beat him over the head with it, breaking his fingers as he tried to protect himself.

(6)  Shakespeare’s Sister’s mother’s bible study group expresses surprise to learn that the word "holiday" is derived from "holy day".  It’s sad, but not surprising, how uninformed religious people are about, you know, religion.