And let us not forget yesteryear in Philadelphia. In 2010, organizers of the city's Christmas Village, responding to complaints about exclusion (there was the tale of the little Jewish girl who said, "Dad, don't we get a village?"), dimmed the lights on the word Christmas in their sign. The national uproar was so loud, Mayor Nutter had to announce that the city was calling it Christmas again.
For Philadelphia Managing Director Richard Negrin, who handled most of last year's criticism, the episode provoked personal growth.
He says now, "If I say 'my heart grew three times that day,' can that be my quote?"
This year, tradition reigns anew. The collection of kiosks selling gifts, now in LOVE Park, is again called Christmas Village.
The city also stood strong against grinchy grumblings about crass commercialism. Visitors to Christmas Village can have their pictures taken with a one-ton noodle whose dimensions are roughly those of a small elephant - courtesy of Kraft. The food company paid Philadelphia $24,000 for the privilege. 'Tis the season of mac 'n' cheese!
Nationally, the Chafee incident prompted The Daily Show's Stewart to "make the hardest decision that any anchor of a fake news program has to make." He declared an actual War on Christmas - causing Fox's O'Reilly to say, "There is no question that Mr. Stewart is going to hell." He appeared to be joking.
Why does talk of war so often dominate a season that's supposed to promote good will? On one level, it's a debate about word usage. To some, holiday tree is about as clunky and meaningless as "woody perennial of the pine variety used as winter decoration."
