The War on Christmas?

By Ozzie Godinez – CEO at PACO Collective

I never thought I’d miss Americans arguing over how to be nice to each other during the holidays.

For the dozens of you who weren’t aware, we’ve periodically fought about a “War on Christmas” off and on since the 1920s. It really picked up after Bill O’Reilly ran a segment on it in 2005, and from then until last year it was a holiday season staple.

But something funny happened over the past couple of years – fewer folks seemed to think there was really a war on Christmas after all. Democrats and independents were always skeptical, but by last December even ⅔ of Republicans said they didn’t think it was a thing.

Did things really change, or did we all just get worn out? Who knows. The discourse remained though – and remained widespread.

This year, the war’s back…but the front lines shifted.

While some of the usual suspects are still trying to keep up the old fight – the President himself claimed “everybody’s saying Merry Christmas again” this year (just like he did back in 2017) – the usual avalanche just isn’t there.

Instead, the headlines that would have been about how people celebrate the season are about whether they’ll be able to. Grocery store greetings and Starbucks cups have given way to tariffs, layoffs, and inflation, and people aren’t happy about it. The President says we should buy fewer toys for our kids, and hosts on Fox say we should switch to artificial trees so farms can make way for data centers.

No, I didn’t make that last one up.

Anyway, affordability is something almost everyone agrees on. If you want to see real fighting over Christmas, look at the immigration front. On the one side, the Department of Homeland Security is showing their insensitive spirit of the season with holiday-themed posts about deportation. Meanwhile, churches in Chicago and Boston have nativity scenes where the Holy Family’s in hiding – or has already been taken away.

To be honest, “even the War on Christmas was worse this year” might be a fitting way to ring out 2025. Maybe we’ll know that things have gotten better when Americans have gone back to arguing about what clerks should say when you buy coffee.

In the meantime…¡Feliz Navidad!