A new name for Christmas shocks Christians. Regardless of that it is catching on world wide and the new name is "Chrismukkah." This little piece of information came across the news channel just once and [laced a shadow over Christmas. I researched and sure enough, a newspaper in Japan, "Japan Today" wrote about it and many more. In Japan they wrote about our problem of making the word 'Christmas' obsolete and replacing it with 'Christmukkah'. 'Christmas' has become impractical. Guess who was behind this once again, the Jews. Christmas combined with Hannukkah makes Christmukkah.

Japan Today: Saturday, December 25, 2004 - WASHINGTON - When U.S. President George W Bush kicked off his year-end press conference this week by wishing everyone a "Happy Holidays," he was flirting with an issue that has triggered protests, lawsuits and boycotts.

Touted as the season of harmony, Christmas in the United States has become a source of discord and debate over how to celebrate the holiday without promoting religion in a way that might alienate non-Christians.

The argument is a perennial one, but this year, with the Christian right taking credit for Bush's re-election, traditionalists are fighting harder than ever against what they see as a political effort to take the Christ out of Christmas.

"A covert and deceptive war has been waged on Christmas to remove any mention of it from the public square during the Christmas season," declares the California-based Committee to Save Merry Christmas on its website.

The committee has launched a campaign to boycott major retailers, including big-name department stores like Macy's, which favour in-store decorations proclaiming "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings" rather than "Merry Christmas."

"It is regrettable that an attempt to bring all people together in peace and love at this time of year is being perceived as offensive by some when clearly the attempt is just the opposite," Macy's spokeswoman Carol Sanger said in response to the boycott call.

"Merry Christmas" supporters back their argument by citing numerous examples where secular sensitivities are generally seen to have been taken too far.

A school district in New Jersey achieved national media attention for banning Christmas carols, even instrumental versions, while the organisers of a "Winterfest" in Wichita, Kansas, opted to call their Christmas tree a "Community tree."

The main battleground for the Happy Holidays Vs Merry Christmas debate is the public school system, as witnessed by two letters to the New York Times this week.

Andrea Economos from Scarsdale, New York, wrote to express his outrage at being forbidden from discussing the religious significance of Christmas in his daughter's second-grade class.

"I may share my holiday 'traditions,' but I may not say that Christians believe that Jesus is the son of God and that this is a miracle," Economos said. "I may not say that this is the true meaning of Christmas for Christians."....

The American holiday season kicks off with the non-denominational celebration of Thanksgiving, but then gets more complicated with the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, closely followed by Christmas.

Jewish groups have been prominent in lobbying schools to keep the seasonal celebrations inclusive for the 18% of Americans who are non-Christians.

"People get carried away on both sides," said Todd Gutnick, a spokesman for the Jewish Anti-Defamation League, which sends letters out to schools every year offering guidelines for recognising religious and cultural diversity.

"We are not out to ban Christmas," Gutnick said. "We're just worried about situations, in a school for example, where a child might feel alienated. That can be hurtful."

The ADL cited an incident when students in one classroom were working on Christmas-angel arts and crafts project, and Jewish students were instructed to leave and work on another project in the hallway.

A lighter resolution to the debate has been put forward by the creators of the television teen soap "The O.C." in the form of a hybrid holiday called "Chrismukkah."

The idea has gained some traction among inter-faith couples and even spawned a website selling Chrismukkah gifts, including T-shirts with slogans like "Oy Joy" and "Merry Mazeltov." (Wire reports)