Repeat after me...

For the luvva Gawd, if it's a fur or a spruce tree and it has lights and tinsel on it in December, it's a freakin' Christmas tree, m'kay?

For the same reason a menorah isn't a candle-stick thingie. And both belong front and center in the public square. Preferably adorned with lights.

I know I'll be blogging more on this, but in the meantime, enjoy Rabbi Daniel Lapin's explanation as to why "Merry Christmas" is the best possible greeting to use when acknowledging the birth of What's His Name of Bethlehem. (What I wouldn't give to see Rabbi Lapin enlighten some Macy's manager on why the generic "holiday greetings/season's greetings/happy wintertime holiday" crapola doesn't cut it.)

Happy Hanukah, Rabbi Lapin! Baruch atah Adonai, Elohaynu, melech ha-olam, she-asah neeseem la-avotaynu ba-yameem ha-heim ba-z'man ha-zeh. (Blessed are you, Lord our God, king of the universe, who performed miracles for our ancestors in those days at this time.)