text: By Dennis Prager - December 24, 2013 
   
   As a Jew, and a religious one at that, I want to wish my fellow Americans a Merry Christmas. 
   
   Not "Happy Holidays." Merry Christmas. 
   
   I write, "my fellow Americans" because, as reported by the Pew Research poll released just last Wednesday, nine in 10 Americans say they celebrate Christmas. 
   
   Apparently, many Americans have forgotten that Christmas is not only a Christian holy day, but also an American national holiday. Just as we wish one another a "Happy Thanksgiving" or a "Happy Fourth," so, too, we should wish fellow Americans a "Merry Christmas." 
   
   It doesn't matter with which religion or ethnic group you identify; Christmas in America is as American as the proverbial apple pie. That is why some of the most famous and beloved Christmas songs were written by guess who? Jews. 
   
   "White Christmas" was written by Irving Berlin (birth name: Israel Isidore Baline). 
   
   "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" -- Johnny Marks. 
   
   "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" -- composed by Jule Styne, lyrics by Sammy Cahn. 
   
   "Silver Bells" -- by Jay Livingston (Jacob Harold Levison) and Ray Evans (Raymond Bernard Evans). 
   
   "The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire)" -- Mel Torme and Robert Wells (Robert Levinson), both Jews. 
   
   "Sleigh Ride" -- lyrics by Mitchell Parish (Michael Hyman Pashelinsky). 
   
   There are many others as well. 
   
   The notion that non-Christians are excluded is absurd. 
   
   Americans who feel "excluded" are not excluded. They have decided to feel excluded. Which is, of course, entirely their right to do; no one forces anyone to celebrate any American holiday. But attempts to remove Christmas from the public sphere are destructive to our society. It would be as if Jehovah's Witnesses attempted to remove public celebrations and references to the Fourth of July because they don't celebrate national holidays. 
   
   Why are these attempts destructive? Because the entire society -- Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists as well as Christians -- all benefit from the goodness and joy that the Christmas season engenders. 
   
   It never occurred to my Orthodox Jewish family not to enjoy this season. It was a tradition in our home to watch the Christmas Mass from the Vatican every Christmas Eve (unless it was a Friday evening, and therefore the Sabbath, when no television watching was allowed). Had you visited our home, you would have seen my mother -- and my father, my brother and I all wearing our kippot (Jewish skullcaps) -- watching Catholics celebrate Christmas. 
   
   Nor did it ever occur to my brother, Dr. Kenneth Prager, an Orthodox Jew, not to sing Christmas songs when he was a member of the Columbia University Glee Club. He happily sang not only secular Christmas songs, but religious Christ-centered Christmas songs as well. 
   
   So when and why did this pernicious nonsense of non-Christians being "excluded" by public celebration of Christmas develop? 
   
   It is nothing more than another destructive product of the 1960s and '70s when the left came to dominate much of the culture. 
   
   One way in which the left has done this has been through "multiculturalism," the left's way of dividing Americans by religion, ethnicity, race, and national origins. 
   
   The other way has been through its aim of secularizing America -- which means, first and foremost, the removal of as many Christian references as possible. 
   
   The left regularly mocks the notion that there is a war against Christmas, a description that left-wing writers almost place within quotation marks, as if it is a manufactured falsehood. 
   
   The most obvious and ubiquitous example of this war is the substitution of "Happy Holidays" for "Merry Christmas" almost throughout the culture. Employees in most retail operations are told not to say "Merry Christmas." As a result, in much of America today, wishing a stranger "Merry Christmas" is almost an act of courage. 
   
   And, of course, many, if not most, public schools have banned Christmas trees and the singing of any Christmas song that hints of Christianity. Last week, for example, the school choir at a Long Island school, the Ralph J. Osgood Intermediate School, sang "Silent Night" with the lyrics changed. "Holy infant," "Christ the savior" and "Round yon virgin, mother and child" were all deleted. 
   
   Let me end where I began: speaking as a Jew. 
   
   Overwhelmingly, the Jews who are active in the removal of Christmas from society -- such as Mikey Weinstein, the anti-Christian activist (with a soft spot for Islamists) who led the campaign to remove the manger scene from Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina -- are not religious Jews. They are animated by one or both of two factors: One is leftism, which serves as a substitute religion for Judaism (and among many non-Jews for Christianity). The other is a psychological need to see Christianity suppressed; many people who have little or no religious identity resent those who do. 
   
   According to Fox News, Weinstein's Military Religious Freedom Foundation "said they were alerted by an undisclosed number of Airmen who said they were emotionally troubled by the sight of [the nativity scene]." That sentence should be reworded. Those who claim to be emotionally troubled by the sight of a nativity scene are not emotionally troubled by the sight of a nativity scene. They are emotionally troubled. ||||| Every year, just as I’m getting into the swing of my “fa-la-la-la-las,” and “rum-dum-dum-dums,” some spoilsport decides to remind me that I’m Jewish. Like I got hit on the head with a candy cane and didn’t know. 
   
   “Aren’t you Jewish?” people say. “Shouldn’t you be celebrating Hanukkah, the sacred festival of lights consistent with your Hebrew heritage?” 
   
   First, mind your own business and leave my gingerbread house alone. Second, it’s okay for Jews to celebrate Christmas. 
   
   For many people, Christmas is more about Santa than Jesus anyway (at least in my secular book.) And while we’re all arguing about whether Santa is black or white, why not consider the possibility that he might be Jewish, right Megyn Kelly? Santa doesn’t wear a cross around his neck, but he does have a beard that could rival Tevye’s. 
   
   MORE: Jesus Wasn’t White, But Santa Definitely Is 
   
   Besides, if Santa were Jewish, he wouldn’t be the only Jew in the Christmas pantheon. Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were all Jewish. What’s wrong with celebrating the birthday of the most famous Jew ever to walk the Earth? 
   
   Besides, tons of Jews are already celebrating Christmas anyway. According to a Pew survey from the Religion and Public Life Project, 32% of Jews have a Christmas tree in their homes, and 71% of Jews married to non-Jews have a tree. That’s not counting the Jews struggling to contain a cheer that dare not speak its name. 
   
   Rabbi Jen E. Krause of New York‘s 92nd St. Y told me that even though she would never suggest that Jews renounce Hanukkah in favor of Christmas, she understands why some Jews could feel left out of what can seem like a national holiday. “For Jewish Americans, it would be almost like not being a part of Labor Day or Memorial Day or Fourth of July weekend,” she said. Christmas has become so much more about consumerism than Jesus-worship that some stores are open all day on Christmas Day to accommodate the throngs of shoppers. 
   
   And think of the children. On Hanukkah, kids get presents from their parents in a slow, judicious 8-day drip. On Christmas, kids get their presents delivered all at once by a psychic, cookie-loving, reindeer-riding celebrity! 
   
   “But, tradition!” they might say, frowning at my seven-foot Christmas tree. “What about the 5,000 years of Jewish history? Have you no respect?” 
   
   Well, if we’re talking about traditions, Hanukkah is an old holiday, but Jewish cultural evolution is maybe even older. Jews have been adapting to their surroundings and embracing new traditions for thousands of years, since the beginning of the diaspora. It’s why we do things like drink tap water and wear bathing suits. 
   
   Besides, Jews have made major contributions to American Christmas. Jewish composer Irving Berlin wrote “White Christmas,” and Jule Styne wrote “Let It Snow.” David Berenbaum, a nice Jewish boy from Philly, wrote “Elf,” and the Coen brothers executive produced “Bad Santa.” And Sam “Roxy” Rothafel discovered the Rockettes and brought them to Radio City Music Hall, where they perform their annual Christmas Spectacular. They were originally called the Roxyettes, after their Jewish boss. 
   
   “But Christmas is celebrating Jesus as the Son of God,” some might say as they eye my red-white-and-green seasonal pajamas. “That’s not what Jews believe, so it’s religious treason.” 
   
   Well, not exactly. “A Christmas tree is not in itself a transgressive act in Jewish life,” said Rabbi Krause, if the intention is that it’s some form of seasonal ornament. But if the tree is part of a celebration of Christ as the Messiah, “that’s a boundary.” 
   
   I’m not so into the babe-in-the-manger stuff anyway, and I draw the line at going to church to celebrate Mary’s immaculate conception (although 15% of Jews do attend other religious services at least a few times a year.) But a tree, family, and presents seems like a perfect secular holiday to me. 
   
   But Rabbi Krause reminded me that even if I may get excited at the prospect of celebrating Christmas, Christians may not be so into the idea of their religious holidays being co-opted for my enjoyment. “Perhaps one should consider how having a Christmas tree in a non-Christian home as something other than a religious symbol might feel for those Christians for whom Christmas trees do carry a very specific sacred meaning.” 
   
   
   
   There are some Jews who want to harness some of the holiday cheer without jumping on the Christmas bandwagon. Neal Hoffman did just that when he invented Mensch on a Bench, Hanukkah’s answer to Elf on a Shelf. For those who don’t know, Elf on a Shelf is an uber-popular toy elf that sits on various ledges and “watches” kids so that it can report back to Santa about whether they were naughty or nice, kind of like a super-festive NSA. 
   
   Hoffman said he invented Mensch on a Bench to “add some funukkah to Hanukkah,” so his kids could participate in the surveillance-themed holiday it-toy without buying into Christmas. The “mensch” is an old man who sits on a bench and watches as the Hanukkah oil miraculously burns for eight days, designed as a solution to Jewish kids’ “elf envy.” Hoffman calls him “the Forrest Gump of Judaism.” 
   
   The Mensch on a Bench is great for spreading the Hanukkah cheer, but it doesn’t do much for those of us who spent our childhood gazing lovingly at neighbors’ Christmas trees. Sometimes the heart wants what the heart wants. 
   
   So this year, give in to your “elf envy” if you feel like it. It’s time to come out as a Christmas Jew. Grab a candy cane, hum a carol, pretend you’re in a Norman Rockwell painting. And Merry Christmas to all, especially to the newcomers.
target: – People often try to tell Charlotte Alter that she shouldn't celebrate Christmas because she's Jewish. Her response? "First, mind your own business and leave my gingerbread house alone," she writes at Time. For many, this holiday is about Santa, not Jesus—and who's to say he's not Jewish? "Santa doesn't wear a cross around his neck, but he does have a beard that could rival Tevye's." He wouldn't be the only one; Jews are all over Christmas, from Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, to Irving Berlin and Jule Styne, who wrote "White Christmas" and "Let it Snow" respectively. Alter even talked to a rabbi who said celebrating was "not in itself a transgressive act," for Jews, as long as they're not celebrating Christ as the Messiah. That's good, because 32% of Jews have a Christmas tree, a recent Pew survey revealed. Christmas has become a secular American holiday, like Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July. That's true even for religious Jews like Dennis Prager at RealClearPolitics, whose Orthodox family nonetheless watched the Vatican's mass every year. "The notion that non-Christians are excluded is absurd," he argues; those who argue otherwise are, in his mind, secular liberals trying to divide America. "The entire society—Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, atheists as well as Christians—all benefit from the goodness and joy that the Christmas season engenders." Click for Alter's full column, or here for Prager's.