No, in the 50s and 60s you were certainly free to say Merry Christmas. And it was certainly common to hear Christmas carols such as Silent Night or Oh Come All Ye Faithful in the department stores.
And in every school in the country the halls and classrooms were reverberating with the sound of children singing the great Christian Christmas songs!
Every school had Christmas plays depicting some aspect of the true meaning of the day.
Yes, Santa Claus was there, but the birth of Christ was front and center.
Now a child faces disciplinary action for praying silently of their own accord.
I Want My Country Back!
As it got closer to Christmas the big Woodward and Lothrop department store in Washington DC would fill their showroom windows with Christmas scenes. It was like magic. As good as something that Disney would have cooked up.
When I went to school, we used to have Christmas pageants and would sing all the secular and non secular Christmas carols. We had Jewish kids in school with us to and everything was fine. We also had no problem wishing happy Hannukah and having those decorations around the school. Those were days of tolerance. Since the liberals took over, our public schools have become very intolerant.