[ClancyJ]

God did not set up Christmas - man did. It is a holiday that was set up by those who wanted to honor the day of Jesus birth. Yet, we do not know the date of Jesus' birth so it is only a symbolic date picked by man. Therefore, I doubt God thinks any are offending Him if they do not honor this man-picked symbolic date as the birth of Jesus. Apparently it offends you and you have never run into anyone that did not join in your celebration of this honorary birthdate of Jesus. If they do not join in with your celebration, you now claim they have dishonored Jesus.

This is how man distorts the directions of God. There is nothing wrong with celebrating Christmas as Christ's birth and there is nothing wrong with not celebrating the date as his birthdate but instead celebrating the "spirit" of the Christmas season.

[rwfromkansas]

The Puritans refused to even celebrate Christmas because it essentially is Pagan with all the gift-giving and merry-making.

If I wanted to, I could take the criticism of the card further and attack President Bush for even regarding a Pagan holiday as worthy of even a mention by him. But, I won't go so far since while I agree with the Puritans theologically on many things, I do not agree that Christmas is something we should just discard simply since it is not a religious holiday anymore (not like it ever was). We have Christian liberty to determine whether to observe such holidays.

You see, one can find all sorts of reasons to criticize this if they wanted to....:)