I mentioned in passing a couple of weeks ago that the official White House holiday card has started reaching mailboxes, and much to some conservatives’ chagrin, the card doesn’t mention the name of a certain winter holiday.
Though it quotes the book of Psalms, the card’s text reads, “May the light of the season shine bright in your heart now and in the new year.” Christmas isn’t mentioned. For that matter, as a friend of mine noted, “The front of the card contains a watercolor drawing of the White House festooned with a Christmas tree, wreaths and lights (no creche!).”
Oddly enough, the subject actually came up during the most recent White House press briefing.
Q: WorldNetDaily notes that in previous years the President has been criticized for sending out generic holiday cards at this time of the year, and thus downplaying the celebration of Christmas, a holy day celebrated by a majority of Americans. And my question: Does the President believe that the majority of America’s Jews, Muslims or Hindus would be offended if the card sent by this practicing Christian President were to mention Christmas, instead of just the season, unspecified?
Snow: I don’t know, Les. The thing is the President celebrates Christian — he’s made no secret of his Christian faith. He also believes in religious tolerance. And —
Q: Doesn’t he think that they would be tolerant of him? I mean, as a Christian President sending out a Christmas card —
Snow: Again, here’s the — you’re always asking me, does the President believe, on wonderfully provocative questions that no sensible press secretary would waste time asking the President about. So the fact is that I don’t have the opportunity to ask him about Christmas cards. (Laughter.)
Q: Do you think that Christmas cards are a waste?
Snow: I think that on the priority list today, it’s kind of far down. And I’ve got to ration my time in front of the President. So it’s — what the President believes is that Jesus Christ is his Lord and Savior. He also believes that in this time and age it is important to welcome the freedom of all people to worship in accordance with their faith.
Funny, when a department store says that, Fox News personalities call for a boycott.
By the way, Slate’s David Greenberg explained that Bush isn’t breaking with White House tradition by sending out holiday cards without the “C” word; it’s the recent norm.
The gripes against inclusive seasonal displays and yuletide capitalism found new expression in the sudden outrage over the president’s generic holiday cards. Last year, many conservatives were furious that George W. Bush omitted the word Christmas from his wintertime mailings. The Washington Post quoted William Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, saying: “This clearly demonstrates that the Bush administration has suffered a loss of will and that they have capitulated to the worst elements in our culture.” Added another conservative religious leader, “I threw out my White House card as soon as I got it.”
But here, too, it’s the foes of the ecumenical greeting who want to destroy a long-standing modus vivendi. Mary Evans Seeley’s book Season’s Greetings from the White House: The Collection of Presidential Christmas Cards, Messages, and Gifts shows that “Season’s Greetings” was used on White House holiday correspondence by no less than Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s. Likewise, Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, Carter, Reagan, and Clinton all took care, as well, not to alienate non-Christian recipients of holiday mail. Few people expressed a problem with this long-standing practice until now.
If Reagan can get away with “Season’s Greetings,” why can’t the Gap?