One of President Trump’s frequent promises during his campaign rallies in 2016 was that he was going to bring back saying “Merry Christmas”, and that’s exactly what he’s doing this holiday season with the White House greeting cards.
Trump is delivering on a small, but very important, campaign promise this December as he is bringing back traditional Christmas elements to the White House. This comes as a stark contrast to the previous occupant of the White House, Barack Obama, who reportedly tried to end the tradition of putting up a Nativity Scene along with making Christmas more generic in the form of “religion-free” holiday cards and Christmas ornaments.
Yes, good readers, Barack and Michelle Obama wanted to mark their first Christmas in the White House by tossing the Baby Jesus out of the building. For a number of years, the White House decorations were more pet-centric than Jesus-centric.
And of course, there were those infamous “religion-free” holiday cards — featuring the family dogs without the word “Christmas.”
It ultimately became an issue in the 2016 presidential campaign — and one that endeared many culture war voters to the Trump campaign.
Donald Trump vowed last month that, “We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values” and, “Well, guess what? We’re saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.”
“We are stopping cold the attacks on Judeo-Christian values,” the president declared to the Values Voter Summit last September. “You know, we’re getting near that beautiful Christmas season that people don’t talk about anymore. They don’t use the word ‘Christmas’ because it’s not politically correct. You go to department stores, and they’ll say, ‘Happy New Year’ and they’ll say other things. And it will be red, they’ll have it painted, but they don’t say it. Well, guess what? We’re saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.”
This week the Trump family released their Christmas card that displays the traditional seasons greeting of, “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” followed by the signatures of President Trump, Melania and their son Barron.
Decorations in the White House Green Room also say “Merry Christmas” rather than Obama’s preferred generic season’s greeting.
Contrast this with Obama’s family Christmas card, which mysteriously lacks the word “Christmas” and instead opts for the generic “Happy Holidays”.
For the past decade Christians have witnessed the yearly whitewashing of the word “Christmas” from everywhere including stores, coffee cups and in advertisements. Up until Donald Trump, it would be reasonable to assume that Christmas would continue to be morphed into a season that is more generic, eventually making its way to being referred to as a “Winter Holiday”. It seems highly unlikely that Hillary Clinton would have reversed Obama’s trend of washing traditional Christmas themes away, so it is only in President Trump that Christians have a little more to be thankful for this season beyond family, friends and unwrapping presents.