With the last commonly recognizable holiday having ended on Friday (Hannukah — which had a lot of additional celebrants this year thanks to support for Israel), the spotlight is now solely on Christmas.

Anyone worried about offending someone else’s religious sensibilities by saying “Merry Christmas” now have two choices: either celebrate Christmas or don’t through Dec. 25 (and historically through Jan. 6).

This may be a well-worn path for those of us accostomed to the annual “war on Christmas,” but here’s your reminder: There is absolutely no need to water Christmas down with “happy holidays,” “seasons greetings,” or “winter welcome.” No, Kwanzaa doesn’t count (hint: it was made up for political purposes), New Year’s Eve/Day do not count as “holy” days, and anything else is obscure or lost to the sands of time.

This year Christmas revelers get over a week to look forward to the big day with no other holidays in between. But mass media advertisers obviously didn’t get that memo.

We watched “The Chosen” on the CW network on Sunday night — an independently funded, serialized drama about Jesus’s ministry and his band of disciples and other followers that went from streaming to the airwaves on June 9 — and none of the advertisements mentioned Christmas. If we missed one it was either quick or local. Yes, even during a show about Jesus.

Again, this is nothing new, but that an indy Jesus series has been in weekly national syndication for half a year certainly is. With so much attention on micro-markets and niche advertising you’d think that block of programming would be full of overt Christmas wishes. Alas, no.

Tiresome as the War on Christmas and guilt-based social justice politics may be becoming, the radical Left and predatory lawsuit artists aren’t letting up on their offensives. Here are a few cringeworthy recent examples:

• Christmas Eve was replaced by Juneteenth in a Georgia hopsital system’s employee paid holiday calendar, partially thanks to the efforts of an overzealous DEI office. Adding insult to injury, the hospital system has “Methodist” in its name. (Props to our own Joe Cunningham for the story.)
• A Wisconsin city issued a memo discouraging office workers from using color combos like red and green in an effort to have a more “inclusive and equitable” workplace. Workers were urged to make displays involving greenery and “snow people.” (At least green Hamas flags would still be allowed.)
• An Iowa fire department’s nativity scene was returned, but only after atheist lawyer hirelings demanded they add Santa and reindeer to the display in order to make it less religious.
• In Boston, uber-liberal Mayor Michelle Wu showed off on social media a photo of her “holiday party” for “electeds of color.” Christmas is not mentioned and an entire race was excluded from the merriment, but dietary restrictions were respected.
• Back to Iowa, Satanists (well, actually atheists) pressed charges after an altar to a pagan underworld spirit was beheaded by a former state representative candidate. This altar took advantage of the state’s allowance of displays for “the holidays.”

While things may still seem bleak for the wishing of a specific merry Christmas in the culural mainstream, things could get worse.

With a globalist push toward eliminating fossil fuels, Frosty’s coal eyes could be the next outrage. We’re surprised his corn cob pipe hasn’t elicited calls for a CGI redaction of the claymation TV special!

Revived Paganism could organize and, like their “Satanist” colleagues, file suit against Christians for appropriating their ancient Winter Solstice holiday rituals — though that’s a famously mixed bag.

And what of Santa’s workshop? How can we sure he’s employing an equitable workforce? Or are the elves being held hostage by a tyrannical regime like so many Chinese Uyguhrs?

We have to laugh at the absurdity of it all. During these short days, it does seem dark out there. But for now, we have a week to boldly say “merry Christmas” — and a secret bonus twelve days if you’re so inclined. Let’s enjoy this moment in the solstice sunlight, and give a “ho ho ho!” to anyone who tries to water down this central holiday of Western civilization.