"At the far end of the 'Holiday' spectrum are films like White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, The Santa Clause and Home Alone. These are not 'Christmas' films. They are 'Holiday' films that celebrate a secular feast that happens to fall on Christmas and which is generally associated in a dim way, not with Christ, but with the fading American reverence for hearth and home. I say this, not to denigrate them, but to be clear about what they are. They have no particular connection to the Christian faith, nor even to any particular form of American civil religion. They breathe the general sentiment (not a bad thing in itself) that Christmas is a 'magical' time (though it would be more accurate to call it a 'miraculous' time). They encourage reverence for the family (a very good thing indeed) and they are harmless enough, but they are emphatically Holiday movies, not Christmas ones."

Please, please, please. Christmas is not just a "Christian" word but at the core a Catholic one. It is the Mass of Christ. Happiness and chear are good, but don't give me this peace on earth lets all get along stuff. It really doens't work unless there's a reason, for there isn't peace on earth, and secularism won't get you there.

I don't distort Diwali. Let's leave Christmas alone.

"Do not think that I came to send peace upon earth: I came not to send peace, but the sword" (DRV Mt:10:34:).