Christmas has been hijacked by "Santa and reindeer" so Christians should stop using the word to describe the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, an Irish Catholic priest said this week. The Rev. Desmond O'Donnell said Christmas no longer has a sacred meaning for the secular world and Christians should stop fighting the so-called war on Christmas.
"We've lost Christmas, just like we lost Easter, and should abandon the word completely," O'Donnell told the Belfast Telegraph. "We need to let it go, it's already been hijacked and we just need to recognize and accept that."
His remarks come after a bakery chain in the United Kingdom was forced to apologize earlier this month after it used a sausage roll instead of a baby Jesus in a nativity scene, The Guardian reported Friday. O'Donnell said he doesn't fault those who celebrate Christmas without honoring God's son.
Greggs have apologised for causing offence by replacing the baby Jesus with a sausage roll in a nativity scene. Are you offended by it? pic.twitter.com/pteUO1N4Ig
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) November 16, 2017
"I am simply asking that space be preserved for believers for whom Christmas has nothing to do with Santa and reindeer," he said. "My religious experience of true Christmas, like so many others, is very deep and real – like the air I breathe. But non-believers deserve and need their celebration too, it's an essential human dynamic and we all need that in the toughness of life."
"I'm just trying to rescue the reality of Christmas for believers by giving up 'Christmas' and replacing it with another word," he added, noting that if Christians don't take action, "secularization and modern life will continue to launder the church."
In the U.S., about 92 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas, including 81 percent of non-Christians, according to a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, the most recent survey on the subject. And Americans largely believe the holiday's Christian origins. About 73 percent said Jesus was born to the Virgin Mary and 81 percent said it happened in a manger.
But that hasn't stopped some conservative leaders from complaining about the war on Christmas.
"You're gonna be saying Merry Christmas again," Trump promised supporters in October. "You go to the stores and they have the red walls, and they have the snow, and they even have the sleigh and the whole thing." But, he went on, "They don't have Merry Christmas. They don't have Merry Christmas. I want them to say, 'Merry Christmas, everybody.'"
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