Have a Holly, Jolly Holiday

The former Capitol Holiday Tree is the Capitol Christmas Tree again, at the behest of House Speaker Dennis Hastert. (Haraz N. Ghanbari - AP)

Statement by the defendant:

"I'm just flabbergasted. I'm a choir director in a church! I do Christmas carols in retirement homes! I perform 'Silent Night' 40 or 50 times each year! I thought the play was a really charming, wonderful, positive story about love and acceptance . . . removing it from the Christian tradition was something I never thought anyone could ever come up with. We were telling a story about a little tree, so we used a familiar tune to help the kids get it."

Of course, this is just one exhibit on the prosecutorial table. Let's look at another. Let's go to Fox News. Here's host Bill O'Reilly, in a recent broadcast:

"In Plano, Texas, a school told students they couldn't wear red and green because they are Christmas colors. That's flat-out fascism."

Here's a corresponding memo from Doug Otto, superintendent of schools for Plano:

"The school district does not restrict students or staff from wearing certain color clothes during holiday times or any other school days. . . . Our attorney requested of Mr. O'Reilly that, in the future, he ask his fact checkers to do a more thorough job of confirming the facts before he airs them."

O'Reilly did not correct his broadcast in a prepared statement, instead noting that there was ongoing litigation about other Christmas-related issues at the school.

And . . . oh, you've heard the rest, in this, the Christmas of our discontent. Some of it is actually real.

There is the "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays" brouhaha, and the "Christmas tree" vs. "holiday tree" smackdown. Those two issues alone have involved Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, the city of Boston, the state of Georgia, the White House and too many others to count. The AFA and the Liberty Counsel alone have mobilized 1,500 Christian lawyers to do battle.

So far, they've encountered maybe 60 problem areas, Staver says.

"A lot of soldiers in this battle are not going to have much to do but drink eggnog," says Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, who often debates Jerry Falwell and others on these kinds of issues. "We're not out there trying to make this an unpleasant season."

On the other hand: "People are so worried about offending the minority, they go ahead and offend the majority, who are Christians," says Tim Wildmon, president of the American Family Association.