[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Niamh.

Honestly, Santa is the main focus of Christmas for most people I know

Yes Niamh - That is one meaning of the magic of Christmas to a lot of people now - the Santas and Snowmen and Rudolphs, just as it is in my home - especially when my kids were young.

But to billions of Christians around the world, there is another meaning to Christmas; the original and true meaning - a Celebration of The Christ's birthday (the date is irrelevant).

To most Christians, Christmas is not about celebrating one meaning to the exclusion of the other meaning. Most of us do both.

I am no miserable Calvinistic bible-basher just because I believe in Christ, I'm anything but, yet I am deeply offended at any attempt to eradicate the core of my belief by re-writing the Nativity story and replacing its central figures with Buzz Light Year or Elvis characters.

The 'commercial' and secular side of Christmas is not religious, yet imagine how every parent would react if - by stealth - sinister forces could be seen slowly over the years trying to enforce a situation where Santa, Rudolph and Snowmen and Christmas trees were banned?

What right has anyone to try take way any other person's freedom or forcibly alter or eradicate the fundamental core of their belief system?