"The worst thing about the pagan festival known as 'Christmas'--as opposed to the Christian religious holiday known as Christmas--is not simply having your pocket picked by retailers who claim it’s your patriotic duty to support them from Thanksgiving through New Year’s. Nor is it the dark, gloomy weather; we know the light will start coming back soon, even if the beach is still months away.

"It's the music. Music everywhere, blaring at you from radios, public buildings, shopping malls.  Not just 'Jingle Bells' but 'White Christmas,' 'I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,' and the whole damn Nutcracker ballet. If I hear the 'Dance of the Sugar-Plum Fairy' one more time I'm going to enlist the entire post-DADT army to put her in the ground once and for all. And as for Handel's Messiah, please save that for Easter."

- Michael Walsh, writing at National Review's group blog, The Corner. The DADT comment is, presumably, not a reference to Tchaikovsky's supposed closeted homosexuality.

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Heather Horn