“May the father of all mercies scatter light, and not darkness, upon our paths, and make us in all our several vocations useful here, and in His own due time and way everlastingly happy.” —George Washington (1790)

Many years ago, a much younger Nate Jackson, who now serves as our esteemed managing editor, coined a “non-offensive” Winter Holiday greeting for those folks who were insisting that “Merry Christmas” is not inclusive enough. And you know us: We’re always striving to ensure The Patriot Post comports with diversity, equity, and inclusion standards so we don’t trigger anyone!

Fact is, Nate, and some of our other key editors and staff, could double as stand-up comedians. Sometimes a good sense of humor is the only buffer between us and insanity, given the bizarre world we wade through each morning.

Nate coined “Christmahanakwamadanice” — that’s Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan, and Solstice — before the word “woke” existed in common use. Now there are more “religious” identities than gender identities, and I think the latter has metastasized into the hundreds. Though if you “follow the science,” there are actually only two genders. For our politically correct seasonal greeting to keep up, it would have grown into a dizzying amalgam of letters.

As originally formulated, Nate quipped that “Happy Christmahanakwamadanice” was a greeting approved by our legal department: Not too ethnocentric for corporate use, and one that government employees could use to avoid lawsuits from the “truly enlightened” who insist that the “C”-word alone offends that mythical “wall of separation.”

By way of explanation, we noted:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful (but not too successful), personally fulfilling, and medically uncompromised recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2014, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other countries nor the only “America” in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishees.

Note: By accepting this greeting, the wishee agrees to these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.

For you “Seinfeld” fans, this is tantamount to that great tradition started by George Costanza’s father, Frank, who invented “Happy Festivus” for the rest of us as an alternative to Christmas.

Roughly translated for our fellow Patriots of all faiths, from those of us here, “Merry Christmas, and a Blessed New Year!”

This year marks The Patriot Post’s 27th Christmas, from our humble beginnings to now, one of the longest-running and widest-reaching publications on the Web — still published with a sense of great humility and gratitude for the legacy of American Liberty bequeathed to us by generations of Patriots gone before.

Our foundation is, first and foremost, rooted in the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth, whose birth we celebrate this Christ’s Mass.

As the Bible records, the life of Jesus began in the humblest of conditions:

“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.’ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.” (Luke 2:1-20)

I invite you to read more about the history of Christmas in America.

Brothers and Sisters, during this Christmas season, and every day of the coming year, may God’s peace and blessings be upon you and all those around you.

In the words of George Washington during the bleak Winter of 1777 at Valley Forge, when it appeared all would be lost: “We should never despair, our Situation before has been unpromising and has changed for the better, so I trust, it will again. If new difficulties arise, we must only put forth new Exertions and proportion our Efforts to the exigency of the times.”

Emerging from that dark winter, a year later Washington wrote, “The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations.”

(If you missed it earlier this week, read our Valor post about another bright moment in an otherwise dark winter, “A Christmas Truce on the Western Front.”)

God bless and keep you one and all, and again, Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year!

Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis
Pro Deo et Libertate — 1776

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