Is Fox News’ popular “War on Christmas” over? If not exactly proclaiming peace on earth, those on Tuesday’s “The Five” seemed resigned that the “War on Christmas” isn’t worth the fight!
Before the break, Juan Williams teased the upcoming discussion: “Coming up, more people are celebrating Christmas without one important ingredient. We'll explain next.” After the break, Williams spoke about the increasing secularization of Christmas and that “most don’t seem to be bothered by this secular trend.”
Expecting some real red Christmas meat from Kimberly Guilfoyle, I was sorely disappointed. She warmly referenced childhood Christmas traditions and asserted that “Christmas isn't just about getting gifts of the latest toys or computers, but it's about, really, you know, the spirit and the gift of life and appreciating those.”
Williams asked her if she is bothered by those who don’t keep those traditions. While she agreed that it did, she didn’t offer any more criticism, but, rather, said that she, personally, enjoys Christmas.
After Williams reported that many millennials consider Christmas to be “a secular thing,” the group joked about “Festivus.” There was more unexpected commentary from the usually snarky Jesse Watters: “Right. I'm not going to say, you know, the world is over because this is going to happen, but it's important that, you know, things like these and these holidays are anchored towards some kind of religious story. And that's fine.But as long as people are there with their families around the tree, exchanging presents, I still think it's a very significant holiday. And I'm not going to say it's all gone.”
Dana Perino acknowledged the decline in church attendance and spoke, in a non-scolding manner, about the importance of biblical literacy.
Presenting as fact (not outrage) Williams reported that only 25% of Americans believe that there is a war on Christmas. (Fox News propaganda fail?). Some levity from Greg Gutfeld: “there goes our “War on Christmas” special. I was hosting it with Dobbs.”
Gutfeld then provided a short monologue: “You know, I'm not religious. You know, I -- but I think it's hypocritical to celebrate Christmas if you're not religious, because religion here in this case, Christianity created a really fun event. And you're taking part in the event without actually ascribing to its beliefs. That's hypocritical. That's why I'm not a big -- I'm not a big Christmas guy, because I don't ascribe to the beliefs. So I try to remain my consistency. I'll be polite. I go to the -- I go to the relatives. You know, I exchange gifts.”
His next comment, on a network that pushes evangelical Christianity, seemed heretical: “But you know, I don't -- I don't buy into any religion whatsoever, because you know, there are so many of them, and all of them believe that every one of them is wrong but theirs. So that's what they have in common.”
He summed it up with a comment about the need for ritualistic activity and how we can do that now that we’re “moving away from a religious world view.”
Hmmm, looks like the ghost of the “War on Christmas” past, Bill O’Reilly, needs to pay a call on “The Five.”
But in the meantime, “God bless us everyone?”
Watch The Five all but acknowledge that the War on Christmas is bogus below, from the December 19, 2017 The Five. The segment is after the third dot.
