A new article by Austin Cline, a regional director for the Council for Secular Humanism, attempts to dismiss the idea that Christmas is being stripped of its religious meaning in modern times by proving that such secularization began ages ago.
Cline, who published “Secularizing Christmas Holidays” on About.com, argues that a number of holidays, from Michaelmas to Candlemas, have disappeared from the Christian liturgical calendar over the centuries, opening the door for holidays like Christmas to be expanded into the flurry of secular consumerism that it is today.

Cline takes special aim at those Christian groups that accuse retail stores of undermining Christmas by saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.” “Christians want retailers to defend against the secularization of Christmas,” he writes. “This is an error because retailers are the primary reason for secularization.”