{"id":12863,"date":"2017-12-22T15:48:17","date_gmt":"2017-12-22T20:48:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=12863"},"modified":"2017-12-22T15:48:17","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T20:48:17","slug":"trump-ended-war-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2017\/12\/trump-ended-war-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Has Trump Ended the War on Christmas?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Trump\"<\/a>
US Department of State<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Throughout his presidential campaign and his first year in office, President Donald Trump has sworn to “make Christmas great again” by ending the “war on Christmas.” But has he lived up to his promise?<\/p>\n

“If I become president, we’re going to be saying Merry Christmas at every store,” Trump promised supporters back during the election. Fast-forward to October 2017, and Trump repeated such rhetoric at the Values Voter Summit. “Guess what? We’re saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again.”<\/p>\n

The concept of a “war on Christmas”, which is important to many in the conservative party, has been challenged by others saying it doesn’t exist. However a recent polling does suggest that the Christian nature of Christmas is less socially prevalent than in years past.<\/p>\n

In a Pew Research Center survey published last week, it was found that most US adults believe the religious aspects of the holiday are emphasized less now than they used to be. However overall, only 31% of adults said “they are bothered at least ‘some’ by the declining emphasis on religion in the way the U.S. commemorates Christmas.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the “remaining two-thirds of the U.S. public either is not bothered by a perceived decline in religion in Christmas or does not believe that the emphasis on the religious elements of Christmas is waning,” according to the Pew poll.<\/p>\n

The Pew survey suggests that while most Americans still celebrate Christmas, the way they think about and commemorate the holiday appears to be moving in a more secular direction. About 55% of US adults “say they celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, including 46% who see it as more of a religious holiday than a cultural holiday.<\/p>\n

On a recent day at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC, some visitors praised the President for his efforts to restore Christmas to its more religious origins during a short interview with CNN.<\/p>\n

“I believe he’s been more proactive,” said Kevin Ferris, a Bible college student from Maryland, said of Trump’s Christmas efforts.<\/p>\n

“I celebrate Christmas the same, whoever is the president,” Rachel Powell of Ohio stated. “I feel like most people probably do, too, because it’s tradition.”<\/p>\n

Trump has certainly made it clear that he wants Christmas to be represented fully without any political correctness. His Christmas rhetoric, Christmas-themed merchandise, and choice of giving speeches in front of Christmas trees shows that he is not going to back down from the “war on Christmas”.<\/p>\n

With studies showing Christmas moving into a more secular direction, do you think that Trump can help make Christmas more prevalent in the USA?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout his presidential campaign and his first year in office, President Donald Trump has sworn to “make Christmas great again” by ending the “war on Christmas.” But has he lived up to his promise? “If I become president, we’re going to be saying Merry Christmas at every store,” Trump promised supporters back during the election.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":600,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[315,3571,3570,3569,3572],"class_list":["post-12863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-television","tag-christmas","tag-holidays","tag-president-trump","tag-trump","tag-war-on-christmas"],"yoast_head":"\nHas Trump Ended the War on Christmas?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In his first year in office, did Trump end the "war on Christmas"? Depends on who you ask.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2017\/12\/trump-ended-war-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Has Trump Ended the War on Christmas?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his first year in office, did Trump end the "war on Christmas"? 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