Dying on a hill is for Easter. Christmas is for being born in a manger. 
Do we also have to change the names of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, January, February, March, May, etc?
Or does your strong objections to religious names in official Federal usage extend only to the single Christian one?
I’d say mostly to the Christian forces of superiority and oppressiveness. As a non-Christian, I rarely feel that sense from worshippers of Norse gods–if I’d met more, maybe I’d feel differently. I get a lot of that from Christians telling me that this is a Christian nation, that it was founded on Christian principles, that God (their God, of course) keeps a special eye on the US of A, that sort of thing. I get very little of that from Norse gods-worshippers. I think designating a holiday as “Christmas” allows them to think and to behave that way just a little bit more freely.
I think you’re reading it wrong. The government hasn’t “designated” December 25th as “Christmas Day.” It has merely acknowledged that December 25th is “known as Christmas Day.” That’s not establishment.
It’s also Alvin Jackson’s birthday. No need for them to mention either one. If they want to make December 25th a holiday, and if Christians want to celebrate on that (or any other) day, and Al wants to celebrate his birthday, and I want to sleep late and watch DVDs, that’s fine. It’s not fine to have the state condoning, establishing, acknowledging, designating or having any involvement whatsoever with religion.
I grew up Catholic and in the house I grew up in, Christmas was a secular holiday. We AVOIDED church - except for the years I sang in the choir. My mother didn’t put up the Nativity - less room for gifts. There were some religious carols played on the stereo - but so was The Dreidel Song and I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus. We skipped grace before holiday meals because holiday meals my mother doesn’t get to the table in time to say grace - she bustles around in the kitchen until the last minute shouting “go ahead and start without me.” No one read the Nativity story - unless it was one of the years I was in choir 
Why do you continue to wail over this? Multiple posters have pointed out that Christmas (in both origin and current practice) has much more to do with secular society than any kind of Christian holiday. The War on Christmas is over and Santa kicked ass! Why do you think his coat was recolored red from the green he was said to wear in A Christmas Carol?
Isn’t that religious bigotry?
It’s religious bigotry to want all reference to all religions eradicated from the state’s documents, starting with the largest and most oppressive religion that is most prominent in the state’s documents? You want me to begin the process by eradicating those religions no one has heard of and no cares about first, and slowly my way up to the largest and most oppressive?
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Why do you continue to wail over this?
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Am I wailing about it? I thought I was discussing it, same as you. I love the way people who take a position opposing me like to characterize my posts as “hysterical” “wailing” “screeds” and their own as moderate and mild, as if I’m going to buy it just because they say so.
No. Most of what PRR pointed out in that post was obvious; it’s not like Christians are shy about “Christians telling me that this is a Christian nation, that it was founded on Christian principles, that God (their God, of course) keeps a special eye on the US of A”. It’s not bigotry to accuse Christians of things they actually do.
Now I will say this, and PRR asserts he doesn’t want to talk about it but he is the one throwing rudeness around. I’m atheist, have almost no living family left and etc so I do not do anything special for Christmas. When more of my family was alive, I did travel for Christmas, bought people gifts, ate a family dinner etc.
Saying ritual is stupid is well…stupid in and of itself. All of human culture and society is mostly based on caring about things that have no “intrinsic value” other than that people care about them. Calling that stuff stupid is as childish to me as the people who hate sports raging on about it. Yes, baseball is a game where grown men swing a stick at a ball and then chase it around in the grass. Yes, it lasts for hours. Yes, it has lots of slow moments. But it’s no more stupid than watching DVDs or sleeping in late, same thing if people feel like getting together to celebrate rituals, even if they don’t believe any of the religious backstory to the tradition.
No one seriously believes in tooth fairies, but it’s a harmless tradition that children are indulged in.
You’ve been shown multiple instances and studies about the secularized nature of Christmas celebrations in the US and you’re still harping on the fact that it somehow promotes religion. There are no stupid questions, but asking the same question a second, third, fourth, and fifth time after you’ve already been told you’re wrong is a pretty stupid position.
Well, you did get the day off to celebrate the birthday of someone you doubt was ever born and you should think of it as a holy day.
There, I said it.
Anyway, seems to me if you want to subvert the process, do some bible research and declare some summer day - I dunno, June third… - to be revealed unto you to be the true birthdate of Christ our Lord. Demand recognition in the name of freedom of your religion, market your Holy Calendar aggressively as true, while people who celebrate on Dec. 25th have been misled. Get a lot of charismatic and persuasive videos on YouTube, gather followers, make June 3rd significant… then declare it was all a big joke.
That’ll teach 'em!
I’ve been shown nothing that has convinced me one iota that the millions of Christians in the US who celebrate it as a very important holy day don’t take comfort in their firm belief that the US is a Christian nation from the fact that Christmas is recognized as a federal holiday by the state. I believe they might be convinced eventually if the courts were to rule that this designation is illegal, as I continue to think it is. You can pile up shit higher and higher, and claim it as anecdotal evidence of what you’re trying to argue, but unless you show me that every Christian is convinced that it is a purely secular day, I will continue to argue that designation is contrary to the First Amendment.
What question are you imagining I’m asking, btw?
Let’s do a little thought experiment. Suppose the federal government decided to eliminate Christmas as a holiday. Would 10s of millions of people be in an uproar about the government’s war on Santa, wreaths and candy canes? Would thousands of Church congregations chime in and say that in the interest of the 1st amendment, they understand that a Christian holiday can’t be give preference by the government? That they think the best solution is a new holiday on, say Dec 20, called “Winter Holiday”?
Not a chance.
That some people are mistaken about the import of having a federal holiday on Dec. 25 called “Christmas” does not make it a First Amendment violation. Your rule would constrain the government’s actions on the basis of the beliefs of the most ignorant citizens.
Again, what is believed by non-governmental parties not involved in declaring Dec. 25 qua Christmas as a federal holiday is irrelevant.
What matters is the government’s purpose for doing so. Here it is a recognition that it doesn’t make budgetary sense to keep the government open on a day on which many employees and citizens are going to abstain from government business.
That many of these people are doing so because of their religious beliefs is again irrelevant. The government is doing so because of concerns of efficiency, the religious motivation of the people abstaining from government business does not transfer to the government declaring the holiday.
Change the name to “Watching DVD Day” and see if I get insulted when you label it stupid. I like stupid days off. I just don’t like the state incorporating religion. The First Amendment doesn’t address watching DVDs in your underwear, one way or the other.
They can shut the goverrnment down all they like. Who’s saying otherwise?
Your objection therefore is: the government can be closed on Dec. 25, and they can do so because most people will be celebrating Christmas, but the government is not permitted to call this holiday “Christmas”?
In other words, the government can do exactly what it is currently doing, it just needs to use different nomenclature.
If this is so, your case is dismissed on standing grounds. You have failed to show an actual or imminent concrete harm or injury. Terminological dissatisfaction is not a legally cognizable harm.